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Posts tagged with "podcasts"

Pocket Casts 6

When it comes to podcast apps on iOS, we are really spoiled for choice. There are many options, but I would say that there are four podcast apps in particular that rise above the rest; Apple’s own Podcasts app, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Castro. Narrowing that field of four to determine which is objectively the best is an almost impossible task from where I stand. Instead, which one is best will depend entirely on which app’s design and feature set most closely aligns with how you want to manage and listen to podcasts.

Keeping that in mind, just over a week ago was the release of a major new version of Pocket Casts. Now on version 6 for iOS, Pocket Casts is the podcast app that has been around the longest (out of those four listed above), first launching in January 2011. It’s also the one with the most cross-platform support, running on iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Windows Phone, and on the web.

So, what’s new in Pocket Casts 6? The tl;dr version is that the user interface has been redesigned in various ways, most notably with the addition of a dark theme and “up next” queue improvements. There are new audio effects to trim silences and volume boost for those podcasts which sound too quiet. The iPad version now supports multitasking (Split View and Picture in Picture), and whilst it isn’t noticeable to users, almost the entire app has been re-written in Swift.

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Overcast 2.5.2 with Quicksync→

Marco Arment on the latest update to Overcast:

In the last few Overcast releases, I’ve been optimizing the sync protocol and decreasing the burden of each sync to both sides (my servers and your iPhones). In 2.5.2, we’ll reap some of the benefits with the first version of what I’ve been informally calling “quicksync”.

In short, syncing Overcast between multiple devices — say, an iPhone and an iPad — is now much faster and more accurate, making multi-device usage much more practical and compelling.

“I’ve been testing this for a few weeks…”, the saying goes, but it’s true. In my tests during the beta, quicksync made switching between podcast episodes on two devices faster and less annoying than before.

Quicksync worked well in my typical use case: I’m washing dishes and Overcast is playing through the iPad Pro’s speakers, which are louder; then, I have to go out and connect my iPhone to my car’s audio, resuming Overcast to the same episode. With quicksync, I no longer have to skip ahead to catch up with the iPad’s progress. Marco did good work here and I hope the servers hold up well.

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Overcast 2.5 Adds Dark Theme, File Uploads

Overcast's new dark theme.

Overcast’s new dark theme.

When it launched in October with support for streaming and chapters, Overcast 2’s patronage model was positioned as a way to directly support the app without the promise of anything exclusive in return. With Overcast 2.5, launching today on the App Store, Marco Arment is introducing the first features available only to Overcast patrons: a dark theme, and the ability to upload audio files to Overcast’s cloud.

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Introducing Canvas and Remaster on Relay FM

Over the past year, I’ve been thinking about ways to expand the scope of my podcasts at Relay FM. In addition to our weekly coverage of all things Apple and technology with Connected, I wanted to cover the changes in my iPad workflow more in depth, as well as revitalize our discussion of games and the gaming industry with Virtual.

After a few months of work behind the scenes, I’m excited to announce two brand new shows where I’ll try to do just that: Canvas, with yours truly and Fraser Speirs; and Remaster, where Myke, Shahid Ahmad (former head of Strategic Content at PlayStation), and I will discuss what it means to play videogames and be a game maker today.

Both Canvas and Remaster are two projects I truly believe in, and they’re the kinds of podcasts I’ve been meaning to co-host for a long time. I’m incredibly thankful for the support by Myke and Stephen in providing a terrific infrastructure with Relay FM, and I feel like all the work I’ve been doing with podcasting over the past three years has led me to an exciting new starting point today.

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Castro for iPhone Goes Free, Adopts Patronage Model

Supertop is releasing Castro 1.5 today, and, in preparation for a major Castro 2.0 update scheduled in a few months, they are making the app free with a patronage model.

From the Supertop blog:

If you like Castro, please consider becoming a patron by contributing $1/month. You will support the work of a small indie app studio in a way that the standard App Store model never can. Yesterday, Supertop needed an endless stream of thousands of new customers to sustain our business. From today, we can be successful with a far smaller number of much happier customers. We can offer better support. We can add new features more often, instead of holding them back for splashy major releases. In other words, we can do the things that indies do best.

The patronage options are 3, 6 or 12 month bundles that don’t auto-renew. We know that this model will only work out for us if you love the app enough to voluntarily choose to pay, so there will be no sales-y notifications or nag screens. Castro 1.5 adds a small note at the bottom of the two main screens and a button in settings to invite users to become patrons.

With this model, the entire app has gone free – no features have to be purchased separately, and patronage is tastefully advertised at the bottom of the main podcast list. There are no annoying alerts or nagging prompts to sign up.

In addition to patronage, Castro 1.5 has been updated with 3D Touch support, Safari View Controller, and Spotlight search. The latter is a nice addition as a lot of podcast apps don’t support it, but I wish Castro could also index titles of links from show notes (at least it doesn’t for Relay FM shows ). As you can imagine, Safari View Controller for in-app web views is pretty great in a podcast client.

Like with Overcast and other patronage-based products, I hope that users who love and depend upon Castro will consider signing up. Making money on today’s App Store isn’t easy for an indie studio, and we need to support developers who try something different to remain sustainable thanks to their audience. I hope this works out and I’m curious to see what Supertop does with Castro 2.0.

Castro 1.5 is available on the App Store.

Podcast Listening and iOS→

According to a research report by Clammr (via RAIN News), podcasting is an increasingly mobile phenomenon with 82% of mobile listening happening on iOS. According to the report, Apple’s Podcasts app is also, by far, the most popular choice among users:

That means that of every 100 mobile podcast plays, 82 are on Apple devices, and 64 are in the Podcasts app, which is a carve-out of the Podcasts section in iTunes.

While I don’t doubt the overall accuracy of the report – by virtue of being a default choice on iOS, Apple’s Podcasts app is more than enough for most people – keep in mind that this report is based on a sample of RawVoice clients. These numbers are not, I assume, entirely representative of independent realities like Relay FM or shows such as The Talk Show and ATP, where the choice of clients tends to be more skewed towards alternatives such as Overcast.

Still, it makes sense for mobile podcast listening to be closely tied to iOS – Apple’s dominance with the iTunes directory and pre-installed Podcasts app must be playing a big role in that.

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