With all the new features available in the newly released Aha Radio app, there are bound to be some that could use some additional explanation. So this will be the first in an on going series of posts dedicated to “getting to know” Aha Radio.
Hopefully by now you have found your way to the Manage Stations area (Hint: the triple hash button in the top-right corner). One of the stations you can add is called “My Feeds.”
When you first add the station you’ll get a pop-up notice offering some details. To put it simply, you can hand-pick podcasts, as well as other Aha users, and have all of their content added to a single channel. You will just have to pick some when you aren’t driving (or else you’ll end up with the blank station shown below).
Now let’s go about selecting content for the station. Perhaps you want to have a single channel for all your NPR shows. It’s easy to just touch on the little blue arrow on the side of any podcast or user shouts (while in ‘Walking Mode’) to reveal the additional options.
Adding the feed to your Feeds station is as easy as tapping the “Follow” button on the left (looks like a balloon with a “+” in it).
No need to bounce around to each NPR station, looking for the latest episodes. Once you add them to your “My Feeds” station they will all appear in order of time/date posted. You can just let them play.
Now whether you are in ‘Walking Mode’ (above left) or ‘Driving Mode’ (above right) you get a mix of all the content you want. And don’t forget that you can even follow other users, so you’ll be sure to notice (and hear) when they leave any new shouts.
Thanks for checking out the new app! Be sure to let us know what you think.
Have you ever noticed that radio hasn’t significantly changed over the years? Sure you have fancier displays and clearer sound, but you are still pretty much stuck with whatever the stations want to give you…and on the schedule they decide.
Satellite gives you the benefit of much more choice, but even with over a hundred stations, there still isn’t one optimized just for you or with content available on demand when you want it.
Before Aha, if you wanted to hear a traffic report about where you are you would have had to pick a channel and wait for a city-wide report to in most cases hear about traffic everywhere else but in front of you.
Or maybe you wanted to listen to the latest version of your favorite podcasts, and realized it had been two weeks since you had synched. (And what was the purpose of hourly update podcasts?)
Now with Aha you can have an instant personal traffic report, hear the very latest podcasts, and still be able to switch over for some personalized recommendations for lunch. And what about those times you just have to hear the latest from your high school or college friends on Facebook or the latest celebrity Tweets? (OK, probably never, but it is still entertaining.)
Since launching our first App last fall, we’ve been iterating on the user experience with a focus on driver safety and believe an audio, radio-like interface is the optimal approach. Aha Radio answers drivers’ important questions, such as “why do I all of a sudden see break lights in front of me?” and entertains them with everything from Facebook updates to their favorite podcasts.
With Aha Radio, the things you want to know while driving are read aloud and organized like pre-set, on-demand, radio stations, letting you listen in while keeping your eyes on the road.
Aha’s station line-up will keep growing every month, but right out of the gate we have over 50 stations including (you’ll have to again forgive the transition to marketing/sales speak here):
Nearby Traffic: Wondering what traffic is like two miles up the road, at the next exit or on an approaching highway? Nearby Traffic gives you an instant traffic report based on your current location. Aha creates this report using data from best-in-class third party traffic providers Inrix and Clear Channel, and from voice notes left by other drivers near you. Tap the microphone icon to share a 15-second “Shout” about the road you’re on and help other drivers nearby.
My Traffic: During your first-time set up, use Settings to tell Aha which roads you care about, such as your daily commute, then tap the My Traffic button to get an instant traffic report on those specific roads.
Facebook: Tempted to check Facebook while you’re in traffic? Unsafe! Tap your Facebook station and Aha will read aloud your friend’s status updates. Aha filters out game updates, media item posts, and long Web addresses so you can just hear what your friends are up to. You can even post an Aha voice note to your wall for friends to hear.
Community Stations, or “the new CB Radio”: Bored in traffic and want to let loose your inner Idol? Tune into the “Caraoke” station to hear your fellow drivers sing along to the radio, then tap the mic and leave your own song clip for the whole world to hear. Or, tune into the “Jokes,” “Rants,” or other community stations for a laugh.
Twitter Lists: Want to keep track of what sports stars, TV show actors, or other celebrities are tweeting? Just select their Twitter station in Aha and hear their latest updates read to you.
Hungry: Want to stop for a bite to eat? The “Hungry” channel tells you about restaurants you might like that are coming up ahead. Only want to hear about sushi restaurants with average Yelp reviews of four stars or more? Do your kids like specific chains? Aha pre-filters the results based on your preferences, prioritizes them based on proximity to you, and describes their location so you can tell where they are. Tap the phone or map icon to put in a call or get a route.
Podcasts: Aha Radio gives you one-touch access to the current version of popular podcasts like Fox News’ hourly updates and NPR’s “This American Life” so drivers can get instant access, without having to sync their device. See break lights up ahead while listening? With one touch, interrupt your podcast to get a live traffic report, then continue listening to the podcast where you left off.
Aha Radio gives you lots of choices, but most importantly it is tailored for you, and with an interface that’s designed to minimize distraction while you are behind the wheel.
Check out our new intro video to learn more, and have a safe and entertaining drive!
As you may recall, we recently offered you a little tease of some of the stuff on the horizon for Aha users. A lot of it is conceptual, but it still touches on the some of the feature ideas we are working on.
Well, we are getting closer to those previews and demos becoming reality, so be sure to stay tuned. We’ll be sure to tell you when you can get in and test drive the “new hotness.”
In last week’s post about CES I mentioned that we were demo’ing an all-new app. I even offered a link to the “Coming Soon” so you could get an idea of some of the stuff we are adding.
And now I have a nifty video that captures some of the ideas and directions (believe it or not that pun was not intended) we are heading with our services.
And now that you are all revved up with video coolness, have some fun with this week’s top shouts!
Hello again everyone. In case you missed it yesterday, Aha is at CES this week, and is a finalist in the CES Mobile Apps Showdown. Robert has been presenting a preview demo of an all-new Aha app, with a lot of really cool possibilities (streaming podcasts anyone?).
If you are in Las Vegas for the event, you still have another chance to catch a demo. It will be during the Mobile Apps Showdown Finals tomorrow.
Saturday, 1/9 – 12:30 – Room 257 of the North Hall.
But since many of you aren’t lucky enough for a “work” trip to Vegas, we also have some details about the new app over on the Aha website. Either way…be sure to take a look and let us know what you think.
CES 2010 is just kicking off, but we’ve already got some exciting news to report. Aha has been selected as a finalist for the CES Mobile Apps Showdown.
Our CEO is at CES right now, and will be demo’ing our new app (Coming Soon!) during the Showdown. If you are at CES you should make sure you head over and check out Robert’s presentation!
Thursday, 1/7 – 2:10 – North Hall, “Living in Digital Times” Stage
Friday, 1/8 – 2:15 – North Hall, “Living in Digital Times” Stage
Saturday, 1/9 – 12:30 – Room 257 of the North Hall.
If, like me, you are not fortunate enough to be in Vegas for the event, check back here or keep an eye on twitter.com/AhaMobile for updates.
In case you haven’t heard (or checked your App Store app lately) our latest version of Aha has hit the App Store and is ready for download.
You won’t see any major visual changes in this release, but we did make some pretty significant speed and stability updates…so you’ll want to make sure you get it.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you launch Aha it can take so long to start that you feel like you are requesting a flyby from the tower, and all you keep hearing is…
“That’s a negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.”
(Ok, I’m guessing that is a not the movie quote that comes to mind, but why should Facebook be the only site that gets to drop in random Top Gun quotes for kicks!?!?)
But just imagine if the time from app launch to when it finishes its initial load were to be so dramatically improved that you would never even have time to think about asking to buzz the tower (last one, I promise).
We’ve heard from some users that initial load can sometimes feel like an eternity, so I’m delighted to share that we have made updates to our systems that should result in a SIGNIFICANT improvement in that department.
Not only have we made some updates to our back-end (changes that you should benefit from right away), but we’ve also completed some tweaks to the iPhone app itself (already submitted and awaiting approval) so be on the lookout for an App Store update.
Something else to be on the lookout for in the coming weeks is the addition of new types of incident information in Traffic. Soon we will be including alerts for traffic events like bridge and road closures as well.
Hopefully you are all noticing the massive influx of shouts today. It’s amazing what a national launch can do for user activity. Anyway, we are working furiously to make sure that our systems keep up with the demand, and that when users send shouts to the wrong area…we move them to the correct one. Given the number of shouts I’ve moved today, a brief refresher may be in order.
Shouts cheat sheet:
Traffic – Local traffic report. This is for updating other drivers with timely traffic news about slowness, accidents, or even that things are clear.
Local – General interest/discussion, or perhaps traffic info that isn’t as time-sensitive.
Caraoke – Sing along with your favorite song and let everyone else hear.
#$@% Drivers – Vent about the crazy or annoying behaviors of other drivers. Let it out here, rather than running them off the road.
Now that everyone is up to speed on shout protocol, I can get down to the nitty gritty on the CONTEST. With Aha, everyone can be a traffic reporter, and we are going to reward the most useful and entertaining traffic shout each day (M-F) for the next three weeks with a $100 iTunes gift card. That’s right…$100 iTunes cards.
I’ll be sharing more news and details in the next few days, but be ready because it starts Monday morning. Keep your ears peeled (if you can peel eyes why can’t you peel ears too?) for announcements in local Shout rooms, as well as updates on facebook.com/AhaMobile and twitter.com/AhaMobile.
Speaking of Facebook & Twitter. In case you missed it, you can now link your Aha account to Twitter and/or Facebook, so that your shouts are automatically shared with your networks. Honestly, you haven’t really lived until you have posted your own voice directly into your friends’ news feeds.
And without further ado, here are this week’s top shouts. Enjoy!
Since we first hit the App Store last month, offering traffic coverage support for just a handful of cities, users from around the country have been asking when they could join in on the fun.
Well the team has been working feverishly, and I’m delighted to report that today we are going national, with specific emphasis on the top/worse traffic markets. That means that as of today places like LA and Washington DC have most of the major freeways and highways covered whereas a smaller market like Portland (my hometown—no favorites here) has the two major interstates covered.
We will continue to add more and more roads to our coverage map each week going forward and anyone can listen today to their city-wide traffic shoutroom to hear what other Aha Shouter’s are reporting about traffic on any road, as well as hear audio versions of all of the INRIX and ClearChannel traffic reports for your city.
Many of your were leaving such creative driver rants and caraoke shouts that we wanted to let you share them with people who don’t yet have iPhones. Thus, I’m excited to report that starting today users can automatically and instantly post links to their shouts to their Twitter account or Facebook wall. Now if you need to vent at the driver who just cut you off, all your Facebook friends can hear it before you even make it to the office.
With the new Facebook and Twitter integration, we let you customize which types of Shouts go to each. For example, you can send Traffic Shouts to Twitter, but opt to post “road rage” or Caraoke Shouts to Facebook. If you just want to post an update or make a comment for others, you can shout it to your local area shout room and have it also sent to your network of choice.
Posts are automatically created and populated with the type of Shout, your current location and speed (just for Traffic Shouts), any text you add during set-up, and most importantly a link to play the Shout.
We think this will not only be a lot of fun, but also help promote safer communication and keep peoples’ focus on the road (where it should be).
With all the new features available in the newly released Aha Radio app, there are bound to be some that could use some additional explanation. So this will be the first in an on going series of posts dedicated to “getting to know” Aha Radio.
In case you haven’t heard (or checked your App Store app lately) our latest version of Aha has hit the App Store and is 
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you launch Aha it can take so long to start that you feel like you are requesting a flyby from the tower, and all you keep hearing is…
Hopefully you are all noticing the massive influx of shouts today. It’s amazing what a 
Speaking of Facebook & Twitter. In case you missed it, you can now 
Since we first