Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Public Radio and the Problem With iPhone Apps

by Evan Shamoon on July 31, 2009 at 01:28 PM

It's heartening to see the success of Public Radio Player 2.0, the official public radio iPhone app; it's reached nearly two million downloads. Produced in conjunction with the country's various public radio networks, the app offers up hundreds of stations and podcasts, and lets users search the massive collection for live and on-demand streams.

There is, however, one major hurdle: Apple's total kibosh on charitable giving via its App Store. You see, there is essentially no such thing -- Apple takes its 30-percent whether you're selling business software or asking for donations to malnourished children in Africa. The App Store represents a huge opportunity for giving to causes and, ultimately, the betterment of mankind... and yet Apple's stubbornness seems to be getting in the way.

"Until Apple resolves this gap between their interest in hosting other kinds of financial transactions but not charitable giving, we'll have to come up with workarounds," Jake Shapiro (founder of Public Radio Exchange, a non-profit organization that facilitates content and royalties exchange between the nation's various public radio organizations) told Wired. "My hope is to have that conversation with Apple and get their help in making this happen, because it's such an important thing -- not just for public radio, but eventually for all charitable causes and non-profits."

Amen, brother. Now someone get Jobsie on the horn because This. Will. Not. Stand. [From: Wired]

Tags: app store, apple, AppStore, charity, iphone app, iphone apps, IphoneApp, IphoneApps, main, news, NPR, public radio, PublicRadio, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular