Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player • Hacker News Board

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#111

Post by supercoder » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 1:01 AM UTC

solutionyogi wrote: post #15

Just bought the app. Smooth. That's the only word I can use to describe the experience. Creating an account and adding my favorite podcast was accomplished in less than a minute. It is unbelievably polished for version 1. A must buy if you enjoy podcasts.

I wouldn't say unbelievably polished....

In my first 5 minutes of use it: - Complained no podcasts could be played. - Crashed on opening the second time. - Once I could start playing then (post crash?) complained that there was no space left on the device when there was.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#112

Post by w4 » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:02 AM UTC

nicky0 wrote: post #79

arrrg wrote: post #56

It’s a really nice app and I bought it instantly. The App Sore’s podcasting landscape is filling out nicely, with a diverse selection of high-quality apps for many different tastes. I wish there were as good a selection of apps for many other purposes. There are Instacast, Downcast and Pocket Casts with tons of features, though all with slightly different approaches to UI and graphic design. A nice selection for anyo…

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.

Agreed -- I grabbed Castro thinking it was gorgeous, but using it was super unwieldy. I went back to Downcast after about a day because it's much more useable, despite being far less easy on the eyes.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#113

Post by berberich » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:19 AM UTC

autodidakto wrote: post #97

Managing your podcasts can be a complicated thing. Shows and episodes can exist in different states and use cases. Do I listen to every episode of this show? Most episodes? Just dip in and out every once in a while? How can a UI accommodate this? Do I download? Stream? Per episode? Per show? Sometimes one, sometimes the other? What about tools to manage my download queue? Maybe I have lots of bandwidth at the office,…

I've also found that Downcast has given me the most control over my podcasts.

One thing I haven't found yet, though, is a client that offers a playlist or podcast level setting where I can say I want to download the oldest unplaced episode for a show. iTunes has such a sync setting for TV shows, for example, and it would be very handy for podcasts where I'm working my way through an archive.

There is probably a limited audience for such a feature, however, so I'll probably have to keep waiting.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#114

Post by pfranz » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:19 AM UTC

goeric wrote: post #69

I really like this. Can you please add the ability to stream a podcast (play while downloading). That would sell me on this completely.

https://twitter.com/OvercastFM/status/489448132556509184 - Streaming coming soon

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#115

Post by canes123456 » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:47 AM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #90

mitchty wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also uses a lot of private apis from ios6. (I found out running the ios8 beta and looking at stack traces) So I've had to revert to Downcast. I have bought every podcast app on ios anyway to get away from the godawful native podcast app. Whats one more app amongst friends.

>> It also uses a lot of private apis from ios6. (I found out running the ios8 beta and looking at stack traces) Good to know. It completely stopped launching for me on iOS 8 beta 3. Shows the default.png and the freezes and crashes after a few seconds. I'd downgraded to the Apple Podcasts app (which I hate). Tried Overcast this afternoon and I like it. The only probably for me is there is unlikely to ever be an Andr…

I can't find an app the works on beta 3. I switch away from pocket cast to Apple podcasts. That worked for a day and then wouldn't play. Tried castro and it also worked for a while and now I can go to the episode view. Trying overcast now but the auto downloading is annoying and there no all downloaded view.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#116

Post by julianz » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 3:55 AM UTC

rogerbinns wrote: post #91

jonny_eh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think PocketCasts is pretty awesome. So far Overcast isn't doing that much more for me than PocketCasts.

Is the iOS version of PocketCasts as bad as the Android version? The Android version does fundamentally work, but isn't robust. For example it will randomly stop playing mid podcast for no reason, forget that it is playing a sequence of podcasts, play two hours after pressing the play button, forget play position and revert to an earlier one, not sync play status between devices reliably and the list goes on. None of…

Weird. I use Pocket Casts on both an ipad and an Android phone every day with 50 subscribed podcasts and haven't had any of those things happen. Literally not a single one of those things. Several of those sound like a dodgy headphone connection though.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it's getting a bit unresponsive on the ipad 2 when you switch back to the app - takes a few seconds to respond to buttons.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#117

Post by eberfreitas » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 5:11 AM UTC

Maybe a little off-topic but which podcasts do you guys listen to? Any good tips on entrepreneurship / hacking podcasts?

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#118

Post by pbreit » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 7:08 AM UTC

autodidakto wrote: post #97

Managing your podcasts can be a complicated thing. Shows and episodes can exist in different states and use cases. Do I listen to every episode of this show? Most episodes? Just dip in and out every once in a while? How can a UI accommodate this? Do I download? Stream? Per episode? Per show? Sometimes one, sometimes the other? What about tools to manage my download queue? Maybe I have lots of bandwidth at the office,…

Why doesn't everything just stream as with music and video? I hate the "subscribe" concept. I just want to browse around an listen stuff here and ther. Maybe bookmark some favorites.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#119

Post by ig0r » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 7:10 AM UTC

autodidakto wrote: post #97

Managing your podcasts can be a complicated thing. Shows and episodes can exist in different states and use cases. Do I listen to every episode of this show? Most episodes? Just dip in and out every once in a while? How can a UI accommodate this? Do I download? Stream? Per episode? Per show? Sometimes one, sometimes the other? What about tools to manage my download queue? Maybe I have lots of bandwidth at the office,…

Agree with your comments on Downcast except its Mac version. It's somethings that is unusable for me - high CPU usage, sync problems (iOS version has them too), app freezing, etc.

Hope Overcast will make other clients better. I'm going to migrate to Overcast for the time being.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#120

Post by skrause » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 11:25 AM UTC

supercoder wrote: post #104

I can't believe it lacks streaming support. The download model is far outdated.

Why? My client automatically downloads all new podcasts when I'm at home using WiFi. Later I walk or drive through areas where the cell phone reception is not really reliable, steaming podcasts would stop all time. The download model is still the best by far.