FindNPR iPhone app

What it is

You're cruising along on the highway, listening to This American Life on the local NPR affiliate. Just when the most interesting part comes up, the signal starts to get weaker. And weaker. And weaker.. You're retuning the radio to a different NPR station, but alas, you have to cycle through eight hundred FM-stations first before it finds the right station again. Sounds familiar?

What it does

I wanted a simple app that would just show me which other NPR stations are in the area. No frills, no user interaction, just give me the stations. When Apple opened up the iPhone SDK, it seemed a fun opportunity to try out a simple hobby project.

How it works

The application determines your location, and translates that into a nearby zip-code. It then redirects you to a part of the NPR website that enables a lookup of stations by zip-code. Both the location lookup and the lookup at the NPR website take a few seconds - if the app seems to be sluggish, this is because either of these two processes take some time.

Versions

Version 1.0 had a bug that would give back a faulty zip-code - I noticed it when the app gave me the radio stations of Tempe, AZ while I was driving close to Toronto. Oops! This bug is fixed in version 1.1.

About me

If you want to contact me, email me at roelanto at gmail and-then-dot com.