The radio program This American Life has offered iPhone and Android apps for a while, allowing users to listen to any episode of the show for just $2.99. Now there’s also an iPad app which runs $4.99.

Like the smartphone apps, the new iPad app lets you tune into more than 430 episodes on demand. You can also listen to the show live as it airs, and access extra audio and video features. You can also listen to individual stories instead of full episodes using the app — a feature which isn’t available on the This American Life website.

Of course, you can also stream episodes from the This American Life website for free, but the web player uses Adobe Flash, so it’s not available on the iPad. The app is also easier to navigate, since it’s designed for touch.

The iPad app will also let you download up to three episodes at a time to listen when you’re offline. You can also find extra features including behind the scenes photos and journals.

This American life for iPad is available from the App Store for $4.99.

via ReadWriteWeb

NPR has launched a new version of its mobile radio app for Google Android. NPR News 2.0 has a new user interface, support for favorite stations, additional programs, and the whole thing just feels a little smoother to use. But one of the biggest changes is that you can now listen to an entire episode of a recent radio show without having to queue up segments one at a time.

You can still listen to radio stories one at a time, browsing by top stories or topic. But when you want to listen to a specific show such as Morning Edition, Fresh Air, RadioLab, or All Things Considered, you’ll find a new “Add all to playlist” button at the top of the screen.

NPR News 2.0 is available as a free download from the Android Market.

via reddit

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NPR has released an updated version of its app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. NPR News 3.0 brings a number of improvements, including support for the retina displays on the iPhone 4 and new iPod touch, support for the taskbar audio player controls when listening in the background, and the ability to refresh the story list by pulling down on the screen.

But the biggest change is that you can finally search the NPR archive from the app, using the little search icon located next to Newscast in the menu bar.

NPR News 3.0 also lets you swipe left or right to flip between stories in the News and Search sections (but not yet in Programs, so you can’t swipe between Morning Edition or All Things Considered segments, for instance.”

Overall, the new NPR News app is a big improvement over the old version — although the app crashed on me the first few times I tried to tap on a story. Hopefully version 3.0.1 will fix any stability issues.

Still, the price is right. NPR News 3.0 is available as a free download from the App Store.

You can check out a few more screenshots after the break.

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The folks behind the This American Life radio show have launched a new Android app which offers most of the same features as the iPhone app, but which has a new layout.

Probably the most useful portion of the app is the Radio Shows tab, which lets you stream any of the more than 400 TAL episodes that have aired since the show first went on the air in 1996. You can also click the “By Contributor” tab to find a list of stories sorted by This American Life contributors.

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There’s a “favorites” tab that lets you get to your favorites quickly, or listen to “staff picks.” If you can’t wait until the next episode is ready to go, you can check out the Live Stream tab, which gives you a countdown until the next episode goes out live from WBEZ.

There’s also an Extras section where you can see audio and video clips and a More section where you can find local public radio stations, read the blog, and find other information.

Probably the most disappointing portion of the app is the TV Shows section, which basically consists of a list of episodes, links to promos for those episodes on YouTube, and links to purchase the episodes on DVD. There are a few video extras from some of the episodes, but they’re scattered about and tough to find.

Most of the content available in the This American Life app is accessible from the TAL web site, but the mobile apps for Android and iOS make it much easier to listen to shows on the go without going through the trouble of subscribing to the podcast and downloading and saving each episode one at a time. On the other hand, you need an internet connection to use the app, so ther’es something to be said for just subscribing to the podcast.

This American Life for Android is available from the Android Market for $2.99. That’s the same price as the iPhone app.

You can find more screenshots after the break.

via reddit

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NPR has released its second iPhone app. And while the first was understandably focused on NPR’s news programs and streaming audio from member stations, the new app is focused on music.

In a nutshell, the NPR Music app for iPhone makes it easy to access all of the content available on the NPR Music web site on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. And that’s an awful lot of content. As the New York Times notes, the NPR Music web site has grown substantially over the past few years, and while many of the exclusive concerts and other content available on the site never actually go out over the radio, you can find an awful lot of excellent live performances on the web — or on an iPhone.

The NPR Music app also provides you with easy access to NPR member stations that do stream music. Believe it or not, public radio isn’t just filled with news and information programming. There are still a number of stations that stream jazz and classical music, and a growing number that also provide rock, folk, alternative, and other music.

There are also links to music-related news stories from NPR. For instance, on the home screen of the app today I found a link to listen to an NPR story about the 1 year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death.

What the NPR Music web site has become best known for is providing listeners with a chance to discover new music from artists they might not otherwise have heard about. And while there are recordings of live performances from mainstream acts like the Dave Mathews Band, odds are you’ll find an awful lot of music that you’re unfamiliar with if you spend some time browsing through the archive. And for the most part that’s a good thing, because while it might not be familiar, most of the songs and concerts available through the NPR Music app are definitely worth listening to.

The app supports multitasking in iOS 4 (if you have supported hardware), which means you can stream music in the background while doing other things with your phone. You can also create custom playlists out of stories, and programs.

The NPR Music app is available as a free download from iTunes.

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The NPR News app for the iPhone does a pretty good job of helping you find live and on-demand content from public radio stations across the US. But there’s another app for public radio junkies that has a few extra features, including the ability to find stations that are streaming your favorite programs right now.

The Public Radio Player iPhone app lets you find live radio streams from almost 500 radio stations as well as access to a thousand on-demand public radio programs from NPR, American Public Media, Public Radio International, Public Interactive, and the Public Radio Exchange.

One of my favorite features is the ability to tune into live broadcasts of your favorite program. For instance, say you live in New York and you missed Morning Edition this morning. No problem. It’s probably still playing somewhere in the Midwest. Just fire up the app, select the Live tab, and then click on Program to find Morning Edition and the Public Radio Player will show you a list of stations that are currently playing that program so you can tune in live.

There’s also an excellent local station finder that lets you pull up a list of stations within 50, 250, or 500 miles of your current location.

Version 2.1 includes a sleep timer and wake-up alarm, although you’ll need to keep the app open to use these features. While the developers say that version 2.1 was rewritten to improve performance, the one complaint I have about the Public Radio Player is that it does tend to feel a little sluggish when pressing buttons or switching from one menu to another.

The Public Radio Player is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store.

You can find a few more screenshots after the break.

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