By Kailani Koenig-Muenster
Globe Staff

Reviewing: Stitcher Radio
By: Stitcher
Price: Free
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, recent models from Blackberry, Palm, and Nook, Amazon Kindle Fire, desktop
Should you get it?: Yes, if you're interested in expanding the kind of content you get through radio

Sometimes you just don't want to stare at a screen anymore. If you're like me and you spend a significant part of the day surrounded by the glow of computers, TVs, phones, and other devices, your eyes can glaze over. When it's time to close them and just listen, back comes radio.

Until my smartphone, my relationship with radio had only stayed alive because of the car. I'd listen if I was driving and I didn't have a CD or MP3 plugin anywhere, or if I wanted to dip into the latest news headlines. But I'd almost always end up switching back and forth between the same four or five stations, and I could never call up a favorite show or a specific, contemporary topic on demand.

Now with several radio apps, you don't have to choose and settle. I started with TuneIn Radio, which boasts more than 40,000 stations and streamed seamlessly on my Android phone. Then as soon as someone recommended Stitcher Radio, I haven't gone back.

By Damon Kiesow
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Chrome
Company: Google
Price: Free
Platforms: iPhone, iPad
Tested on: iPhone 4G / iPad 3
Should you get it? Yes, if you are an early adopter. (A.K.A a geek.)

Safe to say, the vast majority of Web surfing on the iPhone and iPad is done in Apple's default Safari browser. A handful of alternatives, including Skyfire and Opera Mini are also available. But if you use Google's Chrome browser on your desktop computer, you will want Chrome on your iOS device as well.

Why? Simply because Chrome will synch your bookmarks, passwords and open tabs between all of your devices. If you are prone to keeping a dozen browser tabs open at any given time, and you shift between a PC, iPhone, and iPad on a regular basis, then Chrome is for you.

For everyone else? The app is free, so give it a try. But for the most part, a web browser is a web browser. I did find Chrome to be somewhat less usable than Safari. Shifting between multiple tabs was not as intuitive, but that may be a personal preference. And because of some technical issues with iOS, Chrome is likely to load web pages just a bit slower than Safari. Neither of those are major concerns.

More of a problem - while Chrome works on iOS, you cannot set the app to be your default web browser. So any link you click on will continue to launch in Safari. To open the URL in Chrome, you will need to then copy the address, close Safari, open Chrome, and paste. For most people, that will be a dealbreaker.