Mark Grimes: Most likely, each app is using a different stream. Radioshift Touch is using the MP3 stream (or one of them) for any and all stations, while WunderRadio may be using another streaming format. Audio playback of the same stream in the same format will always sound identical.

Anonymous: Indeed, background running is something Apple needs to provide other audio apps, not just iPod. I’m not holding my breath, however.

RealAudio is pretty rare to find, especially on its own. WMA is far more common, which is unfortunate. A whole lot of public radio streams around the US just added MP3 streams for iPhone compatibility, and we may see more of this over time.

As for EDGE, I’ve tested the application extensively with my first generation iPhone, and it’s worked quite well. It’s worth noting that full bars are an indication of signal on the voice network, not the data network. As well, EDGE can vary in speed greatly, depending on location. EDGE is certainly capable of handling 64 kbps or lower streams, if not higher, and many, many stations offer streams at those levels.

It’s a real bummer you can’t run in the background, but obviously, that’s on apple.

I appreciate that you’re sticking to the rules for MP3 feeds only, there’s plenty to choose from and that’s a good open format, Real and WMA are a pain and not technically supported and people should be complaining to the stations to broadcast in an open format, not to you guys, how is Real even still in business? I’d rather have an app that works reliably than one that sorta-maybe plays other formats sometimes, or maybe crashes instead.

My only real complaint is that the description on the App Store claims it works on the Edge network, and in my experience, it really doesn’t at all. It’s understandable that Edge can’t handle the data, but the app store description implies that it does. Maybe it works better for others, but even with full bars on Edge, I get nothing.

Otherwise, it’s really a great product, great, simple interface, good sound, and it works great on 3G and WiFi. Nice job.

On the Mac, you can install a QuickTime plugin (like Flip4Mac) and get Windows Media playback in anything using QuickTime. That’s not possible on the iPhone.

At this time, Radioshift Touch supports just MP3 streams. We’ll see what happens in the future, with supporting other formats. Unfortunately, neither Windows Media Audio nor RealAudio are open formats, making them more difficult to support.

Josh: Thanks for the praise and support! All times shown in Radioshift for Mac are local – the time zone adjustments have been made for you. So if a program is broadcast from Point A at 10 PM (their local time) and you’re 5 hours behind, at Point B, it will start recording at 5 PM (your local time). Make sense? Basically, you shouldn’t even need to adjust anything at all.

If you need more assistance, just contact support directly for more rapid help!

rg: “Shafts” implies this is done intentionally, and that couldn’t be more wrong. We absolutely want to delight all our users, in the US and abroad. The issue here is that the BBC provides streams in only Real and Windows Media formats, and we can’t tune those currently. There’s nothing intentionally vindictive or even dismissive here – we simply support MP3 stream for now, and that’s all.

Further, this is why we provide the station browser (and would love to provide a free trial as well), so you can see what’s up. As far as removing it from the UK store, however, I disagree with that idea fully. While the amount of UK specific content may not be what you’d like, there are still thousands of streams from around the world. Preventing UK listeners from being able to tune in to stations from America, South Africa, or anywhere else doesn’t accomplish anything.

marc in pdx: I’d absolutely love to provide a discount for all our users, particularly those who own Radioshift for Mac. Unfortunately, Apple has no support for coupons or discounts. They control the exclusive distribution method, meaning we can’t sell the software to you any other way, and they don’t provide us with a mechanism for discounts. If this costs us some sales, it means everyone is losing, even Apple.

ejp: Like I said above, the issue is simply one of stream formats. Wunder Radio appears to support Windows media streams, while we currently do not. We’ll see what happens in the future there, but it’s not something that can just be instantly enabled.

Aaron: As I noted above, Free or $0.99 is just not sustainable. We believe $9.99 is a very fair price, though it may be higher than what some competitors charge. We’d prefer to have a sustainable price that can lead to many future updates than to leave you stuck with a piece of software that never gets updated.

As we add more functionality over time, perhaps that price point will seem worth it to you as well.

Ag: Thanks for the praise! I’m not quite sure I follow – what exactly are you looking for? My experience with HD Radio is fairly limited.

Gary: Believe me, we really do want to offer this, but our hands are tied by Apple (see above).

As for a free trial version, this too is quite difficult (though not impossible) under Apple’s rules. We’ll see what happens there.