NEW YORK—Usually people listen to NPR. But this time it’s NPR who is listening.
Bottle Rocket Apps, developer of several top iPhone applications, announced the 1.1 update for the NPR News app. Less than a month after its initial launch to critical acclaim, the NPR News iPhone app received an important update including ever-popular social networking. This update makes reading, listening to and sharing the news even more accessible for millions of people. Bottle Rocket Apps is bringing iPhone development to the next level with its high utility, visually stunning apps.
Immediately after its release, NPR News quickly became the #1 free News app and the #7 most popular free app overall in the App Store (recently surpassing the Facebook app). Since its launch last month, NPR News has already achieved one million downloads. As the first app offering users the option to read, listen, and peruse NPR's large catalogue of programs and content, the response by the public has been overwhelmingly positive.
A few of the major features in 1.1 include the ability to:
- Share news stories via Facebook, Twitter or Email
- Pause radio programs
- Fast forward and rewind (scrub) radio programs
- Pinch-zoom news story images
“Working with Bottle Rocket, we built a road map for NPR news and programs and NPR station programming that is audience driven,” said Robert Spier, Director of Content Development and Mobile Program Operations for.NPR. “Our goal is to deliver the highest quality journalism and programs on all of our platforms, ensuring that our content is universally accessible.”
It is important that companies listen to their users; this is particularly true for iPhone developers as consumers have a myriad of choices available in the App Store. NPR and Bottle Rocket Apps selected new features based on user feedback, with social network capabilities and scrubbing being the most requested features. “We dig in deep and push hard on every aspect of the project to make sure it's the best it can possibly be", said Calvin Carter, President of Bottle Rocket Apps. “The success of this app is a combination of our unique design process, NPR’s amazing content and our shared focus on what the user wants.”
These constant improvements to the usability of their apps are what distinguish Bottle Rocket Apps and NPR, as both companies understand that they must tailor their service to the user, creating an effortless usability and quality of experience. With this constant attention to detail, they are redefining how to create a polished mobile application that is a pleasure to use.
“Want to read, listen, see, share, Twitter, Facebook, email, scrub, scroll, save and playlist the news? Now there’s an app for that” said Carter.
The 1.1 update to NPR News is available now in the App Store as a free download on iPhone and iPod Touch or at this link.
