NPR

Ford has joined forces with National Public Radio to bring NPR news programs and stations to select Ford vehicles with Ford SYNC AppLink. Since SYNC is powered by voice control, drivers can listen to NPR’s radio stations without even having to glance at their smartphone. The updated NPR app includes support for SYNC AppLink, which can then be set up in the car. Ford cites a growing trend in Internet radio usage as one of the motivations for this new in-car tech. Using cell phones to listen to online radio has grown 5 percent in the last year and 49 percent in the last three years, according to Ford. “With AppLink, drivers can manage smartphones through the in-car audio system or via the power of voice while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road,” said Doug VanDagens, Global Director of Connected Services at Ford. The ultimate goal of moving from physical cell phone use to voice control is presumably drivers’ safety. Ford SYNC AppLink brings many of the NPR News app’s great features into Ford’s voice-controlled system. Newscast can automatically read back breaking news when you get in the car or on an hourly basis. Local news stations are also accessible by saying “Stations” and you can also program your favorites within NPR. Instead of browsing by station, you can browse by specific topic by announcing “Topics” or create a playlist with different combinations. SYNC technology is now installed in 4 million of Ford’s vehicles and Ford is projecting to add 9 million more by 2015 for a grand total of 13 million SYNC-enabled cars. For 2012, every single one of the cars in Ford’s lineup boasts SYNC as an available feature. Two of them — the Ford Fusion and Flex — have SYNC built-in as a standard feature. The updated NPR News app with SYNC AppLink is now in the Android Market or iOS App Store. George has followed technology news for quite some time, but he only started writing about it a few years ago. He's a self-professed Apple fanboy, but that doesn't stop him from covering a wide range of topics in the mobile area. When he's not reporting for IntoMobile, you can usually find George listening to a wide array of music, trying to be funny and sarcastic, eating, or voicing his opinions about all things tech on his personal blog, GT Daily. Read More

Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics, both part of the Universal Music Group, rolled out iClassics last week, a classical music discovery app that spotlights their catalog. If you love the genre, it's definitely an app to check out. The core of iClassics is a drag-and-drop tagging feature that lets you select among criteria such as instrument, genre, mood, period, composer and more to provide recommendations. When a tag is selected, recommendations appear beneath the tag box. Choosing an album brings up previews of each track akin to iTunes. If you want to buy, the app redirects you to iTunes for the purchase. You can share albums with Facebook and Twitter and add them to your favorites. iClassics also streams music from the Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics catalog, and I've actually left the app running on my iPad while I do other tasks because I enjoy the music. However, it is on a loop and eventually repeats itself after a couple of hours. There's an interactive timeline showing composers and giving brief biographies around them. iClassics is an attractive app with nice extras, and it's a good way to try some new music without having to navigate the bowels of iTunes. If I'm in the mood to try some new classical pieces, I'll most likely turn to iClassics for suggestions first. But, it's disappointing that the previews are limited to 30 seconds. Not all the albums have every track available for preview like the iTunes version does, so if you're interested in an album, I suggest hopping to iTunes and listening to the longer previews there. I'd love to see an app like this as the front-end for NPR Music (which is currently available for the iPhone) or the Library of Congress' National Jukebox, which launched a few months ago with more than 10,000 recordings from between 1901 and 1925 from the Victor Talking Machine Company. iClassics is a free download from the App Store. Read More

NPR has rolled out a rather hefty update to its venerable and well-liked iPad app. As before, the app is kind of a digital magazine that mirrors the content mix on NPR, with world and U.S. news, the arts and music features. The iPad app is more fully featured than the NPR app for the iPhone, which contains mainly news. NPR does have a separate music app for the iPhone. You can listen to any NPR station live, and also access dozens of NPR programs like Car Talk, All Things Considered and Fresh Air on demand. Programs play in the background, so you can exit the app and use your iPad while still listening to the content of your choice. The app has an AirPlay icon, but it was dimmed. I'm not sure what is going on there. My other AirPlay-enabled apps worked fine, and I can find no settings on the NPR app that will turn the feature on. In terms of the user interface, I think the improvements are positive. Getting access to the hourly newscast is just one click away, and listening to local stations and NPR programs is just two clicks. The app can access your location, if you allow it, and display the closest NPR stations to where you are. The programming list has been cleaned up and programs can now be sorted by topic and title. The ability to make playlists has been retained. Audio playback now has a 30-second rewind feature, and NPR says the app is more stable. I didn't see any issues in about an hour of use. I've always liked the NPR app on both the iPhone and iPad. This update has cleaned up the user interface quite a bit, and added some new features that are worthwhile. Other than the malfunctioning AirPlay button, NPR for iPad is a good, free upgrade for news and arts junkies. Read More

Instacast doesn't have the world's best interface, but it's a pretty awesome podcast manager all the same. I love podcasts. When I'm in the car, I like nothing better than to queue up shows like "This American Life," "Wiretap," and "A Prairie Home Companion," to name just a few. Of course, if I forget to sync my iPhone for a few days, I won't have the latest episodes on tap. The podcast manager (if you can call it that) that's built into iOS doesn't support streaming, and I can download new shows only over Wi-Fi. Enter Instacast, a podcast manager that not only overcomes these shortcomings, but also makes it easy to find other podcasts I might like. It accomplishes this latter feat by way of the Add screen, which is divided into Popular, Just Added, and Genres sections. There's also a search option, and a handy iPod button for subscribing to podcasts that are already on your device. (Alas, you have to add them individually; it would be nice if you could subscribe to all with one quick tap.) From there the interface gets a little confusing, though with a little poking around (make that tapping around), you should have no trouble figuring it out. The app can either stream or download (i.e., "cache") your podcasts, and you don't need to be on a Wi-Fi network for either one: it works over EDGE and 3G as well. Instacast can also automatically cache the newest episodes, and of course it will automatically resume episodes where you left off--even if you streamed them. I especially like the integrated Web browser, which gives you the option of viewing each episode's show notes. If you're a diehard podcast fan, then Instacast is well worth $1.99. That said, depending on what you like to listen to, you might be better off with different apps. For example, when it comes to "This American Life," it's hard to beat that show's eponymous app. And the awesome NPR News app streams all NPR shows on demand. Have you found a podcast manager you like better? If so, crow about it in the comments! Read More

NPR News version 2.0 for Android features a new user interface, a re-done player, and live streams of full programs.  Users can read, listen, or create playlists of their favorite stories on NPR and easily share them with friends and family. I think the ability to listen LIVE is important and is the most welcomed feature of this version. NPR listens to its users (ironic sounding, I know) and claims many of these new features are a result of user feedback. Below is the description from the Android Market. NPR News: The portable NPR and public radio station player for your Android Check it out below:   Time for us to have our Ice Cream Sandwich and eat it too. Just as Verizon promised (crazy,... Read More » Today will be a truly lucky day for Verizon customers living in any of the below cities: Dover,... Read More » Is your supermodel wife looking for a phone to match her stilettos? What the hell am I talking... Read More » Read More

As a news junkie, I just can't get enough information. I adore Pulse, and I think Flipboard is interesting and useful. Like most of you, I spend a lot of time checking out news sites and using apps like the New York Times and the NPR app. Enter Zite. Zite is a just released free iPad app that constructs a magazine around your interests on the fly. When you first launch it, you suggest topics you like (Photography, Science, Technology, etc.), and then the magazine is created using RSS feeds and links to news and other sources. Some of the sources are well known, others are not (at least to me). You can also enter your Twitter name and Google Reader account info to further tune the personalization, although neither is required, and I didn't do it for my evaluation. The result is that you get a lot of content by discovery that you might not ever see. You can tell the app that you like a particular news source or author and click on some automatically generated key words. Over time, the content of your magazine shifts to reflect what you are reading and liking. You can also tell Zite what you don't like to further shape the future content. The on-screen pages look very nice. They are easy to read, and the content gets more space than it does in Pulse. You have some limited, but helpful, control over the font style and size. Every story has a sidebar that allows you to rate it so that Zite understands your interests. When you launch Zite, a page of top stories appears. Over the last few days, I've noticed Zite adjusting the content to things I've been most focused on. There are some negatives. I don't have enough control over eliminating stuff I don't like. In the pets topic, I chose birds as subject matter, but I got dozens of stories about Angry Birds. I told Zite that I didn't like those in the Pets section, but it still insists on putting them there. They are slowly going away, though. Another issue is that once you select sections based on your interests, you can't change the order of those sections. I also think Zite doesn't respond quickly enough to my likes and dislikes. Over time I can see the mix of content change, but I'd like it to be faster. Read More

...turns your iPad into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses on your iPad. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. Enjoy a full range of Smart Instruments that make you sou... Read More

Looking for the best apps for your iPad 2? There are plenty of great applications available, but sifting through everything to find those good ones can be tough. We’ve put together a list of applications that will help any new iPad user get started. There are some games, news apps, movie apps, reading apps…to put it simply, there’s something for everyone. The list below isn’t the end all-be all list of essential applications, but it is a list that will show you some of the best ones to start with. Now that you have your iPad 2, it’s time to check them out. Hit the jump to see the apps (along with their App Store descriptions): Get Netflix on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix. Download the ABC Player app to watch your favorite ABC shows for free on the iPad wherever and whenever you want to watch. View full-length episodes of Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, No Ordinary Family, Desperate Housewives and more. Movies by Flixster is the #1 movie app to watch movie trailers, find showtimes, get critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, and share movie ratings with your friends. The Kindle app is optimized for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, giving users the ability to read Kindle books on a beautiful, easy-to-use interface. You‚Äôll have access to over 850,000* books in the Kindle Store, including best sellers and new releases. Amazon Whispersync automatically syncs your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across devices (including Kindle), so you can pick up where you left off on another device. iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books. iBooks includes the iBookstore, where you can download the latest best-selling books or your favorite classics ‚Äì day or night. Browse your library on a beautiful bookshelf, tap a book to open it, flip through pages with a swipe or a tap, and bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages. The only iPhone/iPad comic platform that has Marvel, DC and The Walking Dead. Purchases made can be read on the web, too, at comics.comixology.com! Evernote turns the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad into an extension of your brain, helping you remember anything and everything that happens in your life. From notes to ideas to snapshots to recordings, put it all into Evernote and watch Read More

By – Be first to know! The Ongo iPad app gives current Ongo subscribers easy access to the news that matters to them from multiple trusted publications – all in one place on their iPad. For current Ongo subscribers, use of the Ongo iPad app is included in the monthly Ongo subscription fee. Save web pages for later offline reading, optimized for readability on your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen. Featured by Apple and critically acclaimed by top blogs, newspapers, and magazines! Introducing The Daily ‚Äì the first digital news publication with original content created every day exclusively for the iPad. Built from scratch by a team of top journalists and designers, The Daily covers the world: breaking news, sports, pop culture, entertainment, apps, games, technology, opinion, celebrity gossip and more. Welcome to News Republic, the premiere news application for the smart and savvy reader. News Republic truly gives users an international and personalized news experience, while pulling together the best elements of a visual news reader and a news aggregator into one streamlined and easy-to-use app. Related Posts Read More

One of the ugliest, but most functional, news apps on the Android Market has to be that of NPR News. While the app does provide a great deal of news and live streaming radio, it's completely hideous. Luckily though, this is all about change. We've landed some screenshots of a new refresh coming to the NPR for Android app. The update, which should be hitting the Android Market by the end of the month, looks to give NPR for Android a more polished look, matching the NPR for iPhone app. At this point, not much is known about what the app update will bring, but it looks as if it will certainly bring a search functionality and give Android users the ability to view images within news stories. Just those two things alone will be a very nice addition! I know I can't wait to see it. Read More