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

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#121

Post by mitchty » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 12:19 PM UTC

autodidakto wrote: post #93

mitchty wrote: post #78

Normalization! FINALLY The amount of times I have to touch volume buttons on non normalized podcasts is nuts. As long as this works decently or close to downcast in overall use I'll throw the $5 at this easy.

Hmm. Normalization means you don't have the change the volume between podcasts, but better than that would be dynamic range compression. A podcast with both loud music/effects/screaming and quiet/normal dialogue would be "evened out". You wouldn't have to adjust volume even within a podcast. I don't know of any audio player (desktop or mobile) that has this feature. It would be perfect for podcasts/audiobooks.

I'm just more happy that the quiet people and loud mean I don't need to have my ears blown out as much.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#122

Post by mitchty » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 12:21 PM UTC

canes123456 wrote: post #115

k-mcgrady wrote: post #90

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) 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.

Downcasts runs on beta3, as does overcast but pocket casts is a crash happy maniac on it.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#123

Post by rogerbinns » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:44 PM UTC

julianz wrote: post #116

rogerbinns wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I always connect via bluetooth to my car or to a jambox. The most recent time it randomly stopped playing was yesterday afternoon while driving - right in the middle of an episode on a long straight on the highway. For the record I have never had Google Music randomly stop playing using the same device(s) to the same car and jambox.

The position loss usually occurs with Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast where each episode is 3 - 5 hours long. I listen to about 30 minutes each time on the same device and sometimes it just resumes from a previous stop point rather then the most recent.

To demonstrate it forgetting about playing a list of items, start playing from an episode filter choosing Play All. Stop playing and then come back later. The lock screen will show that current playing episode as does the bottom of the UI. Press play in that. It will then play till the end of that episode and then stop - ie it forgets you were doing a Play All.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#124

Post by danslaboudoir » Sat, Jul 19, 2014, 6:06 PM UTC

solutionyogi wrote: post #3

I really love the no-nonsense FAQ: https://overcast.fm/skeptics_faq I wish everyone would write such clear and concise FAQ. I especially love the answer to question 'Why is the app free?' I loved the Instapaper app and will definitely buy this app. The current podcasts app on iOS platform are terrible. The only app I am able to tolerate is 'Downcast'.

Castro is a great podcast app.

Re: Overcast – A powerful yet simple iPhone podcast player

#125

Post by lostlogin » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 7:55 AM UTC

personZ wrote: post #30

pflats wrote: post #2

Overcast's settings page encourages you to try Marco's competitors if you don't like his app, right above the export option. Ballsy and classy. ( http://i.imgur.com/xO09x8d.png ) It's a shame his two tentpole features (Smart Speed, Voice Boost) are locked behind the paywall, though. I'd have liked to try them out before dropping a sawbuck. Not sure if that's part of Apple's "no time-limited demos" policy, a business…

Ballsy and classy. It's also perhaps a bit manipulative. I'm not in any way saying this in a critical or dismissive fashion, but rather given that many here are learning from software like this, and I do think there is a lesson to be drawn from that. Persuasion and social norms are powerful forces. Giving direct links to your competitors not only demonstrates confidence in your product (e.g. it must be better given t…

You appear to have been mentioned in the show Marco co-hosts. ATP episode 74 at the 1hr 30min mark.