If you have a smartphone, you probably love finding great apps to play games with. But if you bought an iPhone or iPod touch, you probably don’t have much money left over to buy apps.
Luckily, there are few better feelings than discovering something fun, easy to use, and free. 5-0 Radio is a free app that comes pretty close to delivering this coveted trifecta. Developed by New & Popular, the app turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a police scanner. Depending on your personality, this will lead to hours or minutes of good times.
The user interface of 5-0 Radio is clear and simple. A menu list provides the option to navigate through scanner sources from police stations across the country. Users can browse the top 100 police feeds (most of which come from big cities), add their own feed, or even search the web if they can’t find a feed from a nearby police department.
After selecting a station, 5-0 Radio offers another set of options to help users listen to the fuzz. The most useful menu item is a glossary of codes and jargon used by emergency services and police officers. This little addition is really useful because it helps the average user to keep up with what’s going on in the police scanner, even if they don’t know the jargon.
The quality of police scanner feeds is another area where 5-0 Radio excels. When I tried it out at my local station, the audio stream came through very clear.
5-0 Radio’s biggest weakness has nothing to do with the app. is the thing. After a while, most calls to the police are just plain boring. This is not a “COPS” episode. It’s raw, unedited police news. For small towns, this means a long wait for something to happen, some cats stuck in a tree, and maybe a call about some “punk boys” from the grumpy old neighbor down the road. Most listeners will probably lose interest pretty quickly.
Police scanner fans will love 5-0 Radio and listen for hours. (If this is you, remember to connect your device to a power source so you don’t drain your battery.)
Listeners who can’t find enough action in their hometown can also tune in to a selection of police broadcasts from across the United States.
The other drawback of 5-0 Radio is that it requires a WiFi connection. Since the iPhone and iPod touch do not have a built-in radio transmitter, the app works by accessing available Internet sources from police stations broadcasting over the network. 5-0 Radio does not work with the 3G network.
There is also a paid version of 5-0 Radio for $0.99. The premium version adds a music scanner so users can listen to internet radio between police calls.
Whether you get the lite version for free or pay $0.99 to get the premium version, 5-0 Radio is an interesting app that offers something new to listen to while waiting in line at the grocery store.