iPhone Web Application: FlyTunes brings Internet Radio to the iPhone

If you are a radio junkie then you are going to love this iPhone Application. FlyTunes an Internet radio aggregator pitching as an alternative to Sirius Satellite Radio brings Internet Radio to the iPhone.

When I came across this iPhone application I decided I had to write about it as one of my complaints about Apple's iPods and now the iPhone is that it does not have radio built in something that is available in most mp3 players these days.

I checked FlyTunes out over Wi-Fi and the internet radio stations played very well.

A startup company called FlyTunes Inc. unveiled a new digital radio service for the iPhone and iPod Touch during CES pitching it as an alternative to Sirius Satellite Radio.

Though it seems to be a stretch to compare FlyTunes with Sirius it seems to be good workaround if you are missing a radio on your iPhone like I am.

Once you have registered to FlyTunes (they are still in the process of scaling up so registration is not open, it is based on invitations, it took me approximately 24 hours to get an invite) it is quite a simple iPhone web application to use.

You are served with a list of radio stations for various categories of music such as Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz etc. Once you select one of the stations by tapping on it, it will start playing the internet radio station as a Quicktime file.

I checked it out over Wi-Fi and the internet radio stations played very well (though low bit rate stations should work fine over AT&T's EDGE). Apparently FlyTunes pre-caches a default of 30 minutes of content from a particular station, with the company claiming that caching 30 minutes of music will only take just over a minute which could be another reason for streaming to work so well.

Some of the limitations of the application are as follows:

Since it plays the internet radio station as a Quicktime file when you are running this web application you cannot simultaneously surf using your iPhone's Safari browser.

Also the other issue is that you do not get any information on the song being played.

It plays the internet station as one big song of approximately one hour and once it is played out you need to go back and select another internet station.

But hey its free and provides me a way to listen to radio on the iPhone so I am not complaining.

You can also checkout the video demonstration of FlyTunes in action below:

This application has the potential to become one of my favorite iPhone applications.

You can check out the iPhone application by signing up here to get the invite.

It will be great to hear your feedback on the Internet Radio application for the iPhone.

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