I haven’t written many iOS app reviews lately but every now and then and app comes along that I just have to tell people about. That app is called Downcast, a podcast downloader. Now I know many readers are probably thinking “Why do I need a podcast downloader? I have iTunes.” I thought the same thing when I first heard of it, but I was wrong. Downcast has many features that really sets it apart from iTunes and makes it a fantastic iOS app.

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Synching

Synching is where Downcast really shines. It leverages Apple’s iCloud service to allow you to sync podcasts, settings and most importantly episode information such as play position between all of your iOS devices. The play position syncing is huge for me. It allows me to listen to a podcast on my iPad pause and finish listening on my iPhone. The key is their implementation is completely transparent and is basically just magical. It’s much akin to Amazon’s Kindle’s whisper sync. The best way I can describe it is it just works! You never have to think about how the sausage is getting made. iOS developer should take note, this is how every app should handle syncing.

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Automatic Downloads

Another great feature is automatic downloads. Downcast allows you to select the frequency of these downloads. So whether you want to get new downloads every day or even every hour it will automatically work for you. Again all of this is done transparently in the background.It’s great for when you’re on the go and not near your computer because one of the promises of iOS 5 is PC free, so why should you have to plug up to iTunes to get new podcasts?

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Gestures

One of the much-hyped features is gestures which allows you to control the interface without taking the phone out of your pocket. This is a feature that I have not used much because I use the controls on the headphones remote which also works with this app.

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Everything Else

Other features include a sleep timer, speed controls and podcast directory. It also supports password-protected feeds. Downloads can be resumed and podcasts can be streamed while downloading allowing you to star listening immediately!

The developers have really paid attention to details right down to the pleasant sound effects when synching

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What I’d like to see

Overall this is a fantastic app and I think it’s only going to get better over time. In my opinion the iPad interface could still use a little more tightening and polish. It needs that little indescribable something to really push it over the top and make it a fantastic UI much like reader. The iPhone interface however is about as good as you can get!

Another feature I would like to see but don’t believe will be here anytime soon is support for audible audiobooks. The audible iPhone app is okay but I think that the features that downcast is using with podcast could really shine with audiobooks. Unfortunately the DRM and audible will probably prevent this for the perceivable future.

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Downcast is a universal app available in the App Store for $1.99. If you are at all interested in listening to podcasts it is a must-have app for all of your iOS devices.

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I wanted to create a playlist which included both “Blues” and “R&B/Soul” but I didn’t think it was possible until I learned this trick. When you create a Smart Playlist in iTunes you are able to add rules to build it. The playlist can either match all or any. This setup does not allow you to include multiple genres. While creating/editing a Smart Playlist hold down the Option key, this changes the ‘+’ (plus) in the rules option to a ‘…’. Click on the new “…” button it creates a new rule option that allows you to choose either ALL or ANY of the same type.

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A few days ago Google re-released their highly anticipated Gmail iOS app. After opening it you’ll quickly realize that its not the highly polished app that people were waiting for. Infact it’s nothing more than a wrapper around the standard web interface. Granted Google is a web company but they should make a commitment to be good citizens when writing apps for other platforms. When Google Chrome was first released the Mac and Linux versions were delayed because they chose to implement them natively instead of using a common runtime. They wanted to make sure that Chrome performed well on each system. When it comes to mobile development they do not seem to take the same care to make sure the user experience is of the highest quality on each device.

It seems lately Google has been putting out subpar products. I believe Google should make a company-wide commitment to build apps to the highest standards on each platform both desktop and mobile.

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While using Siri on my iPhone 4S in the car today I inadvertently discovered a security hole. I use a pin code lock on my phone and for some functions Siri honors the lock but for others it does not. I am able to send and read new unread texts, place call, create and read calendar appointments and most importantly retrieve contact information out of my address book (including addresses). These are not huge security breaches for most people but for some this could be very valuable info and defeats the pin locl. Apple needs to reevaluate their strategy when it comes to retrieving info from your information stores with Siri.

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Steve Jobs 1955–2011

Few people have had such a lasting imact on the world as Steve Jobs. Some of my fondest memories in elementary school were going to the computer lab and learning on Apple IIs and later on the Macintosh. Those early experiences shaped who I am today. It instilled in me a love of technology that eventually led me to become a programmer.  Today my life is surrounded by the legacy of Steve Jobs. Rarely am I more than an arms length away from the wonderful devices that Steve’s vision has given us.  His drive for excellence is an inspiration to me. He truly drove the human race forward. I will miss you Steve.

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Evernote, you are so close to perfect yet so far away. I am still searching for the perfect all in one note app and I keep falling short. Every time I think I can make this my go to app I find another flaw that moves it out of the realm of my workflow. I’ve created a list of features that I would love to see in Evernote

• Audio
  • Built in audio recorder in the Mac client
  • Speech recognition
  • Notes synced with audio
• Text Capabilities
  • Rich text in the iOS apps
  • Markdown support
• Everything else
  • Encrypted notebooks
  • Video support

Let me break it down like a fraction.

Audio

Built in audio recording in the Mac client

Really Evernote? It’s in the iOS app! Can’t a developer spend a couple of hours and copy and paste the code? I shouldn’t have to use a second app for something so simple.

Speech Recognition

Audio notes would be so much more useful if they were searchable! This one I will concede is a little tough. There are a couple of third party tools like Dial2Do but they only allow 30 seconds of recording. That’s not helpful unless I’m only using it to transcribe the legal terms at the end of an injury lawyer commercial. I wouldn’t even mind if it had some type of seamless integration with a tool like Dragon Dictate. Automatically sync over to Dictation and then send the translation back. Take the Nuance CEO out for drinks, then mention it to him. Offer him some of your “theoretical Internet dollars.” Layout the utopian future he’ll be creating as a partner with Evernote.

Notes synced with audio

This would almost make up for the lack of speech recognition. It’s in One Note and makes that product one of the best pieces of software ever to come out of Redmond. I also have this capability with my Pulse Smartpen (but that data is stripped when I sync to Evernote). When using One Note I would often make notes for myself for the express purpose of using the notes “audio bookmarks.”

Text Capabilities

Rich text in the iOS apps

This is a huge one! The spit and bailing wire method of attaching addendums to a rich text note doesn’t cut it, this is a note not a Congressional farm subsidy appropriations bill. iOS needs to be treated as a first class citizen in the Evernote ecosystem. I would love to use the checkbox feature on the go which is when I normally find myself making checklists. I’ll concede the iPhone to an extent, but not the iPad. This is 2011, we’ve put a man on the moon or at least made a very convincing show of it. Throw a couple of developers in a room with a fridge stocked with Mountain Dews and let’s get this knocked out in a weekend! A quick fix to this problem would be Markdown support, see below.

Markdown Support

This one is a little less mainstream than the rest but I have the con and I’m steering this blog post where I want to go. In fact this post was written in Markdown! Simply put Markdown is a brilliant “writing syntax” developed by John Gruber. It allows you to do all the basic formatting you would expect in HTML in a simple and easy to read format which can easily be converted to compliant XHTML. All of this allows me to not have to worry how a note is going to appear being copied and pasted around as there is no complicated styling.

Everything Else

Encrypted Notebooks

How did this get left off the napkin at the Chili’s where you decided to build Evernote? If I’m going to use Evernote as my document repository/digital brain I need a little security. I would love to have my tax documents and pay stubs a few clicks a way but I need to know that the data is safe and encrypted.

Video support

Evernote already supports multiple file types, the iOS apps have camera support and there is an iSight note type in the Mac app. Why doesn’t any of these support video?!

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I really like NASA’s photo of the day so I threw together a quick Automator Action to make it easy to set your background. I thought some other people might find it useful.

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