Mobile Android App iHear Network Pioneers New Breed of Location-Based Audio Service

SEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Are you tired of your iPhone-toting friends downloading the hottest mobile apps while you wait in vain for an Android version? Wait no longer — finally, a game-changing app tackles Android first.

iHear Network, launching in advance of the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, offers a unique auditory experience exclusively on Android. When you tune into iHear Network, you hear what people are saying in your community as local tweets are converted into speech in real-time. Additionally, you can see the location of each tweet on a map as it is read aloud. You're not constrained to listening in on your neighborhood either, since you can virtually visit, or "teleport," to any place on earth.

This innovative entertainment offering relies on the Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology that comes with smartphones running Android 1.6 and up. Meanwhile, iPhone, which lacks a native TTS package, is still struggling to find its voice. "Before starting on this project, we had to decide which platform to target first," says iHear Network CEO Geoffrey Simons. "After some research, we discovered that iOS currently lacks the tools needed to build TTS applications, so we picked Android to start. Anyway, isn't the iPhone for hipsters?"

Beyond entertainment, iHear Network is useful for gauging public sentiment at a given point in time. Tune in before going out on the town, during televised live events like the Oscars, on road trips, or when extreme weather hits. The app is great at conferences too, such as SXSW.

To get started, simply download iHear Network from Android Market, turn it on, and go. It's free, and no sign-up or account is required. If you show off iHear Network to your non-Android friends, though, be prepared to explain to them that they'll have to patiently wait for it to become available on iPhone later this year.

SOURCE iHear Network