Android for Expats: TuneIn Radio

TuneIn Radio for Android and iPhone

 

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like something particularly related to being an expat (aka Alien) in Korea. But, TuneIn Radio which is both on the Android Marketplace (for free) and iTunes for the iPhone and iPad ($1.99) has proven infinitely useful and entertaining.

However, consider tonight, while I was walking home from work, I was listening to the morning shows from a Toronto news talk radio station I always had on during university and one from my hometown — in real time. Turns out our drive home time in East Asia is about the same time as the morning drive shows in the Eastern Time Zone.

It’s a bit of a surreal experience to get live radio from Canada in my ears while my eyes see Seoul..

 

Front page of the TuneIn Radio app

Local Seoul Radio on TuneIn Radio

As you can see, if you want to go local and listen to Korean stations or TBS eFM, they also have a “Local Radio” section, which finds stations based on your location. Further scrolling will find every conceivable topic including world news stations like BBC and ABC (Australia), Top 40 radio, and just about everything on the world’s airwaves. At the bottom of the front page is a podcast section, where most popular podcasts are available for streaming.

iTourSeoul lets Aliens reserve with ease

Nutcracker, anyone?

iTourSeoul (http://www.visitseoul.net) has been flying under my radar, and apparently also out of view of most Aliens living in Seoul. Thanks to Mr. Cornelius for letting us know about this, via a JoongAng Daily article about their forthcoming smartphone app.

The website, and the app which releases early next year, is an entertainment / leisure guide for Seoulites of English, Japanese,  Chinese, and (yes) Korean persuasions. iTourSeoul is particularly of use for those who have a hard time navigating Korean-only ticket reservation websites like Interpark (which may or may not accept your alien number). They have an online reservation system for concerts and plays in Seoul, which will be good for booking your next date.

SK Telecom’s T World now usable in all major browsers

This may come as a surprise to those aliens in Korea who don’t use Internet Explorer (6 even!?) or heaven forbid, don’t use Windows.

I use a Mac, so there is no such thing as IE in my world. I had already assumed I couldn’t make use of the T World website to order my TTL membership card (제휴카드, more on this in a later installment). For some reason I decided to give it a shot today. What a surprise I found, when this little notification popped up.

I am trained to ignore most notifications, because it’s usually some new credit card in which I have no interest. This time, however, where we are usually told that our Chrome or Firefox browsers can’t match the ultimate power of IE6, and thus cannot use this site, we are told that T World is compatible with IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Holy Shit! Progress is being made.

Let’s hope this is a trend.

SK Telecom Smart Wallet Application for Android

As a side note, if you have an Android phone, I would strongly recommend getting the Smart Wallet app for you phone, and among other useful things such as free Dunkin Donuts coupons, you can have you TTL card on your phone. This will allow you to avail yourself to the many discounts that come with the card. If you’re interested in all the discounts available, and you didn’t realise that such a thing was possible, check out this page, which outlines all of the benefits of a SK Telecom Membership. Every carrier has member discount cards too, so don’t be like most aliens, and miss out.

SK Telecom TTL Membership Card on Anycall Galaxy A

TVing’s Introductory Pricing

TVing (discussed before) seems to have left open beta, and has thus introduced its introductory pricing structure. And it’s surprisingly reasonable. As a side not, the web interface includes channel chat, a TV guide, select VOD programs, and a nifty channel changer (graphic above).

The (non-porn) packages are as follows:

1 Day (+7 free days of viewing) = 1,000 KRW (regular 1,500KRW)

30 Days (+30 free days of viewing) = 3,500 KRW (regular 5,000KRW)

Monthly (+30 days of free viewing) = 3,000 KRW (regular 4,500KRW)

I am 99% sure about my translation of the last one, and I assume it’s calendar months (as in 1st of the month to the last). And it seems like 30 days is just 30 days regardless of the length of the month.

If you can read Korean and want to verify this (or check out the porn packages), visit the TVing order page.

TVing: Free (for now) Live Korean TV

On April 6th, GOM opened it’s new live online TV broadcast system, TVing to GOM members. It has been in free open beta since. I can’t say I have figured out how long it will be in open beta. Regardless, if you go to their site, you can register for a free 7-day viewing coupon which will begin once the open beta is over. So, if you’re Korean or a spaceman with an Alien Card in Korea, you should head over now.

This is obviously good for those without a TV or cable. But, if you do have those there are some added benefits, such as plenty of sports channels which will cover all the required baseball games of the day. For us English-speakers, you can watch CNN (Hong Kong), Bloomberg (Asia), Nat. Geo Wild, and Arirang. I only have basic cable, so I don’t get any of these. I can also see it being useful when you’re in a Starbucks (where I see plenty of whities), and need a news fix.

Here’s their nifty live TV guide.

Bloomberg and CNN are particularly good for staying on top of the business world / general expat community in Asia. The focus on these channels are mostly Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo (as with CNN Go), but Seoul / Korean issues pop up from time to time.

So far, there’s no indication as to their pricing structure, but I will be considering purchasing the service if it’s reasonably priced.

Required to watch

1. Windows w/ IE (welcome to Korea)

2. An ARC card

3. A GOM account (requires #2)

4. GOM Player (more convenient than the web version). You should have this for watching movies / VOD tv shows and music anyway

5. Free 7-day post-beta coupon

An example of CNN with the channel menu open on the right. It can be played full screen at tolerable quality.