Kindle Fire owners take note: Aol, TechCrunch’s not-so-evil overlord, has a new app for you. Aol just released a retooled version of PLAY By Aol specifically for the Kindle Fire. This reskinned app is optimized for the Fire’s 7-inch 600×1024 screen. Everything from the layout to the iconography to the cover art was redone to look as good as possible on the Fire.
Like the other versions of PLAY, this music app puts the device’s on-board MP3 collection into an immersion environment. While it features a media player, the entire app is built to provide an experience not traditionally found in a simple player including social features and the ability to share songs on Twitter, Facebook, and the PLAY network. Plus, PLAY features a SHOUTcast player with access to 55,000+ stations.
Spiritual guru and AOL Mobile First Senior Director Sol Lipman said in a released statement today, “The Kindle Fire can’t get much more awesome, but somehow we made beautiful babies together with PLAY. It’s the best social music experience on the Fire, and I say that because I’m only mostly unbiased. Look, just stop reading and go try it.”
Aol released the Android and iOS versions of PLAY last summer. Since then the app has been downloaded 1 million times. The Kindle Fire version is the first edition of the app made specifically for a larger screen.
The app costs $.99 on the Amazon App Store or there is an ad-supported version available as well.
Matt Burns is a longtime technology journalist, now Editorial Director at Insight Media Group and formerly Managing Editor at TechCrunch. At Insight Media Group, he guides coverage and contributor programs across fast-growing tech publications. Before that, he spent 15+ years at TechCrunch, rising from contributor to Managing Editor, helping scale the newsroom and program Disrupt’s stages and TechCrunch’s other events. Earlier, he also wrote for Engadget. Matt co-founded the Resilience Conference, an event series at the intersection of defense, security, and startup innovation. There he builds agendas, hosts sessions, and launched “Launch @ Resilience,” a showcase for early-stage teams building nation-defending technology. Across roles, he’s reported on and moderated conversations in AI, mobility, frontier tech, and the hard problems technology companies face. He’s interviewed world leaders, top investors, startup founders, and public-company CEOs. Lifelong Michiganian with plenty of Silicon Valley miles, he brings Midwest empathy and an editor’s eye. Offstage, he works with teams to sharpen narrative and validate go-to-market plans, and, when possible, camping along Lake Michigan.