Podcasts have been back at the forefront, with the release of Apple’s Podcasts app. While it is a vast improvement over the iOS’ previous handling of podcasts, it is far from feature rich or flexible. Enter Seth McFarland and Downcast.. Downcast offers a wide variety of advanced, but accessible, features for the new and experienced podcast listener alike. Set discusses its feature set, including the benefits and challenges of iCloud syncing, streaming vs. downloading content, and why variable speed playback is so important, especially for one particular segment of the podcast audience. The combination of Apple and social media have created new opportunities for indie app developers; Seth discusses how those factors have affected him, and shares some plans for the future of Downcast.
This edition of MacVoices is sponsored by Hover, my domain registrar of choice.
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Chuck Joiner is the producer and host of MacVoices, MacVoicesTV, MacNotables and The MacJury, a group of shows and web sites that make up The MacVoices Group, and is part of MacLevelTen . You can catch up with what he’s doing by following him on Twitter, friending him on Facebook, or circling him on Google+.
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Seth McFarland is the developer of Downcast, a podcast client for iOS devices. He is based out of Apex, North Carolina and has been a software developer for over 16 years. Seth jumped into mobile development to create the podcatcher that he wanted to use, which didn’t exist. You can learn more about Downcast in the iTunes App Store, on its web site, or on Facebook.
