I clicked the page, scrolled up and down, did not see visually what this was and left.
A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player?
Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
101–110 of 125 posts
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#102I've never seen the tab bar put in the navigation bar before, and I really dig it. I'm actually in the process of designing an education app that plays audio, and have been debating how to avoid a hamburger/basement menu or gestures since the main audience for the app is older, and assumably less tech savvy. Putting the tab bar on top is a clever, and in hindsight incredibly obvious, compromise, since it provides for…
>> "I've never seen the tab bar put in the navigation bar before" I don't think it's a tab bar in the navigation bar. It just seems to be four buttons on a UIToolbar equally spaced. Edit: Strange that this was down voted...care to explain why? It's almost certainly not a tab bar. A tab bar switches view controllers. The buttons on this bar present new ones modally leaving the current view controller in place.
Not my downvote, so no data on that, but I suspect someone considered the distinction pedantic. Sure, it's not technically a tab bar, but it's functionally (from a user's point of view) the same thing.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#103I feel a bit bad being so superficial, as the app has real merits, but the design is really painful. The app icon is just awful and, unfortunately, it is only a hint of what's to come upon launching the app. I hope it's successful enough to allow Marco some funds to hire a designer.
Each to their own, of course, but I find the design pretty good on the whole. The app icon was designed by Pacific Helm, so he did hire a designer (and a pretty well-respected one); I'm not sure what the argument against it is. (Other than the subjective one, obviously.) And most of the interior is just typography, in a style that, at least to my eye, is pretty reminiscent of the UI for The Magazine. (Surprise.)
I suppose if you hate orange, you're going to find the whole thing pretty hideous. (But if you hate orange how can you bear Hacker News?)
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#104I can't believe it lacks streaming support. The download model is far outdated.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw that, but I'm not sure it will fit my needs. More than anything else, I want to be able to use the "play/pause" key on my keyboard to pause the podcast. I also really like the idea of the voice booster and I'm guessing that the web site won't get that (being 'basic' and all).
Don't expect the web app to become any serious Mac app competitor anytime soon. Based on Instapaper's website, Marco dislikes working on them. It will keep basic functionality but his main focus will be on iOS for the foreseeable future.
I was looking at his twitter earlier and he was asking about Web Audio API's so maybe he does have plans to improve it.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see why some people would say Castro's design is better, but to me Castro is "over-designed". The visual slickness gets in the way of actually using it. I'd say Overcast is actually better designed, because it is more usable.
I don’t think it does get in the way and I wouldn’t see how … But point taken. It uses less standard controls, certainly. I have nothing against standard controls, my issue with Overcast is more with alignment and layout (especially the alignment and layout of the podcast images, up there in a corner). In the end my willingness to trade usability for graphic design might be slightly higher than that of many other peo…
As an example (I'm not the guy who you responded to), I've been frustrated in Castro a number of times while looking at an episode in show's feed because the native swipe-back gesture takes you back to the list of shows rather than than that show's feed, and it gets especially annoying considering the lengths of the transitions involved. It's obnoxious, and something one would get used to, but I seem to keep forgetting it. It's one of a few elements of navel-gazing "over"-design… of course the user would follow the steps, they're the steps! They're right there in the design.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#107Smart Speed - here is what I thought it was, or what I wished it was: The app knows how long your commute will be and it attempts to shorten or lengthen the podcast in an unnoticeable way so that you can fit whole episode(s) into a single drive/bus ride. I have an annoying habit of sitting in my driveway waiting for a natural break in the podcast so that I can turn it off with a clear conscience.
Great idea. To start, why not have the app find episodes that match the user's commute time? For other episodes, an app like Overcast could first apply SmartSpeed and then speed up the entire episode (ie 1.1x) to match the commute time. I'm finding myself looking for good (financial) news podcasts that are < 20 mins per episode.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw that, but I'm not sure it will fit my needs. More than anything else, I want to be able to use the "play/pause" key on my keyboard to pause the podcast. I also really like the idea of the voice booster and I'm guessing that the web site won't get that (being 'basic' and all).
Don't expect the web app to become any serious Mac app competitor anytime soon. Based on Instapaper's website, Marco dislikes working on them. It will keep basic functionality but his main focus will be on iOS for the foreseeable future.
I don't expect it to (and I agree with him, I'd rather have a REAL app), but my needs are modest.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#109The lack of streaming is a bummer. I subscribe to quite a few podcasts and pick-and-choose which episodes to listen to by streaming them on-demand instead of downloading everything.
"Streaming coming soon" https://twitter.com/OvercastFM/status/489448132556509184
That's good to hear. Thanks for pointing it out. I wonder if streaming will be a "free" feature or a "premium" feature? For now, it's back to Pocket Casts.
Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think it does get in the way and I wouldn’t see how … But point taken. It uses less standard controls, certainly. I have nothing against standard controls, my issue with Overcast is more with alignment and layout (especially the alignment and layout of the podcast images, up there in a corner). In the end my willingness to trade usability for graphic design might be slightly higher than that of many other peo…
As an example (I'm not the guy who you responded to), I've been frustrated in Castro a number of times while looking at an episode in show's feed because the native swipe-back gesture takes you back to the list of shows rather than than that show's feed, and it gets especially annoying considering the lengths of the transitions involved. It's obnoxious, and something one would get used to, but I seem to keep forgetti…
Ha, of course! That’s an issue I also have run into. Luckily it’s not often that I browse my podcasts that way, but if you do, that clearly sucks.