TuneIn Makes Good Use of Windows Phone 7 FM Radio

TuneIn, already available on most smart phone platform, today launches a free mobile application for the Microsoft Windows 7 Phone handsets.
TuneIn Radio, the popular app that adds to the FM tuner functionality to your smartphone is finally available on Windows 7 Phone.
Software Internet radio streams from more than 50,000 AM and FM radio stations over Wi-Fi or mobile broadband connection.
Previously available on the BlackBerry, Android, and IOS, WP7 users can now enjoy listening to their favourite radio stations with their phones.
An important difference in Windows 7 Phone version is that the program integrates with the handset's internal FM radio to save battery power, or listen to local radio programs that can be blocked on the network.
Tunina Radio works for all sorts of radio stations - not just radio stations compatible with internet streams, but good old-fashioned radio stations that have not upgraded in time yet.
TuneIn is now available on almost all mobile platforms: IOS, BlackBerry, Android, Palm, and even Samsung's Bada operating system.
With a catalog of over 50,000 AM / FM and Internet radio stations and podcasts only airing in 140 countries and broadcast in over 100 different languages, you will never have to remember station numbers just to listen, even if you are in a foreign country.
But among them, Windows 7 Phone is the only smartphone platform that requires an FM radio tuner in handsets.
It can also use the phone's GPS and WiFi connectivity to determine the location of the user to show them the local stations, and what is on the air at the moment.
The radio requirement is a nice feature to have in my opinion, although some probably could not do without it, and the younger generation wonder how we ever lived before iTunes.
TuneIn Radio is a free program and is available now.
And the program can be used only with the integrated FM radio without using up mobile broadband data
Find out more about TuneIn Radio.
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Apart from the new hybrid listen feature is specific to Microsoft smartphones, TuneIn offers several key features for all platforms
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Search for an artist or song, for example, and the software returns all the stations that play either
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A handset's GPS For local stations, useful when you travel
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Podcasts are also supported by the program, so you can carry around and listen to your favorite mobile technology show
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An app that uses the FM tuner of a smartphone is not going to put Windows 7 Phone phones apart from the pack, or boost handset sales, by any means
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But I wonder if the FM radio will make a comeback in future phones on other platforms
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Internet radio is certainly prevalent these days, but when we begin to pay for the data that we use, thanks to the tiered data plans, it could be good old-fashioned traditional radio rise in value
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