The Good
- Stream This American Life episodes for free
- Polished interface
- Push notifications for upcoming episodes
The Bad
- Must have Internet access to stream for free
Fans of This American Life, a popular public radio show, will be thrilled with the iPhone app. You can stream all past episodes of the show for free, which makes This American Life one of our favorite new iPhone apps.
The This American Life app (Public Radio Exchange, $2.99) provides access to every episode of the popular public radio show since 1995, when This American Life debuted on Chicago Public Radio. Since then, the show has been picked up by hundreds of radio stations across the country. Editors focus on stories of everyday people in America, or as they describe it: “stories that are like little movies for radio.”
The episodes are sorted by date or can be searched by keyword or contributor. You can stream any of the hundreds This American Life episodes for free, which makes the app an outstanding bargain. If you want to download episodes for offline use, that’ll cost you $0.99 a piece.
Just the free streaming alone would make the This American Life app a must-have, but there are other features as well. You can share episodes by email or Twitter, add episodes to your favorites or listen to live shows. The app also supports push notifications, so you can receive alerts on your iPhone homepage when a new episode is about to begin. New episodes are added to the app automatically.
I’ve streamed numerous episodes since the This American Life app launched, and all of them are of excellent quality. The shows start streaming almost immediately, and I didn’t detect any buffering pauses or delays over a Wi-Fi connection. You can also stream over EDGE or 3G networks, although I did encounter a few buffering pauses when streaming over the EDGE network. The interface is polished, and you can browse around the app or read the blog while streaming an episode. I also love the integrated station finder, so you can find when and where This American Life is airing near you -- great for travel or if you don’t have Internet access.
The Bottom Line
Fans will love the This American Life app, but even those unfamiliar with the show should take a look. It’s a great bargain, providing access to hours of content for less than $3. I can think of very few downsides, other than you have to pay $0.99 to download an episode, but even that is not unreasonable. Overall, This American Life is a fantastic iPhone app. Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
What You’ll Need
The This American Life app works on both the iPhone and iPod touch. You’ll need iPhone OS 3.0 or later.