iPhone® Fully Loaded, Third Edition

Chapter 8. Radio

The Skim

The RadioShark

For many people, an AM/FM radio is an object that gets pressed into service only when (a) there's a baseball or hockey game on, or (b) you're reminded that you're not at the tippy-top of that list of Most Smartest Land Mammals. A higher lifeform than yourself would have thought, "Gosh, it's a four-hour drive to Flagstaff; I'd better double-check to make extra sure that I packed my iPhone car adapter or else I'll be at the mercy of the car radio for entertainment the whole way."

But don't scoff at radio. It's only at those long, lonely forsaken moments that you come to appreciate the value of radio. Well, yeah, corporate stations I can take or leave (and that first option doesn't count). But local radio is wonderful. We may pride ourselves on being oroughly Modern Millies, but there's still something fundamental about interactive community-based call-in shows that a message board will never duplicate.

Besides, radio is a swell source of free content for your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can't switch on a $12 radio and think, "I'm sticking it to The Man!" But the fact that you're listening to copyrighted music without paying for it has got to have the Recording Industry Association of America upset for some bloody reason.

And isn't that enough reason to buy the hardware you need to record radio shows and automatically load them on your iPhone?

Figure 8.1. The ...