It seems as though everyone is fighting to be the break-out augmented reality application. Broadcastr joins the party and it just became available in the Android Market. The best way I can describe Broadcastr is it is an audio version of Twitter. Broadcastr is a social media platform for location-based stories. You can record and listen to audio stories associated with a particular location.
Broadcastr debuted in December and was created by Electric Literature co-founders Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum. They describe their service as:
“We tweet. We blog. We YouTube. We connect on Facebook. What about our voices? Now, we broadcast them. Broadcastr is a new Social Media platform. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can record, index, listen to, and share audio via a map-based interface. From the historical to the hysterical, the hilarious to the anecdotal, Broadcastr amplifies all our voices.”
Some examples could be restaurant reviews, travel guides, or just about anything you can think of. Since you can share your recordings on Facebook, you might record details of a party you went to. There are 25 categories in all which include, architecture, celebrities, college, crime, events, food, funny, reviews, sports, and travel. There is even a featured user category that lists users that Broadcastr thinks is doing exemplary things. Examples of users in this section include, Taxigourmet, NYCParks, and Fodors.
You can search for recordings by location, category, keyword, or person. You can listen to recordings from anywhere, not just where you are physically. I could see this being interesting for stars as they can share thoughts on their daily events. Much like Twitter you can follow your favorite users or friends and create playlists. You can also rate and make comments of recordings.
The big negative is every recording is public and it does not appear there is any censoring. It seems like it would be nice if you can make some of your recordings private in case you want to share something that really would only interest your friends or is personal.
Although applications like this will have a lot of “garbage” recordings, I am sure it can be quite useful for certain situations. For example, if you are traveling to an unfamiliar city you might find some really insightful information. You might even find a new restaurant to check out.
A GPS-based feature called Geoplay will continuously play stories relevant to your location. Imagine walking through the 9/11 Memorial and listening to stories from survivors.
The application is set up much like the website version is. Upon loading it in my home area there was only one recording available within 5 miles. As I zoomed out more recordings showed up. The Geoplay feature seems interesting, but there are some recordings that I did not want to hear. I was able to listen to the recordings in my car through my car’s stereo bluetooth. I can see how it might be fun on a road trip.
Broadcaster is currently in Beta. If you have any feedback they are asking that you let them know by emailing them at customerservice@broadcastr.com
Hit the source link for market links and check out some videos below. All of these videos deal with the web interface, but the app has the same look and feel.
[via apps database]