Category: News

Cost: Free!

Features: The Android version of [NPR News] serves up news articles, streams live local NPR radio broadcasts, and plays past shows and podcasts. And, thanks to the more open Android platform, NPR News allows for the user to multi-task while listening to their favorite NPR show in the background, toggling between screens while the shows play.

News for Android also has another leg up on its AppStore counterpart - the app allows local NPR stations to stream their stations live for easy listening by the Droid user.

As far as news apps are concerned, NPR News is as comprehensive of a news app as you could hope for in an Android phone, with the user experience more robust on the Android platform than on iPhone.

Via Intomobile

Pros:

• Elegant and organized user experience
• Stream local or national radio stations around the U.S.
• Backgrounding. The NPR News app for Android allows backgrounding, so that users can click to listen to audio and then toggle between applications as the audio is playing.
• Listen and Read. Allows users to listen to programs and read news at the same time.
• Extensive Topics Section. News section showcases NPR’s top 10-20 topics of the day ranging from Science to Books to World News.
• NPR Station Listening Choices. Easy to find and bookmark more than 600 favorite NPR stations and hundreds of station on-demand streams. Live station streaming to launch in Spring 2010.
• Playlist. Bookmark favorite programs to play later.
• Read or listen to news stories as they are transcribed in the app

Via androidtapp

Cons:

• Selection of podcasts in certain areas of interest could be more extensive