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Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

npr.org

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Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#161

Post by sverige »

tallanvor wrote: post #153
sverige wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They only get about 20% of their funding from the government This statement by defenders of NPR always cracks me up. "Only" 20%? Why, that's "only" $445 million, or a mere "$1.35 per citizen," as the President and CEO of PBS put it recently. (Per citizen, not per taxpayer.) So, what percentage of the funding for NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox comes from the government? Or, what service does PBS provide that the others…

NPR had $208 million in revenue in 2016. Even if you assume that 100% of funds from member stations and universities were really from the government, less than $67 million of their funding came from the government. The actual estimates are that around 11%, or around $22 million comes from the government. I have no clue where you get the idea that NPR has a budget over over 2 billion per year, but you are way off.

Oops, the $435 million figure is for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, my mistake. My point is that government should have no role in producing or broadcasting what purports to be news. Journalism was called "the Fourth Estate" for a reason, but has lost any credible claim to that title during my lifetime. Public funding for "news" is always a bad idea, and in the U.S. has created an interlocking group of companies (CPB, NPR, public tv, et al.) that are incapable of publishing anything that doesn't align with one party in particular.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#162

Post by colomon »

afterburner wrote: post #132
crispinb wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find me an open source app that I can use on iOS, Android & the web, and sync my subscriptions and play state between them, and I’ll be glad to have a look. Until then I am very happy to pay fine developers such as these a tiny sum for their craft.

Wait, is pocketcasts supposed to sync desktop with mobile app? When I tried the desktop app it didn't do that.

If you mean the web interface, that synced perfectly with the Android app for me for years, but it seemed like it stopped syncing properly sometime last month? (Is there a proper desktop app? I'd prefer that to the using my browser.)

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#163

Post by gadders »

eigen-vector wrote: post #15

I'm so glad to see the team behind Pocket Casts find success. It's one app I've never been disappointed with and supported right from the beginning. The paramount quality of a good app is how easily it gets out of the way and lets you enjoy the content. Pocket Casts has done a spectacular job at that.

Good on them for the acquisition. I've always got on better with Podcast Addict which seems better optimised for my primary use-case of falling asleep listening to podcasts.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#164

Post by alexktz »

crispinb wrote: post #12

This strikes me as potentially bad news. PocketCasts is a great little app, with the characteristic advantages of being produced by a small indy outfit with no agenda beyond selling a good quality product for cash. I'll keep an open mind, but it's hard to imagine it maintaining its current user-focus and content neutrality while under the thumb of content-producers. [Edit: there's a blog post on the topic from Shifty…

I like the tone. It comes across as a normal guy who is excited about his product extolling the virtues of what was probably a very hard decision.

I use pocketcasts daily and share your unease at anything changing. But. It looks like things may stay broadly the same so maybe we have nothing to worry about?

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#165

Post by colomon »

manigandham wrote: post #57
fluxsauce wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you clarify what features are missing? I use both the Android and the Web versions of Pocket Casts and it syncs, trims silence, does speed adjustments, and so forth.

The syncing in pocketcasts is not reliable, especially between web and mobile apps. Often a played episode on mobile will still register as new on the web, even days later. Sometimes forcing a sync fixes it, but that is not 100% either. Overcast has the syncing perfected, but it has a much worse web UI. Pocketcasts new web UI is much slower too, with more clicks, popup windows, and less information density. I use the…

+1 on subscribe from the beginning! I started listening to the British History podcast this year, and so far on PocketCasts I haven't found any decent way of managing listening to 5 year old episodes other than downloading them ten or so at a time. (So there's always the next one to listen to downloaded to my phone, rather than remembering episode numbers.)

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#166

Post by dtech »

afterburner wrote: post #132
crispinb wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find me an open source app that I can use on iOS, Android & the web, and sync my subscriptions and play state between them, and I’ll be glad to have a look. Until then I am very happy to pay fine developers such as these a tiny sum for their craft.

Wait, is pocketcasts supposed to sync desktop with mobile app? When I tried the desktop app it didn't do that.

It does for me, but not continuously flawless. I sometimes have to close and re-open the mobile app before it skips to where I left off on the desktop app.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#167

Post by DanBC »

colomon wrote: post #165
manigandham wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The syncing in pocketcasts is not reliable, especially between web and mobile apps. Often a played episode on mobile will still register as new on the web, even days later. Sometimes forcing a sync fixes it, but that is not 100% either. Overcast has the syncing perfected, but it has a much worse web UI. Pocketcasts new web UI is much slower too, with more clicks, popup windows, and less information density. I use the…

+1 on subscribe from the beginning! I started listening to the British History podcast this year, and so far on PocketCasts I haven't found any decent way of managing listening to 5 year old episodes other than downloading them ten or so at a time. (So there's always the next one to listen to downloaded to my phone, rather than remembering episode numbers.)

> I started listening to the British History podcast this year

OT, but if you're interested in British History you might be interested in This Sceptred Isle. Most of it isn't available on iPlayer, but it should be in the usual places.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009t23k

There are four episodes of this available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qh19l/episodes/player

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#168

Post by midasz »

robinhood wrote: post #45

I think I've tested all the major podcasts app out there, paid for their subscriptions etc... The one that was clearly over the others has always been Pocket Casts. I'm also a subscriber of https://play.pocketcasts.com , their web platform. I just love them. I'm really happy that they've made the money they deserve (or I hope they did anyway). That being said, I don't feel confident at all that NPR will now respect m…

Podcast Addict (android only i think) has always been my go-to app. Even paid for 'donate' version even though it doesn't really do anything extra I think. Really recommend it to anyone who wants to try something else.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#170

Post by crispinb »

alexktz wrote: post #164
crispinb wrote: post #12

This strikes me as potentially bad news. PocketCasts is a great little app, with the characteristic advantages of being produced by a small indy outfit with no agenda beyond selling a good quality product for cash. I'll keep an open mind, but it's hard to imagine it maintaining its current user-focus and content neutrality while under the thumb of content-producers. [Edit: there's a blog post on the topic from Shifty…

I like the tone. It comes across as a normal guy who is excited about his product extolling the virtues of what was probably a very hard decision. I use pocketcasts daily and share your unease at anything changing. But. It looks like things may stay broadly the same so maybe we have nothing to worry about?

It seemed to me a bit dismissive of user concerns they clearly anticipated. I've always enjoyed ShiftyJelly's release notes in the past though, so maybe they're just being their usual selves. Either way, only time will tell.
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