I enjoy checking out new music apps for my mobile devices, and this week I came across one that really appealed to me in a number of ways. TuneIn Radio is an app that works on iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry, and even Palm devices, and offers over 60,000 over the air and Internet radio stations to choose from. If you are traveling this Summer, or if you’re like me and ride a bus to and from work each day, this is a nice little app to keep you tuned into your favorite radio station, without having to bring your boombox with you on the bus and distract the other riders with your constant adjustment of the antenna. The app is available for free (ad supported) and for 99¢ for the premium (no ads, plus recording feature.) Here are a few things that I like about the app:

Local Listing of Radio Stations:
One of the things that I like the most that TuneIn Radio does is the fact that it actually lists out all of the local radio stations. Even if I never actually used the application to listen to these stations, this feature alone is great. I’ve been in Houston for 10 years now, and I really couldn’t identify more than a handful of radio stations. Now, I can quickly pull up all of the local stations (including HD and Local Internet-Based stations) and what type of music/talk is played on each. TuneIn Radio uses your geo location, so when you travel around the country or world, it gives you a list of the local stations so you can plug in the ones you want and listen through your device, or if you’re old-fashion, you can program them in on your rental car’s radio.

Car Mode Feature:
We all know it’s not good to text and drive… the same concept applies to finding music on your mobile device and driving. To keep your distractions down to a minimum, TuneIn Radio offers a “Car Mode” with a simple interface and big buttons on the screen. You can quickly go through your Preset stations or Recents in order to keep you tuned into the music you like. There’s also a Recommended button for when you want to expand your horizons based on what you are currently listening to. The Car Mode also lists the artist and song title in big print at the top so you can quickly see what’s playing.

Search Options:
If there is a particular band you like, or a genre, you can search search for these using TuneIn Radio’s search box. You can search by station call letters, city name, song titles, artists, even by talk show title (e.g., “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.) I’m a big fan of Punk Pop music, so I typed that in and found a number of stations that play this type of music.

What’s Playing:
I love closing my eyes and picking new radio stations to listen to. However, I also like being able to know what band and song is playing when I run across something that pleases my ear. TuneIn Radio has a nice clear picture of the band playing and the title of the song. If they have the album cover in their database, it also shows up. You can also email, Tweet or send the name of the music to Facebook as well as go to iTunes or Google Play to purchase the music that you like. I haven’t played with the “pro” version (because I’m cheap), but it has a record function that allows you to record the stream to your device. The Pro version also allows you to access to higher quality streams (probably best to be on WiFi if you do that, though.)

Other Options:
Some of the other features that TuneIn Radio offers ranges from seeing a complete list of songs that you’ve played (really cool), choose the quality of stream (pro version only), use it as a clock, and also set an alarm on the clock (haven’t used that yet, but it might come in handy when I’m traveling.)

Although I’ve talked about TuneIn Radio’s mobile applications, you can also stream it on other devices like Roku, GoogleTV and others Television streaming players, as well as just going to their website and streaming music through your PC’s browser.

As I’m writing this, I’m seriously thinking of plunking down the 99¢ to upgrade to the pro version. I’ll resist as long as I can, but I’m feeling my curiosity trying to talk my cheapness into giving in.

Even if you don’t get the pro version,  TuneIn Radio is definitely worth at look and a download. Go check it out and let me know what you think.