iPhone App Review: Emergency Radio

Emergency Radio was developed by EdgeRift, Inc. and it lets you listen to over a thousand live fire, police, EMS, and other emergency frequencies.  Think of it as a police scanner on your phone, only one that costs 99 cents.  Using Edge, 3G, or WiFi, Emergency Radio connects to third-party online streams that broadcast over emergency frequencies.  It is very easy to use and may just help you out in a tight situation.  I tested Emergency Radio on OS 3.0 and it works flawlessly.  Coming in at a convenient 830KB, the app is very lightweight and will install very quickly.

Design

The interface is very simple to use and neat to look at. It gives you three tabs on the bottom; the first, called All, gives you a list of all available stations.  The tab includes a search bar, enabling you can find your station faster.  The second tab, called Nearby, uses your iPhone’s GPS to find the stations closest to you.   I found this really useful since it allowed me to get to my local stations much faster.  The third and final tab is Favorites, which is, well, your favorites page.  Here you can quickly get to the stations you’ve marked as your favorite, giving you the fastest access to what you’ve deemed the most important EMS content.  The coolest aspect of Emergency Radio is the interface that appears while you’re listening to a station.  You get the neat background noise of a radio to give you the feel of a scanner.  There is also a  list that contains all the codes emergency personnel use, along with their meaning.  This way, you can know exactly what the emergency personnel is talking about over the air waves.

Quality/Use

Emergency Radio is very well-built.  In using it for the last week, it hasn’t crashed once on my phone.  Sometimes 3G or a WiFi connection will simply be unavailable: during those times, trusty old Edge is here to back us up.  Yet even over an Edge connection, the app is able to connect to a station quickly.  Edge playback works without noticeably many skips in the transmission.  Over WiFi or 3G, the broadcast quality simply shines.

Wrapping Up

All in all, Emergency Radio is a great app.  It is simple, quick and affordable.  What you end up with is a reliable mobile police scanner on your phone, for those times when you’re on the go and need to pick up an emergency transmission!  What else could you ask for?  With thousands of stations to choose from in all of the US, you should be covered for where you live.  If, however, you don’t find the station you’re looking for, be patient: more stations are added with every update.  The App is only 99 cents (which should be the price of every app in the App Store as far as Alex is concerned).  In my humble opinion, it’s very worth every penny and there is nothing to lose but a buck.  Find it here in the App Store and enjoy!

Post comments and write what you think of it!  Screen shots are right below!

Posted in App Store, Apple, Review, iPhone, iPhone App Review