Image rights from top: The Iconfactory, Bert Briaire.
Triode is from The
Iconfactory, makers of
Twitterrific. It does for
internet radio what
Twitterrific did for Twitter by making
the experience much more pleasant.
The app fills a niche Apple doesn’t
seem interested in: when iTunes became
Music, internet radio was demoted in
favour of Apple’s channels. Triode offers
an Apple–level experience for the
stations Apple doesn’t offer. It works not
just with iOS and iPadOS but with your
Mac, your Apple TV and with CarPlay–
enabled vehicles — and it syncs across
your devices via iCloud.
rapLector is for people
who are too busy to read
normally. If you’re one of
them we’ll save you some
time. Don’t buy it.
Now for a slightly longer version.
rapLector is designed to speed up
reading. The name is short for Rapid
Lector, and a lector is someone who
reads to others in a church or university.
Here, rapLector takes ebooks and
displays them one word at a time. It’s
a speed reading technique we’ve seen
in other apps such as ReadMe!
The app is not particularly pleasant to
use. By formatting fiction as flashcards it
Triode — Internet Radio
Internet radio made easy
Free (IAPs) From The Iconfactory, triode.app
Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 11.2 or later
rapLector
Disappointing speed reading
$0.99 From Bert Briaire, raplector.nl
Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 13.1 or later
AWESOMEPOORThe Triode app’s interface is simple and easy
for users to navigate.The interface is stark, unattractive and fixed.The first thing you’ll see when you
open the app is a curated list of channels
ranging from talk radio to dub. They’re
a great way to get started, and you can
search for specific stations or genres. If
a station offers multiple streams, tapping
its icon displays a pop–up enabling you to
choose the one you want.
You can store stations as favorites,
but you can also add them to Siri as
shortcuts — something that’s particularly
handy in the car or when you’re kicking
back on the couch. If you’re a paid
subscriber listening to music stations,
you’ll get high–quality artwork of the
track that’s playing, and if you likemakes prose feel like PowerPoint. You
can only open files you’ve transferred
into its own folder on your device via
Files or iTunes, it only works with .epub
files, and the white–on–black interface is
ugly and fixed. There are bugs, too. For
example, closing the pause screen didn’t
completely close it. You can adjust the
speed, pause the playback, or skip back
and forwards. And that’s about it.
We’d be more kind if rapLector made
us smarter, but all the evidence on speed
reading casts doubt on its effectiveness:
while it’s certainly possible to read at
accelerated speeds, our absorption and
recall of text drops dramatically thethe song you can easily open it in Apple
Music to add it to your library. Sound
quality varies from station to station and
is out of Triode’s hands, but when it’s
good, it’s very good.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A polished, fun
and friendly way to find and enjoy online
radio stations. CARRIE MARSHALLfaster we go. That’s particularly true
when words are shown without visual
context, as they are here. As Woody Allen
joked: “I took a course in speed reading
and was able to read War And Peace in
20 minutes. It’s about Russia.”
THE BOTTOM LINE. rapLector makes
reading faster, but it isn’t a pleasant
experience. CARRIE MARSHALLTough testing, trusted ratings
maclife.com MAR 2020 63