10 Responses to “More Radioshift Improvements”

1. Matt says:

   December 11th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
   

   Hi guys. I use Radioshift, Audio Hijack Pro, Fission and Airfoil. I have to complement you on this “little” upgrade of Radioshift. I can’t believe how much faster it tunes in stations now. Excellent!

   
   

2. Thierry says:

   December 14th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
   

   Interesting product.

   I tried it and found that I am missing important features (for me).

   1- Conditional on network address: I tried radioShift on my laptop that I move around. Not all networks are created equal in bandwidth… I need to be able to tell RadioShift to not record on some networks (Do not record when connected to 73.56.x.x). Or record only on some networks (Record only when connected to 73.56.x.x).

   2- Stop all menu option: I had two subscriptions started recording when I was working and needed all available bandwidth. There should be a menu option to ‘Stop all recordings’.

   3- Better iTunes integration: I want to be able to record a show during my work day or at night, sync my iPod and go. It seems that I have to have a manual step with RadioShift (open radioshift, select recording, click iTunes,…). Can this be automated? It should be an option when defining a recording.

   4- Add your own radios to Favorites: I found a better stream for a radio (FStream has a better stream from France Musique than the one proposed by RadioTime). I can create a new subscription, but I do not necessarily want to create a recording. How can I create a Radio under the Favorite for quick listening access?

   5- Fast forward for playback: When checking/listening to a recording, I would like to skip forward (or backward) to check the content. Jumping to iTunes is too heavy for that.

   6- Saving playback position: This could be either an iTunes flag and/or a RadioShift feature. I made a one hour recording but RadioShift does not remember the playback position. And since there is no fast forward option, that’s a little bit annoying.

   Anyway, you are on the right tracks, promising product! Still need some work for the price IMHO.

   T

   
   

3. Paul Kafasis says:

   December 15th, 2008 at 9:12 am
   

   Matt: Glad you’re seeing improved performance. We’re always looking to improve things, and we have lots more planned for Radioshift.

   Thierry: I can give a quick bit of feedback on this one:

   1) This is an awfully specialized feature, and not one I can ever see us implementing. That said, it, like every other request, goes on a big old list of “What users want”.

   2) This too is not likely to be implemented, at least not in the RS menu item – there’s too much possibility for destruction (accidentally selecting) and it’s not something that should be needed very often. That said, we’re always exploring ways to turn RS completely on and off (which goes with #1 as well).

   3) Better iTunes integration is definitely something to watch for in the future.

   4) Adding Favorites, without recording, is something to watch for in the future. You can (and should!) suggest updates to the Radio Guide right in the app (such as your better stream URL). For 1.0 (and through 1.1.2), Radioshift has been focused on recording. Listening is a big part of what people want to do, and we know that. This is a very wide app though, and these things take time.

   5) See above, re: listening. We do want to improve local playback, eventually.

   6) Understandable, but for now, your best bet is passing to iTunes and turning on the “Remember playback position” in the Options section of the file’s info.

   Thanks for the ideas – we hope you’ll keep watching updates.

   If you have more requests or ideas, you should contact support directly, as we don’t always check our weblog comments regularly.

   
   

4. Thierry says:

   December 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
   

   Thanks for your answer. Here are some counter-points:

   1- I am not sure that I will be the only one thinking that with mobile platforms (laptop, iPhone,..). Basically I am left with the option of creating an AppleScript to tun OFF RadioShift on some network conditions (is that possible?), or create an AppleScript to turn ON FStream on some network conditions ;-)

   2- This should be trivial to implement. A ‘Stop all current recordings’ or a ‘Stop recording for the next hour’ under the menu with a small pop up to confirm. I do not see what ‘destruction’ could happen. Again, with mobile roaming systems, I think this is a must have, not a nice to have, IMHO.

   3,4,5 – Cannot wait for that ;-)

   6- Too heavy. ‘Can this be done programmatically’? ReplayAV can record in iPod Audiobook format directly. Not ideal but better.

   Support- Ever thought of a user forum? You could have an open end-user discussion about the requested features.

   Keep up the good work!
   Thierry

   
   

5. Paul Kafasis says:

   December 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
   

   Thierry:

   1) Like I said, it’s certainly on the list to consider, and we’ll see what happens in the future.

   2) Trivial to implement is a very minor portion of the debate on any new feature. We need things to be accessible to users, and not cause problems. Every feature, every preference, presents a user with a choice. The more choices we present, the more chance we have of causing a user to break something. Stopping recordings in one fell swoop is a very drastic action.

   6) As I said, for now, that’s the way to do it. In the future, we’ll see what happens.

   We’ve had user forums before, and found them ineffective. Over time, we’ve found the best way to discuss features is in a more intimate setup, via email.

   
   

6. Jim W says:

   December 17th, 2008 at 8:06 am
   

   Hi! Been a Radioshift user very early on through a number of bugs, so thanks for all the recent updates.

   Not sure if it is within the “philosophy” of the software, but I would love to see some place where I could go to the web site of the station I am looking at within Radio Guide. I listen to a lot of BBC related shows and occasionally I would like to go directly to the site to look at the schedule myself. I like the Guide, but quite honestly, it is not always accurate. I have reported the inaccuracies but it is a hard thing to keep up with especially in the case of the BBC and I applaud whoever controls the Radio Guide for doing what they can. I know I can just open the browser and go there, but a click to go directly would be nice! That way, I can verify things when the Guide isn’t always correct, or if I want to manipulate the time a bit – as I have to do with BBC occasionally.

   Thanks again.

   
   

7. ron g says:

   December 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
   

   Inconsistent behavior …

   I sometimes listen to a recorded show from yesterday, and it runs into the record time for the next show while I am listening. Radio shift handles this in two ways and I can’t figure out why.

   1.) Sometimes it records the new show but does not show the recording in the Recordings window until after the show is recorded. It’s always a nice surprise when I come back later ad find that is got it. But I cannot see it until it’s totally done so I cannot pt to “listen in”.

   2.) bad surprise, it fails to make contact and record anything if I am listening to an older show. This happens sometimes too.

   Over all I like the program but continue ot find stations that give weird recording results. Sounds like they are sped up 10x (like the chipmunk song). Sometimes the commercials come in clean and just the main program is speeded up.

   
   

8. Paul Kafasis says:

   December 21st, 2008 at 4:56 pm
   

   Jim W: A link to the station’s site is something that’s on our list for the future, so we’ll see what happens.

   ron g: These are definitely things you should contact us directly about, so we can try to work out what’s going on.

   
   

9. Joerg Strohbach says:

   January 5th, 2009 at 8:27 am
   

   Complements for your great software. I use Radioshift, Audio Hijack Pro, Fission and Airfoil. As i am using Radioshift very, very often to record audiobooks from our local radio station (Munich, Germany) there are two things i would like to see in upcoming releases:
   1. More flexible use of MP3-Tags. It would save me (and many others i think) a lot of time if i could select which Tags i can use. To be able to edit the Genre-Listing would also be very usefull.
   2. Ability to sort the Subscription-List by date of recording could help to keep an overview if you have many scheduled subscriptions.

   Thanks in advance
   Joerg

   
   

10. Paul Kafasis says:

    January 10th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
    

    Joerg: Interesting suggestions – we’ll see what happens in the future!

    
    

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