WFMU Android App v1 Released

 

Two weeks ago we kicked off the 2010 marathon by releasing v2 of the WFMU iPhone app and before we wrap things up this weekend we're pleased to announce that Android users now have an app of their own.

Version 1 of the WFMU Android app has just hit the marketplace. You can grab it here.

For our initial release we are including all of our live streams (including "Ichiban Rock n' Soul", "UbuWeb Radio" and "Do or DIY"), all of our Archives and Podcasts as well as Station News from our homepage. We will be adding playlist functionality and some other more advanced features in the coming months.

Artwork by Nick Bertozzi

One thing we learned while putting this app together is that unlike the iPhone, performance and functionality across the full spectrum of different Android phones and OS versions varies somewhat considerably.

Initially we had hoped to make use of our mobile friendly 64k AAC+V2 mp4 archives (also used by the pop-up player on our site) for this app but found that some older versions of Android do not support AAC.
To ensure compatibility for everyone, we are instead using our less mobile friendly MP3 archives and have found that your mileage over 3G may vary a bit with these.  In version 1.1 of our app we will likely allow toggling between lower bit rate mp4s (for Android 2 users) and higher bit rate mp3s (for phones that can't handle AAC or people on WIFI).

Likewise we've found that some of the sliding and tapping functionality on the app does not always behave as nicely as we'd like on the Nexus One, though research abounds that this is likely a problem with the phone itself.

In short, because we have found that performance varies quite a bit from phone to phone please let us know in the comments if there is a problem with your model and OS version.

Since launching our iPhone app we've heard from quite a few people asking for mobile apps for the Blackberry and Palm Pre. In an ideal world we'd love to be able to provide an app for listeners on every mobile platform out there but the reality is that our resources are VERY limited and it simply is not in the cards. For the Blackberry, we've heard very positive feedback about moodio.fm and Berry Tunes and for the Palm Pre we've been told that clicking the mp3 links off the homepage should allow you to listen on the phone w/o installing additional software.

Comments

[Peter Swimm]

Im all over this like autotune on the top 40.

[da5ph]

works alright on droid (2.1). some design quirks but it works alright! ive been listening to wfmu using droidlive

[Kevin Searle]

Volume slider doesn't work for my HTC Hero (Android 1.0). Love that we finally got the WFMU app, though.

[frank]

THANK YOU!

[name]

Thanks for this app! I have an Android 1.6 device. Seems to work great so far, as long as the 3G reception is decent. The 32k live stream works even if the connection isn't that great. Just give a full minute or two for it to buffer, and the 128k live stream as well as the archives and podcasts will work most of the time. I just hope it doesn't drain the battery like Pandora does.

Suggestions for the next version:
- Make the Back Arrow on the phone take you to to the previous screen on the app, instead of the Home screen. The Home key already does that.
- The little blip I hear every time I bring up the Now Playing screen- is there a reason for that? I can see why that'd be useful while changing the volume, but it's annoying to hear that when you just wanna get to the Now Playing screen.
- It'd be nice if the podcasts would pick up from where I left it, instead of 00:00.

That said, NOT COMPLAINING!

[Jack]

I was hoping for a Palm Pre app but I completely understand that you can't do apps for every type of phone out there. The mp3 link does indeed work on the Pre but it has a lot of bugs / problems that I won't go into. Nice work on the ones you did do though! Maybe I'll make my next phone an iPhone or Android...

[Tomwsmf]

Works very well on the Droid! Thanks for not being iFoneies Only.

[Danne D]

I've really had no problem listening live via mp3 on my palm pre and actually have been able to play old hoof-n-mouth mp4 video as well. The pre is supposed to get flash in the near future which should greatly improve things as well :)

Of course my poor palm might be a paperweight in another year or so :(

Cheers!
-DD

[Ellen Horne]

I'd love to buy this app for $25. Sure, I can download it for free but then I'd worry be listening to WFMU in a more expensive way for the station than just through my radio?

[Lukas]

Woot! Thanks a lot!

[Nick]

Has there been any thought to open source the code? Seems like it would go well with WFMU's free form philosophy. I would love to be able to contribute.

[mikes]

@Ellen - that is what the marathon fund raisers are for. The higher bar now days is to support day to day as well as R&D brilliance.

[Kevin]

FYI, the link to the Android app was broken. It can be found in Android market.

[iPhone Application]

It's real interesting if you play both selections at the same time.

[TxC]

So Great!

[TxC]

The only problem is that I can't play or download podcasts :-\

[W W]

Not working on jelly bean @ sgs3. Buffering forrver... :[