The Mormon Channel Project

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McDanielCA
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The Mormon Channel Project

#1

Post by McDanielCA »

The Mormon Channel Project was originally posted on the Projects page of LDSTech. It was written by Tom Johnson.

<hr id="system-readmore"> The Mormon Channel iPhone application is the first software release from the LDSTech community. Not only does it stream the Mormon Channel on the iPhone, it also plays recordings of general conference talks, Church magazine articles, and scriptures. The application was given a four-star rating in iTunes and has been downloaded more than 55,000 times in more than 53 countries.
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Views of the Mormon Channel iPhone application while streaming the Mormon Channel, browsing magazine content, and listening to magazine articles

The Mormon Channel Project will create version 2.0 of the iPhone application and also create applications to stream the Mormon Channel on Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, Android, and BlackBerry devices.

More than a dozen developers, quality assurance testers, and graphic designers worked on version 1.0 of the iPhone application, collaborating virtually through the LDSTech wiki, e-mail, and on the phone for a period of two months. Due to the excitement of building an application on the iPhone platform, the project gained a lot of momentum and community involvement early on, and sped through development to execution in a surprisingly short time.
About the Mormon Channel

The Mormon Channel, launched in summer 2009, is the official radio station of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and features LDS-related content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The station is online at radio.lds.org and on the air for HD radios in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Phoenix, and Seattle.


Content for the Mormon Channel comes from the archives of the Church, partner organizations, and a series of newly launched programs. Many of these programs break new ground for the Church, moving it into the podcast space with story-driven themes, informal discussion formats, and an emphasis on conversation and community. These new programs include the following titles: Everything Creative, Stories from General Conference, Conversations, Mormon Identity, Church News, Into All the World, History of Hymns, Legacy, Light of Men, Music with a Message, and Scripture Stories.

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Several of the new programs on the Mormon Channel (radio.lds.org)


Not only did the Church move into the podcast/radio space with about a dozen new programs, each program releases a new show almost weekly. Both guests and hosts for the shows include a wide breadth of participants, from BYU professors to writers to professional basketball players. In addition to their inclusion in the Mormon Channel stream, the new programs are available as individual podcasts in iTunes.

Additional Audio Content

The Mormon Channel iPhone application also ties in to a Web service to deliver general conference, the scriptures, and the Church magazines in audio format. Although this additional audio content wasn't in the scope of the original project, the LDSTech community felt the content was important to include and so added it. The addition significantly expands the offerings from the Mormon Channel application, putting more audio from the Church into one source so you can listen to a variety of content, anywhere and anytime.

Features Planned for 2.0

The LDSTech community is working on version 2.0 of the application. Improvements include the following:
  • The program will remember where you left off and resume from that spot when you exit and return to the program.
  • When you're streaming the Mormon Channel, you will see more information about what's currently playing and what shows are coming.
  • When you finish listening to one article or chapter of scriptures, the next in sequence will automatically play.
  • As you navigate the application, you will see more graphics to enhance the visual experience.
Getting Involved

We need developers, testers, and designers of all varieties to join the project, especially developers who can create applications for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre platforms. To take the first steps in the project, see Getting Involved.

To learn more about the project, see the Mormon Channel project information on the LDSTech Wiki.
ammonihah
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#2

Post by ammonihah »

This is great. We Android users are anxious to have the same thing on our phones. I couldn't find anything out there yet.
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#3

Post by aebrown »

Ammonihah wrote:This is great. We Android users are anxious to have the same thing on our phones. I couldn't find anything out there yet.
There is a project underway for this; the project documentation is on the wiki at Mormon Channel Android Application.
mitch_feaster-p40
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Another excited Android user

#4

Post by mitch_feaster-p40 »

I'm also excited for the Android version!

Does anyone know how to get into contact with the developers? I wouldn't mind offering a hand in building the app. Is it under an scm or otherwise hosted anywhere (couldn't find it at github or sourceforge)?
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#5

Post by aebrown »

mitch_feaster wrote:I'm also excited for the Android version!

Does anyone know how to get into contact with the developers? I wouldn't mind offering a hand in building the app. Is it under an scm or otherwise hosted anywhere (couldn't find it at github or sourceforge)?
The project is hosted on Church servers. Everything is documented in the wiki. See:
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Symbian OS

#6

Post by JaDa-p40 »

Don't forget the world leading Symbian OS! Evan that Symbian devises are not so famous in the US, outside the US in Europe, Asia and Latin America they are. Thank's to Nokia Symbian is now full and free opensource.
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#7

Post by russellhltn »

JaDa wrote:Don't forget the world leading Symbian OS!
Development is dependent on interested community members doing the development. What you see so far simply reflects the interests of those who are contributing.

Since Symbian is most popular outside of the U.S., that may be where the most of the development will need to come from..
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#8

Post by MorettiDP »

Of course we have a problem in your viewpoint, RussellHltn. I believe only 1% of people outside North America know this forums, and, we can know, that's hard to understand if you don't talk in English. I know English is the common international language, and some people can read and talk in this language today in around the world, but we need to remember a half of Church members still are inside USA, and in international areas we not have the same IT workforce we have in USA, because of financial and economic things, etc.

Of course a project in Symbian is important, but why it need to start in an international (out USA) area? Can't our brothers and sisters help us in projects like this? It's only a thing we need to ponder, in my viewpoint.<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_41151", true); </SCRIPT>
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#9

Post by JamesAnderson »

Symbian code tags also appear to be largely English-based too.

Another note, I saw on a business channel here in the US that Symbian, even after Android gets more exposure and is more established, is still going to dwarf all the other formats combined, or at least be just under the entire share of all the others. That includes the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android combined.

I do not have any ffigures on Windows Mobile's reach but it's not all that much either.
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#10

Post by russellhltn »

JamesAnderson wrote:Another note, I saw on a business channel here in the US that Symbian, even after Android gets more exposure and is more established, is still going to dwarf all the other formats combined, or at least be just under the entire share of all the others. That includes the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android combined.
I've seen similar reports - based on worldwide stats. I'm not sure what it is in the US, but I think it's far from being the leader.
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