[Knoware]

App Name: bPod
Summary: bPod is a feature rich, configurable, native, built for BB10 certified Podcast client/manager.
Features include:
- Automatic update (while the app is running)
- Download secure password protected podcast episodes.
- Wifi only or Cell/Wifi downloads.
- Chose between saving your podcast episodes on the phone or SD card.
- Resume where you left off.
- Settings to change the look and feel of the application.
- Video podcast downloads, played in the media player, managed by bPod.
- gPodder.net integration allows you to search for podcasts or select from a list of top 10,50,100 rated podcasts.
- Add Podcasts via URL.
- Backup and restore your podcast database.
- Auto-pause when calls come in or you disconnect your headset.
- Configurable fast forward and rewind times.
- Sleep timer.
- Chose to automatically download new episodes and add them to your playlist.
- Bookmark your favorite podcasts.
- Chose to auto-delete podcasts once you're done listening to them.
- Share podcast channels and episodes with friends and family through email, BBM or text messaging.
- Support hardware buttons either on the phone, headset or BT controllers.
- No need to make an account. Zero personal information is sent out of your phone. We respect your privacy.
- Play queue, allows to sort or randomize podcasts.

Link to BlackBerry World Listing: bPod - BlackBerry World
Price: $0.99

1.25.1.4 - Released April 29, 2014
New Features:
- Improved Bluethooth support and controls.
- User Interface changes to closer align bPod to the native media player.
- Native Video support!
- Now using BB10 Api 10.2.0 - Episode list sorting (more to come on this feature)

Fixes:
- Bad Url: http://megahertzmusic.com/djsedeuce/Podcast/rss.xml
- Move settings button to the right for easier 'thumb' access.
- Add view Downloads from episode list page
- Confirm before clearing all the downloads from the download queue.
- Fix phone pause button related issues
- Fixed: Continuous play plays from the top, not the next in the list - Fixed: Pausing on the phone takes three attempt to play of the BT receiver to resume
- Fixed: delete after complete is deleting two podcasts
- Fixed: Engadget Prodcast Ep390 report 'long' description.
- Fixed: Bluetooth: after phone call cannot resume podcast

bPod v1.24.2.1: Scheduled for release on March 16, 2014
New Features:
- Schedule updates automatically either periodically or on a specific time of day.
- New update page deprecates the upate dialog which inhibited use of the app during updates. Podcast can now be browsed and played during an update.
- New setting permits the user to update only if the phone is charging or fully charged.
- New button on the pull down permits users to report bugs directly from the app.
- Settings page now better organized.
- Grid channel view streamlined for performance - scrolling is now smooth.
- General application optmization - less memory usage and faster performance.
- New icons.
- Grid view now displays splat image when a new episode is available.
Bug Fixes:
- Red-eye podcast feed fixed.
- The Tony Kornheiser Show podcast fixed.
- CNet News video podcast fixed.
- Fixed settings that didn't work as expected (storage location among others).
- skip forward, backwards now saves currently playing podcast location.

bPod v1.23.10
New Features:
- Complete overhaul of the settings page.
- New grid view layout for channel list.
- Download and manage your video podcasts!
- Separate settings to hide channel and episode descriptions.
- List item delimiters for search results and playlist.
- Show confirmation dialog before deleting an episode with bookmarks associated with it.
- Moved play controls to the Info/Playing page to save space in the playlist view for q10 users.
- Streamlined app size (it's almost 5x smaller now) and much faster start times.
Bug fixes:
- playlist is is now update when a file id deleted.
- Fix a problem relating to the application crashing when the storage device becomes full.

bPod v1.24.2
New Features:
- Now update your podcasts automatically periodically or at a given time.
- New episode notification now available on the grid view.
- Dialog no longer inhibits users from using the app during an update.
- A new view is now available to view the progress of channel updates.
- Settings page is now better organized.
- Changed text color on channel and episode lists.
- New icons.
- Report bugs directly from app.
Bug fixes:
- Grid view layout scrolling is now fluid.
- Fix The Tony Kornheiser Show podcast.
- fix a few settings that didn't work as expected.
- fixed bug where download status would disapear.
- Skip forward and back now saves the currently playing podcast position.
- Fixed red-eye podcast.
- Fixed CNet news video podcast.

bPod v1.24.4
Maintenance Release
Fixes:
- Some podcast servers redirect the download and latch on an authentication key, these URLs ceased to function in the previous release, now fix in this release.
- Some podcasts would stall on the image download, redirection was targetted to a local file. bPod now adds the original URI to the redirected URL to successfully download the image.
- play page 'downloads' button didn't work, now it does.
- Fix issue where a single queued episode download gets downloaded over and over again.

bPod v1.24.6 (Current, scheduled release for April 7)
- New! Active Frame: displays podcast image and elapsed time when app is minimized.
- New! Option to expire podcast episodes after a predefined elapsed time after it was downloaded.
- Don't allow podcasts to be saved on SD card if it's not present. This avoids confusing error messages about not being able to save podcast episodes.
- Fix sleep timer that stopped working.
- Move down segmented controls 15 pixels to be more responsive to user touch commands.
- Add ability to mark episodes as listened.

bPod v1.25.2 Released June 17, 2014
New Features: - Streaming!! Yes, you can now stream your podcasts without having to save to disk.
- Skip or Seek - configure your buttons with a new option.
- Max episode setting - lets you delete all episodes that exceed the limit when updating.
- Made 'Now Playing' more accessible.
- Various cosmentic changes
- Episode publication date now appears in Episode list items.
- New options to define what happens when you make selections on various lists in the app.

Fixes:
- Fixed option setting related crashes.
- Fixed bugs related to updating podcasts after re-connecting to WIFI hotspots.
- Stream more metadata to Bluetooth receivers.
- Active frame fixes.

bPod 1.25.4 Released August 27, 2014
Fixes:
1. Playlist multi-select delete won't remove all the episodes you selected.
2. Streaming an episode from the action menu doesn't automatically start playing the episode.
3. Stream mode (WIFI only) setting wasn't always visisble, now it is.
4. No active downloads reported even though there are several in the queue.
5. Bad URL would crash bpod. bPod responds better to xml parsing errors.
6. Can't download streamed, or stream/paused episodes.
7. Deleting a streamed episode doesn't change its state.
8. Default podcast save location changed from SD card to Phone. No everyone has an SD card.
9. Could not authenticate to secure podcast channels when restoring podcast database.
10. Add to Playlist option: clear and play option doesn't work
11. Could not subscribe to the The Brilliant Idiots podcast.

bPod 1.25.5 Release October 6th, 2014
New Features:
- UI changes to support Passport aspect ratio.
- Non-downloaded episodes can be marked as listened to.
- File downloads now have a 15 seconds timeout.
- Network status is checked more frequently to avoid the case where the data transfer switches networks (further enforces WIFI Only option)
- Minor UI improvements

Fixes:
- Deleting a channel took way too long, optimizations have been added to remedy this.
- When a download is cancelled the list wasn't being updated.
- Playlist items can start to look funny, some changes have been made to avoid this.

bPod 2.0.2 Released Feb 4, 2015
Fixes:
- General optimization.
- Channel List view scrolling speed improved.
- Fix bug related to authentication error causing series of download timeouts.
- Download error dialog no longer halts downloads
- Fix some UI inconsistencies.
- Headless update stops when service is cancelled/stopped.
- Updates download list when the headless portion detects a new episode.
- Fix issue where images were not updating.

bPod 2.0.3 Released March 19, 2015
- Increase size of FF and Rew buttons.
- Add indicator in the playlist items to indicate that episode is being streamed.
- Fix sleep timer accessibility issue.
- Add car mode screen in the now playing tab with over-sized media controls.
- Fix persistence of Wifi-only streaming option.
- Update art.
- Fix search page layout.
- fix 10.3.1 related startup issue.
- Scroll to the playing episode when the playlist is updated
- Add chinese translation (thx to jingxuan)

bPod 2.0.4 Released June 11, 2015
New Features:
- New and improved Podcast search engine, categories and Top list data source and UI.
- Download page shows the size and progress of the current download.
- General UI improvements.
Bug Fixes:
- Long press on list items caused them to become unselected
- Stream WIFI-Only setting doesn't turn off
- Override system settings won't stick in some cases.
- Playlist delete action has an ambiguous name.
- Podcast channel descriptions showed garbage.
- Podcast channel image won't appear.

Features:
- Remember what play view the user was last in (playlist, info or tools)
- Download Error history list view to retry or dismiss errors.
- Shortcut keys Space=play/pause Prev=V Next=B, caveat: only works if screen is on and focus is on the app. (Side media buttons are a better choice overall).
- Add 45 second FF/Rew option.

bPod 2.0.5 Released September 7, 2015
- Fix download progress and speed display on download page
- Display channel image in playlist items
- Fix bPod crash when silly users deny access to shared files
- If a download is interrupted, start it over again to avoid corruption or truncated audio files.

Screenshots:

[Lendo]

Best podcast app available and only getting better. Thanks.

[carbon98accord]

I cant wait for the update tomorrow!

[Mathrin]

And I just deleted it because if no video. Got tired if waiting for an update. Oh well. May download it again sometime.

Posted via CB10

[whofrank]

Good stuff I look forward to the update.

[jonduran86]

Looking good man. Currently have the free version but definitely getting the paid version

[carbon98accord]

Looking good man. Currently have the free version but definitely getting the paid version

I noticed the Lite version did not have an update. Paid for the full version so I can get the updated app.

[Lendo]

Personally I love the new Grid and the new settings panel is great.

[whofrank]

The grids ok but could be streamlined again.

It doesn't seem to cache the data and is very jerky moving up and down. I also don't like how the images are different size he should force all images to the same size. For design purpose.

Also I'm still not keen that he uses a grey for podcast titles and white for the descriptions and download counts. If anything they could be the other way round, again for design purposes.

Finally for design purposes again, the space could till be uses better in list view. This includes the space around icons being uniform, the space between descriptions and text size on both titles and descriptions.

The icons really seemed pushed up against the delimiters with uneven space between the top and bottom.

I know this is all purely cosmetic but it makes a big difference.

I'm happy to help the designer with this aspect if he requires.

Cheers

[Lendo]

Rome wasn't built in a day my friend. How bout you tell us some features you like instead of just being negative?

Posted via CB10

[Knoware]

Hello WhoFrank,

You are one of my strongest critics, but I appreciate it, people like you force me to make a better app. Let me try to respond to some of your points.

The grids ok but could be streamlined again.

It doesn't seem to cache the data and is very jerky moving up and down. I also don't like how the images are different size he should force all images to the same size. For design purpose.

I agree, however buffering is only available to the stacked list and it's experimental at that. As soon as buffering is avilable for the grid list I'll be adding it to the app. Image sizes depend on the RSS feed and the images they point to. I have a ticket open to center the images and scaling the images, I'll have this in the next release - it will never be perfect though because some podcast images have different aspect ratios.

Also I'm still not keen that he uses a grey for podcast titles and white for the descriptions and download counts. If anything they could be the other way round, again for design purposes.

That's a good point, I'll play around with the colors and this might change in the next release.


Thanks again for you critiques.

Eric

[whofrank]

Hello WhoFrank,

You are one of my strongest critics, but I appreciate it, people like you force me to make a better app. Let me try to respond to some of your points.


I agree, however buffering is only available to the stacked list and it's experimental at that. As soon as buffering is avilable for the grid list I'll be adding it to the app. Image sizes depend on the RSS feed and the images they point to. I have a ticket open to center the images and scaling the images, I'll have this in the next release - it will never be perfect though because some podcast images have different aspect ratios.


That's a good point, I'll play around with the colors and this might change in the next release.


Thanks again for you critiques.

Eric

hi knoware, please dont think im posting this to be a **** and/or trying to put pressure onto you. i simply see design flaws that could be improved and hope them to be improved which will benefit both you and i. without it, it would be difficult to know what people think.

i appreciate your efforts and your app could easily be the best podcasting app for bb10 with a little care.

thanks.

[whofrank]

i dont think i am being negative.

[Knoware]

hi knoware, please dont think im posting this to be a **** and/or trying to put pressure onto you. i simply see design flaws that could be improved and hope them to be improved which will benefit both you and i. without it, it would be difficult to know what people think.

i appreciate your efforts and your app could easily be the best podcasting app for bb10 with a little care.

thanks.

I totally agree. The way I see it, if I can win you over to use my app 100% of the time I have something most other people will also be happy with.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Eric

[Lendo]

i dont think i am being negative.

I'm just wondering which parts you like? Nor every post needs to be about something needing to be fixed. Let him know what he's doing right also.

Posted via CB10

[Lendo]

One thing I'm looking forward to is User defined backup location, can't wait to just point the backup to my box.com acct

[Mathrin]

What's the point of deleting episodes I don't want to listen to if the app plays them anyway in the "now playing" tab?

Posted via CB10

[gabbleratchet]

This is already the best podcasting app for bb10! Here are some feature requests:

* ability to manually reorder episodes in the playlist
* hardware keyboard shortcuts (play/pause, back, forward)



Posted via CB10

[Knoware]

What's the point of deleting episodes I don't want to listen to if the app plays them anyway in the "now playing" tab?

Posted via CB10

I'm not sure I follow. Give me a scenario and I'll see what I can do to fix this. It sounds like you're saying that even after deleting an episode it still plays.

Eric

[Knoware]

This is already the best podcasting app for bb10! Here are some feature requests:

* ability to manually reorder episodes in the playlist
* hardware keyboard shortcuts (play/pause, back, forward)



Posted via CB10

Thanks! I'll have to check to see if dragging and dropping items to reorder them is possible with the current API. You can construct your playlist by adding episodes individually currently.

I can confirm the hardware button shortcuts do work, I used them today. You need to enable them in the phone's settings->Main Volume->Music Shortcuts.

Eric

[Mathrin]

I'm not sure I follow. Give me a scenario and I'll see what I can do to fix this. It sounds like you're saying that even after deleting an episode it still plays.

Eric

Correct. I have no idea what the issue was. I rebooted my phone and it hasn't happened since and I can't make it do it again.

Damned if I know what happened but everything is working like a charm now.



Posted via CB10

[gariac]

I don't have the 10.2 battery monitor, but I think the latest rev is draining my battery if I leave it active but not actually doing anything. I suppose I can close the app since it remembers where I left off on the podcast, but it might be nice if someone checks to see if this app uses the CPU when idle.

Regarding the tiles, yeah it is jerky. I'm not terribly annoyed.

Have you considered a "recently downloaded" listing. One way I use this program is I will queue up a number of podcasts to download while I have wifi. Then I will play them back later when exercising. So I have to go through the tiles to find everything I just downloaded.


Posted via CB10

[gabbleratchet]

I can confirm the hardware button shortcuts do work, I used them today. You need to enable them in the phone's settings->Main Volume->Music Shortcuts.
Eric

What I would like is shortcuts for skipping back/forwards 30 seconds. Holding down the volume button skips tracks.

Also, spacebar for play/pause would be nice, just because while driving, it's easier to reach than the dedicated pause key. That's a very minor detail, though.


Posted via CB10

[gabbleratchet]

Thanks! I'll have to check to see if dragging and dropping items to reorder them is possible with the current API. You can construct your playlist by adding episodes individually currently.
Eric

Fingers crossed! Playlist functionality is what I've been waiting for in a bb10 podcast app. I don't think any of the others even have a playlist!





Posted via CB10

[Lendo]

Active frame would be nice. Maybe showing podcast - elapse time - time remaining.

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