Many thanks to the team and for continuing the work necessary to VRM-ize this “app”.

As a new media director at a public station I must ponder how it makes our world larger and smaller, but i love it.

One handy thing about the otherwise somewhat lame AT&T system is that unlimited data is among their standard plans. So I don’t have to worry about “consuming too much data” or whatever you might call it. I just listen to whatever I like.

CC has its tuner. AOL has one that covers CBS stations and a few others. The Public Radio Tuner just does public radio stations.

My preference in the long run is for tuners that cover all streams, and make it easy for listeners to add whatever stations they like. The AM/FM radio in your car or your kitchen doesn’t tune just Clear Channel or Public stations. Nor should the ones on your mobile device.

User control and contribution is paramount.

But it’s still early. There are many different stream codecs, bitrates, and degrees of metadata use. Many stations make it hard to find their streams, change URLs and IP addresses on a whim, and imagine that listeners only use browsers.

What we’re doing with the Public Radio Tuner is not just making one broad category of streams easy to “tune,” but bringing a consistency on the “transmitting” side as well. In the long run you’ll see more useful metadata — such as program information — alongside the streams, rather than just a station logo or slogan. You’ll be able to tune more ways.

You’ll also be able to keep track of your listening — for your own purposes, and not just for the promotional purposes of the stations or program producers. This will be your data. And that data will come in handy when you decide what you want to pay for. A whole business model for otherwise free content will arise out of this. At ProjectVRM we’ve been thinking about this, and working, for a long time. In many ways, what we’re working on here is finishing the job Cluetrain started.

Anyway, stay tuned.

First, as an editor for Linux Journal, and with lots of friends in the FOSS (free open source software) community, I will naturally get (and in fact have already received) questions about why we came out with something on iPhone first. Also, I believe Android needs the support. So do other open platforms (Maemo, OpenMoko, et. al.).

Second, NPR is a subset of public broadcasting (although it is the big kahuna there), and podcasting is not the same as streaming. We call this a tuner because it tunes streams. If somebody else comes out with a good stream tuner on Android (and other platforms), that’s cool. We’re not looking for market share here. Just to organize public radio streams, make them easier to find and listen to, and finally easier for listeners to pay for voluntarily. That last part is where VRM comes in.

A couple other generic podcast apps, and several streaming mp3 apps that play various public radio stations.