Chavah Messianic Radio v2 unleashed!

Fine Kineti readers, I am truly overjoyed to announce Chavah Messianic Radio v2 is available today – oh yes! Try Chavah v2 now: messianicradio.com

What’s so great about this new Chavah?

• Chavah runs on mobile phones! Droid, iPhone, Windows Phone 7.
• Chavah runs on tablets! iPad, Xoom, Galaxy.
• Chavah runs on PC, Mac, and Linux.
• No install required! It’s pure native web technology. No Silverlight, no Flash, no QuickTime, no Windows Media.
• Chavah now sports a clean, sharp HTML5 design that focuses on content over chrome.

It’s something I’ve been working on for over a year, and I’m pleased, relieved, and frankly overjoyed that I can finally share it with you guys. You fine folks are gonna love it!

What does it do?

It plays the best Messianic Jewish and Hebrew Roots music on the web.

And, unlike other radio stations, Chavah actually learns what you like, and plays more of that stuff. You see, each song can be thumbed-up (or down). When you thumb-up a song, Chavah knows to play more music like that song for you. If you thumb-down a song, Chavah will play fewer songs like that for you. It learns your musical tastes, and gets smarter about what tunes for the Lord to stream to your ears.

Chavah then goes a layer deeper: she looks at the general community ranking of each song, looks at the musical features of those songs, and plays more of the good stuff, less of the bad. It makes the good tunes float to the top, and the junk sink to the bottom.

On top of all that is a social, breathing Messianic music community. As listeners thumbed-up songs, trending songs will instantly appear in your stream:

Chavah also lists the top-rated tunes, your recently-played songs, and your thumbed-up songs. Clicking any of these song tiles will queue it up for play.

The motivation for v2

Technology is changing the way people interact with computers. The mobile computing explosion of the last 5 years caused people to use PCs and Macs less, opting instead for mobile phones and tablets. And for some, mobile phones are their only portal to the world and the internet; if you don’t exist on mobile, you don’t exist at all.

This presented a problem for Chavah v1. It was built with a web-plugin called Silverlight, and Silverlight ran only on PCs and Macs. Chavah v1 didn’t work on mobile phones and tablets.

In the last 2 years, I started getting feedback like this one over at the Chavah Facebook fan page:

I decided to take the plunge: I rewrote Chavah from the ground up to work with emerging technology standards that work across mobile devices and desktops.

Chavah v2 is the fruit of that labor.

And believe-you-me, getting audio to play on mobile platforms, PCs, Macs, Linux, and all web browsers was no easy feat! There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth to bring about the refined gold that is Chavah v2.

As far as I can tell, Chavah is the only Messianic radio on the web that runs on mobile phones and is the only Messianic radio that doesn’t require plugins or installs. Shalom365 is Flash, Inspired Faith is Windows Media Player, Yeshua Radio is Windows Media Player and Real Player. All that stuff is dying technology that doesn’t work on mobile, and will disappear in the coming years. Chavah v2 works on all those platforms, by contrast. We’re breaking some new ground here, folks.

FAQ

Q. Is Chavah available in the App Store?
A. No. Just open up your web browser on your phone, go to messianicradio.com

Q. I see the website on my phone, but I don’t hear any music. What’s wrong?
A. Make sure you’re running the latest version of your phone software.

• Droid? You need to be running at least v2.3 (Gingerbread, released in 2010).
• iPhone? You’ll need to click the “play” button before the music starts.
• These steps didn’t help? Install Opera Mobile Browser from the app store, and open Chavah through that.

Q. I have an old computer. Will Chavah still work?
A. Yes. If you’re on Windows XP or later, Chavah will work. However, you need to be running on Internet Explorer 8 or later (upgrade here). If you’re running Internet Explorer 7, you may run into problems. If you’re running Internet Explorer 6, you need divine deliverance. Alternately, just install Google Chrome and use that, and you’ll be smooth sailing.

Q. What web browser do you recommend to run Chavah on PCs and Macs?
A. I recommend Google Chrome. Chavah works on all browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer. However, Firefox deliberately does not support native MP3 playback due to licensing issues, and thus, Chavah will fallback to Flash on that browser. And Internet Explorer does not support some of the visuals we are pushing; you’ll get a scaled-back UI on IE 9. Google Chrome supports all of it, so use that (get it here).

Q. I don’t see the song request feature in the new Chavah. Where is it?
A. Coming soon.

Q. Can I install Chavah onto my PC/Mac/phone/tablet?
A. Yes. Details forthcoming, check back in a few days.

How far we’ve come

As a frame of reference, I released Chavah Messianic Radio v1 two years ago. Announced it on this very blog, in fact, on February 16, 2010. Here’s what that first, early version looks like:

<—Old Chavah. She was young and barren.

Ha! A little primitive and bare, perhaps, but it was our first stab at this idea of streaming Messianic music to the world, our first attempt at raising the visibility of Messianic music.

But in just two years, Chavah has evolved into something beautiful and sophisticated.

And in just those 2 years, Chavah has streamed nearly 900,000 Messianic tunes to her thousands of listeners. She’s received the attention of Messianic Jewish artists, many of whom have contributed their own tunes to the station. She’s built up a loyal fan base. And she’s become the very best place to go for music for Yeshua’s disciples.

Yes, my friends, Chavah v2 has arrived, and she’d love to have you as a listener to her 2,500 songs, some 20GB worth of tunes for the Lord. Join Chavah community and be enriched by her sweet tunes! Oh yes!

So why not give Chavah version 2 a try? Put it on your phone while driving to work. Play it on your iPad while lounging in bed. Oh yeah! Stream off your laptop while working around the house.

Enjoy, fine Kineti readers!