- 2022-07-15T16:09:31-07:00
FrogRadio for iOS can now play HLS streams.
FrogRadio can now play HLS streams. HLS stands for HTTP Live Streaming and is a versatile adaptive streaming protocol for audio and video. For more information see the HLS Wiki Page. For some HLS streams to play try SomaFM/Groove Salad - 320k, or SomaFM/Groove Salad - FLAC.
The iOS version of FrogRadio that can play HLS streams will be available in the next few days.
If you have been having problems with your favorites folder disappearing it should be fixed now. FrogRadio uses Apple's iCloud to store your favorites and to sync them between your devices. For some months now this iCloud syncing service has not been working very well. This issue has affected many macOS and iOS apps. It has been difficult to get any help with this from Apple until recently. There has been some more public mention of the problem now and Apple says the problem is fixed. It seems like this is true and we are no longer seeing this problem in FrogRadio.
Do you use the Shazam app on your Phone? Or the very similar Sound Hound app? These apps can identify the music that is playing in your environment. The technology behind them is pretty amazing. Even in a loud room they can ID the music playing and provide you with artist name, track name, album art and more. In the most recent release of macOS (12.0) and iOS (15.0) Apple provides the Shazam system built into the OS. Siri can be used to access Shazam and ID music. Pretty cool. But also, developers can now use the technology in their app. Why would FrogRadio need to use such a thing when most radio stations send along the track info with the music stream? Well, there are some stations that do not send the info. It's alway been frustrating when you hear a song and want to know more about it but the station does not send it. Shazam to the rescue! FrogRadio can now ID music tracks from these stations. If you want to try it go to KEXP or WCNI. (You need to have FrogRadio installed for those links to work.)
A couple of notes: the Shazam system is pretty solid. It gets the track correct almost all the time. One exception is ambient music. Many ambient tracks can have sections that sound like other tracks, so occasionally the wrong track name and album art will be shown. For most other music genres it gets it right all the time. Another note: FrogRadio is not using the microphone on your Mac to listen to the music. Instead it collects samples of the music directly from the stream as they are played over your speaker or headphones.