iPhone Scanner Monitor App a Hit With Police and Firemen

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4phun

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I have two digital scanners that I sometimes remember to turn on and carry with me. But as likely as not when something neat happens I don't have them right at hand. I always have my iPhone and with the simple tap on the 911 Emergency Monitor Application I can often jump directly to the city and agency of a breaking event. It is neat and takes advantage of streaming scanner feeds provided over the INTERNET. BTW I can still take or make a phone call while this is active. The scanner audio just fades out if I accept a call and when it is finished it fades back in again.

Have you thought of using your phone this way? Any decent cellular phone can find RadioReference.com and in some cases they can stream directly from RR feeds. The iPhone app is much easier when you are in a hurry but there are multiple ways to skin this pig.

The scanner buffs who created this application are from Arizona and for them it is bringing home the bacon.

One other thought is streaming my two existing scanners in private feeds to myself so I can benefit from what I want to hear less the restrictions found on RR.COM as to content. That way I could eliminate carrying them all together. Right now I am working on a Hackintosh that I am building but when finished this looks like an interesting project for next week. Has anyone else tried to do this with an iPhone or some other similar ultra portable always connected product?

Any ideas about how I should go about doing this? I hear that some stream even broadcast TV to the iPhone.
...

Tucson brothers create iPhone sensation
By Phil Villarreal
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.29.2009

A pair of Tucson brothers aim to render police scanners obsolete.

l298913-1.jpg
photo from Arizona Daily Star


Parker and Marshall Minardo, owners of a software company called EdgeRift, created a $1 iPhone application called Emergency Radio that gives users access to more than 1,200 radio feeds from police, fire and emergency frequencies around the country.

Within days of its launch in early May, the application shot up to No. 2 on Apple's list of paid applications. As of Friday, Emergency Radio was still ranked in the top 40.

More than 180,000 iPhone and iPod Touch owners have downloaded Emergency Radio, and the application is currently averaging between 1,000 and 1,200 downloads per day, said 20-year-old Parker, Edgerift's CEO.
The Minardos — who run the business out of their East Side home — keep 70 cents from each sale, so the application is making the brothers flush with cash.

"Maybe we'll go out to breakfast," deadpanned Marshall, 26, the company president. "We haven't made any plans to celebrate. We're just trying to keep it going."

A free version of the application, which lets you listen to emergency feeds in a few big cities, has been downloaded 80,000 times.

The application taps into the groundwork laid by ScanAmerica — part of the RadioReference.com network — which streams the scanner feeds. Emergency Radio makes the feeds easy to access on the iPhone and also lists the police, fire and rescue squads' codes and their definitions so you can understand what the emergency workers are talking about.

EdgeRift was not exactly an overnight success.

It all started in 2001, when Parker started developing applications for personal digital assistants.
He and Marshall formed a business called PDA Performance that found limited success selling applications that organized contacts and streamlined the user interface.

In 2004, the company moved to Tucson so Marshall could earn a political science degree from the University of Arizona. The brothers relaunched the company as EdgeRift in February 2008 and shifted the focus to developing software for the burgeoning iPhone.

"All the top apps were entertainment and games, and we were thinking of what would be fun and exciting on the iPhone," Parker said. "It kind of occurred to us that with all the online feeds from emergency and police scanners, there was no easy way to access them and play them on the iPhone. We thought it would be great if we could do that."

It took the duo four weeks to put the application together, with Parker handling programming while Marshall worked on logistics, such as customer support and day-to-day operations. Apple approved the application on April 18 and released it in early May.

Emergency Radio caught fire, picking up 50 sales the first day, then doubling for the next several days.
"It appeals to so many different people out there," Parker said. "Policemen and firemen are e-mailing us, and they're so excited — they love it. It really worked out well."

The Minardos will release a free update to the program next month and are considering working on a version for the BlackBerry. The brothers say they work 80 hours a week and are considering renting out an office and hiring one or more employees to help with the workload.

"It's very strange," Marshall said. "We worked very hard for this one. We never expected anything like this. It's just unbelievable."

Contact reporter Phil Villarreal at 573-4130 or pvillarreal@azstarnet.com.
 

Metrofire31

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Vic - will any of these applications work on a Blackberry 8830 Smartphone? If so, what can I do to download and is there another application which must be downloaded first to enable it to operate?
 

rdale

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iPhone applications only work on the iPhone or iPod Touch. I assume as long as you can go to the RR.com website from your phone, it should work?
 

4phun

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Vic - will any of these applications work on a Blackberry 8830 Smartphone? If so, what can I do to download and is there another application which must be downloaded first to enable it to operate?


Rdale has already answered your question. Did you notice those guys are thinking of building one for the BlackBerry? IMHO that is a smart move as I know of dozens of government types that carry a BB including President Obama. Such an app would be a natural for some of them.

Any way follow the advice and surf to rr.m.com and see if you can hook into one of their streams with your BB. There might even be a forum on how to do it by now. I never looked as I am happy with the half dozen iPhone apps that do the same thing. You can tap into radio streams from all over the world. I inadvertently sold several of those iPhones for Apple when I demonstrated to foreigners living here how with an iPhone they could listen to their home countries and in many cases their home city radio stations while out an about with the iPhone. WunderRadio is one such app that works well. It does scanners too. See if they make a version of that radio app for the BB by visiting their web site called WeatherUndergound.com

I just found an article detailing three of the four applications for the BB.
3 Internet Radio Applications For Your BlackBerry

I erased FlyCast from the iPhone but I think that was one that I was able to hack to get scanner streams. You might look carefully at that one on the BB.

iHeart Radio on the iPhone was an OK app for music, there are too many of them and I dropped that one too.

Any of those apps that allow you to add your own feed and various parameters may work on the BB for use in streaming some of the live scanner feeds.




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RolnCode3

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Does this program show the streaming text tags if the feed is utilizing them? I had Resco Radio on my old Windows Mobile device, and I'm really missing the text tags on my iPhone (especially since it's my feed and I went to the trouble to set the tags up!)
 

IdleMonitor

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I have done this with my BB Flip phone. I have a RR BB Launcher and it works great. Takes me to the database, forums and all the live feeds.

I can play them with my internal media player.

Don't see why anyone would need to purchase the app. The RR Launcher is all I need.

Any way follow the advice and surf to rr.m.com and see if you can hook into one of their streams with your BB. There might even be a forum on how to do it by now. I never looked as I am happy with the half dozen
 

KF4UHJ

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Need Signals !

Great app, but 10-code lists tend to be very generic and the app shows the same list for different agencies. What the app really needs is the signal list which is specific to each agency. I have all the signals used for Broward County, Florida. 10-codes are primarily used for disposition... 10-4, 10-8 etc. Signals are used to indicate specific crimes or incidents. Can these be incorporated into an update? Would be VERY handy !!!
 

KF4UHJ

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Broward County, FL Dispatch Signals

Broward County, FL Signals which should be included in the app:

0-Armed and/or Caution
1-Drunk Driving
2-Drunk Pedestrian
3-Hit & Run
4-Accident
5-Murder
6-Escaped Prisoner
7-DOA (Dead on arrival)
8-Missing Person
9-Stolen Tag
10-Stolen Car
11-Abandoned Vehicle
12-Reckless Driver
13-Suspicious Incident, Person, Vehicle
14-Info
15-Special Detail
16-Child Abuse
17-Contact
18-Felony
19-Misdemeanor
20-Mentally Ill Person
21-Burglary
22-Disturbance
23-Pedestrian
24-Kidnapping
25-Fire
26-Drowning
27-Prowler/Peeping Tom
28-Civil Disorder
29-Reckless Ops-Boat
30-Theft
31-Assault
32-Suicide
33-Shooting
34-Stabbing
35-Rape
36-Disturbance-Fight
37-Disturbance-Juvenile
38-Disturbance-Domestic
39-Disturbance-Neighbor
40-Vandalism/Malicious Mischief
41-Robbery
42-Child Molester
43-Lewd Behavior
44-Marine Accident
45-Plane Crash
46-Bomb Threat
47-Vice Op
48-Open Door
49-Alarm
50 Labor Trouble
51-Trespassing
52-Forgery/Counterfeit
53-Embezzlement
54-Hijack-Aircraft
55-Explosion
56-Beverage Violation
57-Narcotics
58-Unlawful Assembly
59-Fire Bombing
60-Sniper
61-Gambling
62-Racial Trouble
63-Impersonating an Officer
64-Theft-Auto Parts
65-Shoplifter
66-Civil Matter
67-Sick or Injured Person
68-Police Service Call
69-Loose Animal
70-Animal Bite/Abuse
71-Snake Call
72-Lost/Found Property
73-Traffic-All Types
74-Recall
75-Aid to Other Agency
 

CSHIFTLT

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I have been using bbscaner for about a year now in conjunction with radio-reference, and scannercast for my personal feed. both programs work great, even on the nextel network blackberry 8350i, basically if you set it up right, and have a wifi connection, you can listen to whatever feed, and answer phone, direct connect, email, sms, and text (mms). if using nextel service only, you will still recive emails, and dependent on connection if phone and/or direct connect, usually will beep but will tell other user you are unreachable (like if you were on phone). using scannercast to send feeds to radio reference, then have a scannercast set up for a local feed that I can only get from my blackberry (ethier so you can get it locally ((you dont have to thru web, but your intranet)) or something you really do not want to have on radio-reference.
program links:
BBScanner.com: Listen to police and fire scanners on your BlackBerry - Home ($4.99)
K1PGV's ScannerCast

hope this helps, but glad apps are coming out for smartphones, most likely in the next 5 -10 years, hopefully phones will be p25 capable, (it is a open technology) that would cut down on the prices of public safety radios...
 
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