Tunein Radio

 One of the most useful apps for smartphones today is "Tunein radio" which allows your phone access to many, many more radio stations than you'd have ever thought possible. After recently looking at the inbuilt FM Radio application for the android operated Samsung Galaxy S2 some have asked "What about AM radio?"...well this is why Tunein is brilliant. Let me explain.

At the moment android phones AREN'T built with an in built AM radio receiver (or an MW one if you prefer MW radio). Using the radio technology of phones will generally only allow you to pick up FM frequencies. However using the internet you can pick up almost any radio station and that's where Tunein comes in and turns your phone into a mobile radio capable of receiving the full range of services including DAB (Digital radio) stations.

To use the application you can either navigate using the vast number of menu's (as shown above right) or click on the little search icon (in the top right corner) and type in the radio station name. For the example on the right we're using BBC Radio 5 Live (as you can see by the channels name). The channel in question cannot be listened to during normal hours via the FM frequencies (though it does take over the night shifts of some local stations) though thanks to Tunein radio you can listen to it in digital quality anywhere with the phone.

Th app, although fantastic, does have 1 major drawback which isn't actually the apps fault. It does require internet access so if your on a mobile data allowance you may want to be somewhat reserved when using the application. If you have a wi-fi connection however you will find the app to be wonderful and open up a host of new options to you.

Tunein claim that they offer over 50,000 stations and have now started offering more search modes searching for things such as songs. If your a fan of music, sport, news or debate this is really the app for you!

How to get the most from the FM radio on the Samsung Galaxy S2

In a recent entry I looked at how to use the FM radio application on the new Samsung Galaxy S2 android powered smartphone. Though lets be honest, we all want to know how we can get more from any and every feature that a phone may have. To get the most from the application you need to click on the phones menu button and you'll notice a menu at the bottom of the application (see the image to the right). This menu allows you to immediately play the the radio through the phones speaker (clicking "Via Speaker"). Although you will need to keep the headphones in (remember they act as an antennae) the sound will come from the speaker and allow for the phone to act as a louder radio. Beware however this will burn down the battery.

If, instead of pressing "via Speaker" you select the "Settings" option you will see a screen like the one to the left. The key options here are "Background playing" which means that the application won't stop when you close the application and "Show station ID" which allows you to easily recognise which station you're listening to.

Of course I will advocate also selecting "Alternative frequency" which will try similar frequency's to the one your using if you're reception starts to drop in any particular area.

How to use the FM Radio on the Samsung Galaxy S2

One of the most useful functions of the Samsung Galaxy S2 android powered smartphone is the fact it has an inbuilt FM Radio. To access it you merely need to open the application whilst you have a set of headphones connected to the handset. The headphones act as the antennae so these will need to be connected.

When you first open the application it will do an Auto scan that will go through the FM frequencies and find any available channels.
All the available channels will be listed after the scan and allow you to select one to listen to in a list format (as you can see in the image to the left hand side). These channels, or stations if you prefer, will include national radio (in the UK these will include Radio 1, Radio 2, Classic FM) and local radio stations (in my case things like The Bay and Radio Cumbria).

If you click the phones back button at this stage you will open the FM Radio's normal interface which allows you to add 4 "quick select" channels along the bottom, quick scroll between channels by pressing the arrows and tuning it with the dial in the middle.

The volume can be controlled through the volume button in the top right hand whilst the player can be turned off via the control in the top right hand corner. Overall it's very simple to get to work and has a number of little tricks we will be looking at in the next entry on this blog.

Note:
Make sure your headphones are FULLY inserted, you may not get a working signal if they aren't fully connected.