The NPR Addict app is great in that it’s complete. You can click to listen to stories, read stories and view pictures. But as a tool for discovery, the essence of why I love NPR, this app falls short.
If you’re used to perusing the NPR site, or using the NPR mobile download available on NPR.org, then you’ll quickly notice that NPR Addict isn’t as intuitive. NPR Addict does have keyword searches, and you can also search through an extensive list of topics, by NPR Program, NPR Podcast directory and more.
But unless you know you only want, say, Morning Edition, (in which case you’re golden) then you’re left guessing at how exactly to get a nice mix.
As an avid consumer of NPR content, I really wanted a list of top stories and most popular stories–an NPR highlight reel if you will. When I’m restricted by topic or program, I feel like I’m missing something unless I have the time to be incredibly thorough.
The NPR Addict list of stories is really easy to read and scan. It’s low on the bells and whistles, but it gets you directly to the content you want, is fast and those two things really do count. To its credit, NPR Addict’s simple set up makes it easy to browse and to find what you want if you’re looking for something specific.