The nearly two year old app gets a stylish makeover, and adds a few handy new features not available in previous versions.

Despite how desperately they want them, my wife and I have decided not to allow our 9 and 7-year-old to have televisions in their rooms, not yet anyway. However, we do allow them to listen to music as they drift off to dream land which means firing up the Radiopup app on the iPods or my iPad so they can listen to the station.

Whenever the notification pops up on the App Store that updates are available, I usually don't pay attention to which apps are being updated. I just hit "Update All" and go about my business, which was why I was caught off guard a little when the Radiopup logo on my iPad was a green dog on a white background instead of a white dog on a black background like it had been since the app launched.

The screen pictured above pretty much shows you right off the bat the significant visual change. Gone is the black back ground, replaced with a brighter, more vibrant white. The various options such as Favorites, Stations, etc., that were featured in a list form on the original version have been minimized and placed horizontally at the bottom of the screen allowing for a larger scrolling image gallery of stories you may be interested to read on our website.

The sidebar pictured on the right-hand side of the photo above, shows other recent stories published on the website not included in the scrolling images. As you can see, leaving the sidebar visible can make the screen look a little on the busy side, however it can be hidden with a simple tap of the finger.

The Now Playing graphic along the bottom of the screen, showing what song is currently playing along with volume control, can also be hidden easily with a simple tap of the Now Playing button in the lower left hand corner.

Radiopup Sleep Timer Feature
(Radiopup)
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A new feature I find particularly handy is the Sleep Timer. In our case, if my wife or I forget to go manually turn off the music in our kids bedrooms before we go to bed ourselves, the music runs all night and drains the battery. The Sleep Timer gives you the ability to have the app turn itself off after as little as 15 minutes, to as much as two hours. A handy feature that should keep your battery for completely dying.

The app has also included an alarm clock feature that allows you to wake up to 106-1 KISS-FM, or to a preloaded sound effect.

Finally, local weather information has also been added to the app. A very basic feature that doesn't provide an in depth forecast like an Accuweather, or Weather Channel does, but does provide a five day outlook that can give you a pretty good idea as to whether or not you need to grab a jacket, coat, or umbrella, or whether it's a long sleeve or short sleeve kind of day.

Radiopup Weather Feature
(Radiopup)
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All in all, the new look is a refreshing change to the app's previous appearance, and the layout is user-friendly and easy to use. One possible tweak I think could be made would be a re-scaling of the screen when the Now Playing player is pulled up. As it stands now, if the player were visible on the weather screen pictured above, it would cover the five day outlook at the bottom. Outside of that, I think it's a solid upgrade all around.

Radiopup is a free download for your smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device through the App Store and Google Play.

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