Apps

Let there be no mistake, I love my Motorola Droid… but it does have a few shortcomings.

The major shortcoming for me has been the inability to effectively subscribe, manage, and listen to podcasts/netcasts. I have over 100 subscriptions to this type of content in iTunes and to be honest, there just was no easy way to flip that over to Twiki. That is, until now…

Stitcher

I was first alerted to the presence of Stitcher Monday morning while driving into Westchester and listening to Chris Montera on EMS Garage Episode 89: Turning the Meat. It turns out that the EMS Radio Network is being aggregated by Stitch Radio. While Chris made the application sound cool, it’s something that I needed to try out myself.

So that night I visited the site. The site links directly to the App Store for iPhone users, otherwise you can request a download link via e-mail (or phone number) from the Stitcher site if you have Android, Blackberry, or Palm. However, a quick search for “Stitcher” in the Android Marketplace and I was able to find it with ease. Download and installation went smoothly, and then I had to create an account which I could do directly on the phone.

Once that it was done it was time to give it a test drive…

Functionality & Usability

One of the promises that Stitcher makes is that it will customize selections for the user, similar to the way Pandora operates. Because I just downloaded the application, I doubt that any of that customization has taken effect. In order for the application to eventually know what I like to listen to I need to be able to find the shows I actually enjoy.

I could ask for no simpler menu system pre-customization. The “front page” lists the different general Topics of content that is available. Once within the Topics menu, they further narrow the shows down into categorical niches within that topic. Each category acts as it’s own station with the most recent netcast from each content producer in the lineup. I’m a big lover of variety and Stitcher Radio is a variable smorgasbord with an incredible selection of content to choose from, both from mainstream media outlets to independent content creators.

But what if you know what you want and it isn’t in the list of shows on the category front page or in the niches listed on the second level menu? Thankfully Stitcher has a powerful but simple search that will usually reveal what it is that you’re looking for with just a keyword or two.

As you can see from the screenshot I took, a search for the simple term “EMS” brings up not just EMS Garage, but also EMS Leadership, EMS Educast, and Medical Author Chat which are the perfect results for that simple search. Amazingly, a search for the term “medic” actually brought in 0 results. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Jamie Davis remedies that by getting The MedicCast added to the network, but I found the lack of results for that term… disturbing.

So now that you found the netcast you were looking for, saving it to your Favorites is as simple as pressing on the star next to the show name. Now when you boot up Stitcher, simply go to your favorites to see who has updated their shows and you can begin listening to the latest content that is available.

Row, Row, Row Your Show

Once you actually select an episode to listen to, the application brings you to a show page with a built in player at the bottom. The page is great because it includes the show notes from the episode, the player has big buttons with easy access to favorite and thumbs up an episode, and most importantly you can navigate away from the page and the netcast will continue playing while you check e-mail, surf the web, or get caught up on your Twitter feed while the show plays on. Effective multi-tasking is an important feature that cannot be overlooked.

So how does Stitcher give you all these options without being a complete memory suck on your SD card? Quite simple really, it just streams the audio. They do give you a warning when you first activate the application that this is the delivery method so those who do not have the benefit of an unlimited data plan are not caught smacked by a huge overage fee on their bills.

Luckily, I have an unlimited plan.

Gently Down The Stream

Stitcher’s streaming delivery system, while being SD card and resource friendly, does have its drawbacks besides the data usage it gobbles up.

The first real functional limitation is the ability to rewind mid-stream. Undoubtedly there is a cache set-up by the application with a memory limit so when you are listening to a large file size or long netcast if you rewind it you’ll lose what you have already listened to and cached past the rewind point.

The other major limitation is that Stitcher is limited to presenting only audio for the content it lists. While this may not seem like a big deal considering it’s “Stitcher Radio“, they surprisingly carry video content feeds from producers such as CNN and E!. For most content having the audio is just fine, but not for all video content.

The third and final drawback of Stitcher is that unless you are listening to what I believe they consider to be a “Featured Partner” (such as CNN, E!, The Onion, and Newsweek) listed under the Sources tab, there is no way to listen to episodes other than the latest offering. Again, this may not seem like a big deal, but if you tend to build up episodes of content like I do for future listening then you’ll end up missing something.

In Conclusion

Stitcher is a great alternative for listening to podcasts/netcasts/streamcasts on Android based phones. Unfortunately it’s dependence on streaming and it’s lack of individual show menu depth keeps it as an alternative instead of as a full blown replacement.

This review was originally posted at EverydayEMSTips.com

One of the things that I tend to stress about when going to events like EMS Today is parking. There can definitely be anxiety when you are unable to find your ride in a sea of automobiles which is then compounded by the nervousness of being in a foreign city. Granted my truck was manufactured last century (making it an antique) but ever since watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the whole idea of valeting is something I am vehemently against.

Enter the Droid application Car Locator by Edward Kim from Lindy Labs.

This app solves the potential for a “Dude Where’s My Car?” dilemma. What it does is basically save your location where you park your car. Once you are ready to return, it will guide you back using either a compass style display as well as integrating with Google Maps. Considering I (completely unknowingly) parked my car 1.4 kilometers away from the Pizzeria Uno where I ended my day at the Fire/EMS Blogger Meetup, this app was a real time saver since I was able to take some side streets to knock off at least an extra kilometer of walking all the way around the convention center.

The application does also have some other really nice features including a Parking Timer and a Sonar Display. I think the Parking Timer is a huge win for when I park in the municipal lots so that I can avoid getting a ticket for an expired meter. The Sonar Display not only adds to the geeky cool factor, but is pretty easy to follow even when the novelty of Hunting for Red October is over.

There is really only one problem with this application, which is it reliance on GPS. While it works great for street or open air parking, there is a dependability issue when it comes to parking in a concrete garage such as the one at the local mega mall. The application does come with a notes/photo feature so you can make a note of a section where you park in or take a photo of a pillar marker, but there won’t be any automatic directional help inside.

Personally, I’m all about the Sonar.

Not sure if this is the app for you? There is a trial version that will allow you to use it a few times for free, or you can just shell out the $3.99 to get the full version right away and alleviate any parking anxiety you may potentially feel.