iHome+Radio iPhone app expands the dial

Right off the bat, I could tell the best part of the iHome+Radio iPhone app was its eclectic and expansive radio station selection. Those features alone make it a worthy download.

Choose between music, sports, and talk radio. Within each there are MANY subcategories. You know what to expect from Top 40 radio (music), but here you have your pick of numerous different stations in which to channel these hits. And we’re not just talking US here either. Stations from the UK and Australia are coming through as well. And guess what? Their top 40 is not the same as ours.

Talk radio offers (talk radio station) categories like progressive, religious, entertainment, and specialty talk. Within each, even more interesting categories continue to unfold. For example, within specialty talk are radio stations on health, home, and life; consumer and technology. Dig further into health, home, and life until you get to recent shows such as “On Health,” “You and Yours,” and “Focus on Seniors Radio.”

Some radio stations are easier to connect to than others. With what felt like only a snap of my fingers, I was listening to Radio Margaritaville under Classic Rock, but when I tried the New Orleans Music Show under Best Bets (not exactly sure what that category means but this station seemed like a pretty good bet to me), there was an audio error, and I couldn’t connect to the station. Every once in a while I selected a station that would buffer for quite a bit, long enough that I usually gave up and moved on. (Perhaps if I had been more patient, the station would have come to eventually?)

To store favorites, you have to have a RadioTime account. That is a pretty easy thing to obtain and you can do it right on your iPod/Phone—it’s just a click away. You can also view the stations you’ve most recently been listening to, and if for some reason you don’t want a record of them, you can clear them all just as easily. Clean slate.

Latest from NewsReports