NPR One

I've never listened much to NPR. Not that there's nothing good on there, just not enough to sit through all the programming I don't like. Enter NPR One. I was reading an article about the app, which purports to do for talk what Pandora does for music. I downloaded it and tried it immediately. It's a very, very good app.

The clean interface looks like something Apple would have dreamed up. Lots of white space on the screen with a tab for "Now Playing", "History" and "Coming up". You can skip segments you don't like and mark "interesting" (instead of "like") those you do. It determines the listener's local station and gives the opportunity to change stations if you prefer.

Each segment displays its length and how much time is left.

I predict similar apps for any company broadcasting talk programming. I see it as fitting into short attention spans and the desire for on-demand programming.

I tried out the app (after I got NPR spam promoting it). Interface is better but otherwise offers no more functionality than the old NPR News app. Still streaming only. No chance to download stories (or shows) when you have a WiFi connection and then listen without burning bytes on your data plan (plus drop-outs to which mobile data is prone).

I recommend you check out NPR By Date. It's the app NPR One should have been. Pick the show. See a list of content for the day. Check what you want to stream or download. The touch either the stream or download button. Or you can set it to download all. Simple, easy to use, yet very flexible.

NPR's problem with apps is the stations really don't want you listening online, so NPR does little things to discourage it (and placate the stations).

FredLeonard said:

NPR's problem with apps is the stations really don't want you listening online, so NPR does little things to discourage it (and placate the stations).

Click to expand...

This is a creative way around possible affiliate objections, by going into a new platform (mobile), rather than doing more strictly online. It's an area where most of the stations haven't gone.

TheBigA said:

This is a creative way around possible affiliate objections, by going into a new platform (mobile), rather than doing more strictly online. It's an area where most of the stations haven't gone.

Click to expand...

What are you talking about? Everybody is doing apps. CBS (Radio.com). Cheap Channel (IHeartRadio). Individual station apps by Airkast and others. NPR has had an app for several years.

The problem is NPR allows downloading for desktop browsers but not from their own app or from mobile browsers. Nobody has all you can eat, unlimited mobile data any more. But listener be damned. Gotta protect the A-Rep money grubbers.

FredLeonard said:

What are you talking about? Everybody is doing apps. CBS (Radio.com). Cheap Channel (IHeartRadio). Individual station apps by Airkast and others. NPR has had an app for several years.

Click to expand...

I'm talking about NPR stations

FredLeonard said:

I tried out the app (after I got NPR spam promoting it). Interface is better but otherwise offers no more functionality than the old NPR News app. Still streaming only. No chance to download stories (or shows) when you have a WiFi connection and then listen without burning bytes on your data plan (plus drop-outs to which mobile data is prone).

I recommend you check out NPR By Date. It's the app NPR One should have been. Pick the show. See a list of content for the day. Check what you want to stream or download. The touch either the stream or download button. Or you can set it to download all. Simple, easy to use, yet very flexible.

NPR's problem with apps is the stations really don't want you listening online, so NPR does little things to discourage it (and placate the stations).

Click to expand...

I was persuaded to try out NPR One by a couple of glowing reviews. After reading your post, I was surprised that they hadn't even mentioned NPR News or NPR By Date.

On your suggestion, I tried both today. I am scratching my head trying to figure out how you concluded that NPR One "offers no more functionality than the old NPR News app." The NPR News app is nothing more than a series of text news stories, some of which but not all, that have sound files embedded in them that I would have to click to download if I wanted to hear them.

NPR By Date is useful if... you're looking by date... The interface looks like something from 1998. If you want to scroll through content titles and download, great. Yes, some people might have limited data access but I'm in places where it's always available, usually WiFi since I mostly use it from home. I also don't want to search for content, I want to train it to serve up content I find interesting. It does that.

NPR One is completely different in that, as it was built to do, it streams and closely replicates the Pandora experience except that instead of music it's spoken word content.

Neither NPR News nor NPR One lets you download audio. Streaming only is available, like Spotify. For me, that's a deal killer.

If you never are away from a WiFi connection, Streaming only is OK. But if you want to listen in your car or out running for any amount of time, you better have an unlimited data plan. You also better be prepared to loose the stream regularly as you drive.

For some reason, NPR is anti-downloading to mobile devices and tries to force streaming. If you attempt to view the NPR website (full website) from a phone or tablet, NPR disables the download and playlist links. You can only stream - one story at a time, just like NPR News, which does let you stream - not download - individual stories. NPR News supposedly lets you create playlists to stream but that functionality doesn't work.

Downloading lets me pick what I want to listen to. Not what NPR picks (no Code Switch, no Story Corps...). The app I use to listen also has VSC (Variable Speech Compression) which lets me listen at higher speeds (usually 1.4 while driving; 1.7 while walking or exercising), which is not possible while streaming. With VSC, NPR news announcers seem to talk at normal speed - noooooot soooooo sloooooow.

Me, I'm more concerned with functionality than how the Interface looks. KISS. Every time techies try to make the interface more fancy, they seem to make it less useable, more kludgy and buggy.

FredLeonard said:

Neither NPR News nor NPR One lets you download audio. Streaming only is available, like Spotify. For me, that's a deal killer.

If you never are away from a WiFi connection, Streaming only is OK. But if you want to listen in your car or out running for any amount of time, you better have an unlimited data plan. You also better be prepared to loose the stream regularly as you drive.

Click to expand...

I've been listening to streaming audio in my car for a couple of years. I do have an unlimited data plan. It throttles back after a certain amount but streaming audio doesn't require that much data as opposed to video. The buffer prevents dropouts.

SD: I have gone back and played with "NPR One" a bit more. It's even worse than I thought. One of my big reasons for going online is so I can pick what I listen to. But NPR One picks for me. Click on "now playing" and it starts its own preselected playlist from the NPR stream and from a local station it selected. Yes, it lets you skip but I prefer to pick what I want and then just let my own playlist play. I certainly don't want anything from local stations. NPR One imposes choice, not enhances it.

You must have a heck of a buffer to prevent even most drop-outs going from tower to tower or into dead zones.

With my data plan, a little over an hour a day of audio streaming in a month is enough to hit my data ceiling (assuming I do nothing else with data). I could pay more and get more data, but I prefer to download anyway.

NPR seems like control freaks. They sometimes brag about stories as "driveway moments" when they force people to sit in their car after they arrive to hear the end of something. Me, I'd rather hit pause and hear the end at my convenience. NPR reminds me of the opening narration to "The Outer Limits" when the voice announces they will control everything.

I also played with NPR News again and it actually offers more choice and flexibility. The capability to create playlists (your own playlists) seems to be working now. Still only allows streaming - no downloading - but of the two, it gives the user more control.

FredLeonard said:

NPR seems like control freaks. They sometimes brag about stories as "driveway moments" when they force people to sit in their car after they arrive to hear the end of something. Me, I'd rather hit pause and hear the end at my convenience.

Click to expand...

Your use of words like "brag" and "force" are subjective words that you're imposing on them. They don't "force" anyone to do any thing. People choose to tune in NPR in the first place, and then they choose to stick with a story until the end. That is their choice, and NPR does absolutely nothing to control the process. There are lots of ways to hear their stories "on demand" at the listener's convenience. A mobile app is just one of many options. But entire stories are always available at npr.org. And it doesn't count against your phone's data plan.

FredLeonard said:

SD: I have gone back and played with "NPR One" a bit more. It's even worse than I thought. One of my big reasons for going online is so I can pick what I listen to. But NPR One picks for me. Click on "now playing" and it starts its own preselected playlist from the NPR stream and from a local station it selected. Yes, it lets you skip but I prefer to pick what I want and then just let my own playlist play. I certainly don't want anything from local stations. NPR One imposes choice, not enhances it.

Click to expand...

I can only surmise that you are not a big fan of Pandora either. Learning a listener's tastes is considered a feature to those of us who like that sort of thing. Traditional radio not only doesn't let me pick what I want to listen to, it serves everyone who tunes in the same content. Apps like this let us listen passively if we want, but optionally give us a vote in what we listen to (the skip feature) and to mark content we like so as to help the app guess what we will like in the future.