Pass Time Software

I’m getting a load of reports that audio isn’t playing. After looking into the issue, it appears that there is something broken with NPR’s service. I’ve notified them, and hope to see it corrected soon.

It also appears that NPR changed the format of some of their responses to the queries that my app sends it. Their responses aren’t being parse properly, and therefore, the “All Programs” listing has stopped working. I’ve updated my code, along with a couple of other bug fixes. I’ll be submitting an update soon.

(About 10 minutes later…) 

Now NPR is returning nothing for a query for the All Programs listing…

(http://api.npr.org/list?id=3004)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<list id="3004" typeid="3004">
  <title>All Programs</title>
</list>

I think I’ll just go to bed instead.

(and about a day later…)

They have All Programs fixed up, but still we’re missing a lot of audio. It sounds like they’ve changed their licensing/rights on some items. I’ll be following up on the details of this.

There are three main ways to find an NPR station.

1. Use the icon to the right of the search field to find stations near you using the iPhone/iPod Touch location services (read GPS).
2. Type in a 5 digit zip code of an area. Examples are “16801″ or “19610″.
3. Type in a city and state using the following format: <City>, <State Abbrev.>.  The <State Abbrev.> must be two characters, case doesn’t matter. Examples are: “State College, PA”, “Reading, PA” or “Cupertino, CA”.

When you have questions that you can’t find an answer to, please drop me a line! I love hearing from you. Your suggestions have been helpful, and I hope you’ll get to see one of your own show up a future update!

It is nice to see that so many of you have stuck with the application to see it through to this recent update. I can see from my statistics provided by Apple, that many have already gotten the newest version of the application.

I hope that you find it is more reliable, and more functional. I would appreciate any feedback you have to offer.

Many have been asking for a playlist queue, which is under development now, and hopefully can make it into your hands in the next month or two.

Keep an eye out for the update. It was approved tonight.

Last night, Apple rejected the update because of an incorrect icon (one that’s been in the app since day one).

So a two minute fix results in another week of waiting for you (and me).

Sorry…

I’ve gotten a lot of comments and questions regarding available content. I’d just like to explain a couple of things-

• Market Place is a program offered by American Public Media. APM is not NPR, and therefore is currently not available via this application.
• This American Life is a program offered by Public Radio International. PRI is not NPR either…
• Programs like Car Talk WILL become available to you from the Podcast section, once you get the update.

I appreciate your patience in waiting for the update. There have been a couple of minor problems with it that have kept it from being approved- some my fault, some not… My fingers are crossed that Sunday will be our day.

If I had one gripe regarding the whole Apple Store process, it would most definitely be the fact that when an application is rejected, it takes an entire week for it to be reviewed again. So a simple 2 minutes fix, takes an entire week to get into your hands. Maybe I’m just an instant gratification kind of guy..

Lessons learned.