Seven essential streaming apps
CHECK OUT THESE STREAMING APPS FOR YOUR MOBILE THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD OF.
WHEN IT COMES to streaming, mobile users are now really spoilt for choice. ere are dozens of music and video streaming services available, and you’re probably already aware of many of them: YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, Net ix, Stan, Presto, QuickFlix, TenPlay, iView and SBS On Demand are some of the best services with mobile apps.
is month we’re going to take a look at some of the great but lesser-known services, all of which are worth downloading.
SELF-BROADCASTING
Periscope www.periscope.tv Android, iOS
PERISCOPE IS AN app made by Twitter that can turn you into a broadcaster – or narrow caster. It uses your Twitter account and lets you beam whatever your phone camera is recording live across the internet. You can use it to beam big public events to every Twitter follower, or private events to family members and friends who couldn’t be there in person. If you want the latter, you mark a recording as private so only certain people have access to it. Recordings are also stored on Twitter’s servers, so they can be rewatched for the next 24 hours.
If you’re not interested in plugging into the Twitterverse, there are some good alternatives to Periscope. Meerkat is probably the best of the rest, but Livestream is also very good and lets you access more than just community streams. You could also try UStream and YouNow for personal streaming.
VIDEOGAME STREAMING
Vortex play.google.com Android
VORTEX IS THE Android Twitch player we need, as opposed to the slow and bloated o cial Twitch player. It’s a light and very quick player, and it lets you access all current Twitch streams. We’ve found it launches faster, consumes less resources and is rather more stable than the actual Twitch app. It also lters out ads – which we admit that is a mixed blessing: sometimes you’d like to actually support the streamers you’re watching.
e one big thing that the o cial Android Twitch app has that Vortex doesn’t is video on demand access to past broadcasts. Hopefully that can be added in the future (as well as the ability to turn ads on for speci c casters), and then we’ll never have to deal with the Twitch app again.
TV AND MOVIE STREAMING
Crackle www.crackle.com Android, iOS
CRACKLE, WHICH WE’VE also highlighted in this month’s Unearthed feature (see page 30), can best be described as a free version of Net ix. Like Net ix and its ilk, it hosts a variety of movies and TV shows that can be streamed directly — not just to your PC, but to your mobile too. Getting around geoblocks on mobile is a bit trickier, so the selection isn’t as good as you’ll get on desktop with Hotspot Shield – titles tend to be somewhat older – but you can always nd a few gems and classic movies in there if you’re willing to look.
Movies are streamed in SD – which is generally ne on a mobile or tablet, and can save serious amounts of data if you’re on a 3G network. (Like Net ix, Stan, Presto and other streaming services, there’s an option to only stream over Wi-Fi, which is highly recommended).
TV AND MOVIE STREAMING
Flipps TV www.flipps.com Android, iOS
IF YOU FIND you’re a fan of Crackle, you should also de nitely check out Flipps TV, a similar service that o ers even more older and niche content. e collection of TV shows and movies is amazingly varied and esoteric, from 90s tness videos to episodes of Popeye the Sailor Man and Bugs Bunny. ere’s also a solid collection of Anime and if you’re a lover of B-movies this is really the place to visit. (As an aside, if you’re into Anime, you should de nitely also get hold of another app called Crunchyroll). ere’s also a selection of news and music content drawn from various web sources, including the BBC, Vimeo, NY Times and others.
Flipps also has a neat Play To functionality, which beams any video you’re watching to a DLNA player, Chromecast or Apple TV device.
STREAMING VIDEO DIRECTORY
JustWatch www.justwatch.com/au Android, iOS
IF YOU’RE A subscriber to one or more streaming services, knowing what’s on and what’s worth watching can be a pain. e array of choices can be paralysing. at’s where JustWatch comes in. It shows you new and current popular videos across multiple streaming and download services to make it easier to nd things that you might be interested in.
It has a localised version for Australia and New Zealand, and during the setup process you select which services you’re a subscriber to. It includes Net ix, Stan, Quick ix and Crackle and also includes online stores like Google Play, the Microso Xbox Store, Apple Store and Playstation Store (it will also let you know about price drops on the stores).
ANDROID & IOS
IHEARTRADIO
www.iheart.com
An aggregator of a large number of online radio stations, iHeartRadio is perfect for people who prefer good old fashioned curated radio to the playlists of Spotify. It includes both music and talk radio, and you will get the actual un ltered streams from the radio stations you select. Thousands of radio stations from around the world (including a number of Australian stations) are selectable.
You start by choosing the genres you like, at which point the app will recommend a number of stations. You can also search for speci c radio stations. As with other music apps like Spotify, the station can play in the background while you do other things.
ANDROID & IOS
TUNEIN
www.tunein.com
Like iHeartRadio, TuneIn is an internet radio station aggregator, letting you plug into the streams of thousands of online stations. It doesn’t have the genre-based recommendations of iHeartRadio, but it does have a truly huge selection of radio stations (much more so than iHeartRadio), including most of the major local stations. If you want to listen to a local station, you just tap Local Radio and it will use your IP address to determine your location and o er up a list of relevant stations. It also includes audio books and podcasts in its selection.
As with other radio apps, you can leave it running in the background, so you can do other stu while you listen.