Stitcher 2.0, now with 100% more TUAW

In our discussions of radio apps for the iPhone we've briefly mentioned Stitcher, a great app for accessing a wide variety of audio programs on the go. In fact, Stitcher has been kind enough to add our TUAW Talkcast in the app and on their site (where you can stream via your browser). Stitcher is currently available for the iPhone and several of the latest BlackBerry models, although the Storm version is still pending. I've been using Stitcher 2 for a while, and if you're a news junkie, you will be pleased.

Check the gallery for a screen-by-screen analysis, but here are some winning points for Stitcher:

A large library of podcasts. Why listen via Stitcher? Well, you can get them on the go and you don't have to download them.
A library of headlines -- posts read aloud from sites like TechCrunch and Macworld. It might seem silly to some, but for commuters it's a great way to hear what your favorite sites are writing about.
Even more content from people like NPR, MSNBC, Fox News, Slate, CNN, The Onion and many others.
A "station" model like Pandora. The idea is to "stitch" together a station of the stuff you like. Maybe you like a little offbeat humor, a little financial news and then wind down with Engadget headlines. Stitcher can do that.
Stitcher is also pretty good at recommending content, so it becomes a discovery tool (again, like Pandora). The pre-configured stations are excellent and grouped around content. One of note: Short Attention Span -- all shows are under 3 minutes.
You can choose to enable an account with Stitcher, providing a connected experience from the web to your iPhone.
The app itself has a history feature (handy and underrated), an excellent search function and a way to favorite stations.
Since Stitcher has a web presence, you're also able to get alerts via email or SMS when fresh content arrives. You can set this for any station or broadcast.

Stitcher [iTunes link] is free, setting up an account is free, and all the content is free, so you won't lose anything by trying it out. While you do, be sure to check out the TUAW Talkcast on Stitcher and Engadget's headlines.

Stitcher 2.0

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Source: http://www.stitcher.com/

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andyhilal236

I tried Stitcher for a while and it was okay. It is kind of like a Pandora for news.

One of the drawbacks is that it seems to rely on recorded content that sources have uploaded - no real streaming (at least in my experience). For most NPR-ish needs this means you're always listening to yesterday's news. During the last presidential election when I was a junky for updates I always found that the stuff coming through on Stitcher was old news. I've got podcasts/itunes for yesterday's news, and those all download overnight so I don't get any "buffering" stutters as I always did with Stitcher.

It never worked well on my EDGE/gen1 iPhone, but that's probably just EDGE sucking. Anyway, decent app but I never got it to cruising altitude and eventually trashed it. Would like to try it again but I definitely won't bother until I'm at least on 3G.

May 22 2009 at 8:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jessy

After all the hype I've reading about Stitcher lately, I downloaded it to my iPhone a day or two ago -- I'm already in love with it. I like to mix comedy podcasts with my daily news.

May 20 2009 at 1:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ray

I love Stitcher. It is great. I think it beats the apps Peter mentions since all the content is available on-demand. I will never miss my favorite shows (TUAW, WSJ Report etc) again!

May 20 2009 at 1:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mattymcq

I have been using Stitcher since it came out last August and love it. There were some issues with stability in the 1.0 version, but the latest 2.0 has fixed all that. They have a great Apple and Mac Station as well as Technology and Public Radio Stations that I listen to daily. Glad to know I can hear you there as well!

May 20 2009 at 12:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

peter

Sticher is great, but I donÂ´t like the Inteface.
I do prefer vtuner Radio -> http://cli.gs/P0uEvY
or allRadio -> http://cli.gs/RzgV88

May 20 2009 at 12:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply