Instacast HD - A podcast universe in high definition
I am very happy to announce that Instacast HD is finally available on the App Store. After the tremendous success of Instacast for the iPhone, a lot of customers asked me about a version for the iPad. At first I thought nay, who takes his iPad on the way to listen to podcasts when an iPhone in your pocket is so much more convenient? Then the idea grew on me. I thought about for what somebody would actually prefer to use the iPad. What's great about the iPad is its big screen and the comfort you have browsing the internet, reading books or articles and watching movies on it. So I focused on exactly these three point: Big honking fullscreen video, comfortable to read show notes and incredible web integration. Let me give you a little tour.
On the left you have the main toolbar. Next to it is the subscription list. It contains thumbnails of all podcasts you subscribed to. Select a podcast and it gives you the episode show notes on the right. On the top you have the usual episode actions you already know from the iPhone version of Instacast. With the button on the top right, you start playback. Below the show notes you can slide the knob to any archived episode and you can also have a table like list view.
If you tap on a link in the show notes, a browser sheet slides in from the right. There you can read linked articles, open them in Safari, send them via email, tweet them or save them for later reading.
When you start playing an episode, a small "Now Playing" area pops up from the bottom and lets you know what's currently playing along with some time information. If you tap on this area and you are playing an audio podcast, you get a little playback controller in a popover. It contains all audio playback controls you already know from Instacast for the iPhone.
If you're playing a video podcast, it brings you right into the fullscreen video player.
This player lets you control the video with minimal interaction. Change the screen brightness in low light situations or stream the video to your Apple TV via AirPlay. Playback controls are positioned in a way that you don't have to touch the middle area where the video is playing, keeping the important parts of your screen fingerprint-free. Hide the player and continue playing only the audio portion of the video while surfing the show notes or browsing the web.
On top of that Instacast HD has some additional features.
With the integrated Download Manager you can pause downloading, resume later and re-prioritize downloads. If the connection drops, Instacast will resume downloading later as soon as the internet connection is available again.
With Push Notifications Instacast HD can notify you automatically as soon as a new episode is being published by the author. Get the notification, tap it and Instacast refreshes and automatically downloads the episode and boom, you're ready to play.
And with iCloud Sync Instacast HD can sync your podcast subscriptions wirelessly via iCloud. Have your subscriptions in sync all the time both on your iPhone and on your iPad. There is no setup, just enable it and you're done.
Instacast is available in English and German and needs iOS 5. It's available on the App Store for $4.99.
November 23rd, 2011 • Permalink
More articles about Instacast Posts
05/09/2012 - Excellent Write-up of Instacast 2.0
05/07/2012 - Instacast 2.0 Available
05/06/2012 - Instacast HD Rejected over Flattr Integration
04/26/2012 - Instacast 2.0 First Impressions
04/05/2012 - Patching iCloud Sync
03/26/2012 - What's next with Instacast?
03/16/2012 - Instacast Improves Support for Flattr
03/16/2012 - Instacast HD Rejected Approved
02/06/2012 - Instacast 1.5 - Now with Support for Flattr
12/14/2011 - Instacast 1.4.4 Available
12/09/2011 - Instacast among Best Apps 2011