Using Instacast
General
Troubleshooting
Using Instacast
How do I subscribe to a podcast?
Tap the plus button in the bottom left of the ‘Subscriptions’ view.
This will open Instacast’s podcast directory, which allows you to browse both audio and video podcasts by popularity, author or genre. Additionally, you can search for a specific podcast from the directory or add one manually by tapping the link button and pasting a podcast’s URL into the field.
How do I play a podcast?
Tap on a podcast episode to open the media player and begin playback. You can pause and play the episode, skip forwards and backwards by 30 seconds (this can be changed in Instacast’s main settings), drag the playback slider to jump to a specific point in the episode, view and add bookmarks by tapping the icon in the upper right, and hide the media player by tapping the the arrow in the upper left.
Are there more advanced playback options?
Yes. Swiping the media player’s controls to the left reveals a set of advanced playback controls. From left to right, these controls allow you to send audio via Airplay, change playback speed, set a sleep timer, allow continuous playback of episodes in the current subscription or playlist, and access various sharing options.
What are bookmarks?
By adding a bookmark to a podcast you are able to instantly return to a specific point. To add a bookmark, tap on the bookmark icon from the media player and then tap ‘Add Bookmark’ at the point you want to save. You can access your bookmarks from the ‘Bookmarks’ section of the main menu.
How do I manage my subscriptions?
Tap on a podcast to be presented with a list of that podcast’s episodes. From this view, tap the podcast’s title to be taken to a screen displaying additional details about the podcast.
In this view you can choose to unsubscribe from the podcast, refresh the feed manually, access further settings or share the podcast’s URL.
Tapping the settings icon allows you to adjust settings for the selected podcast. These settings will override Instacast’s general settings (see below), which are applied to all subscriptions by default. These settings can also be found under ‘Subscriptions’ in Instacast’s main settings (see below).
How do I recover deleted episodes?
Simply refresh the feed manually from the feed’s settings (see above).
What is a playlist?
A playlist is a collection of podcast episodes arranged into a specific order. To create one, tap the plus button in the ‘Playlists’ view and select ‘Add Playlist’.
How do I edit a playlist?
You add episodes to a playlist, delete episodes and manually sort the playback order by tapping the icon in the lower left of the playlist’s screen.
What is a ‘smart playlist’?
A smart playlist automatically sorts and updates podcast episodes from a variety of variables, including the following: most recent, partially played, unplayed, favourites and downloaded. To create a smart playlist, tap the plus button in the ‘Playlists’ view and select ‘Add Smart Playlist’.
What are Favorites?
Favorites are episodes that you have marked with a star to indicate preference or to refer to later. Additionally, favorites will not be deleted automatically if you have configured Instacast to delete played episodes and/or downloaded files automatically. To add a podcast to the ‘Favorites’ smart playlist, tap the ‘i’ icon next to an episode to view the show notes. Next, tap the star icon (you can also swipe the episode left to mark it as a favourite without viewing the show notes).
How do downloads work?
You can download any episode for offline playback. To do this, simply tap and hold on an episode to bring up the option to download it. Alternatively, tap the icon in the lower right corner of a subscription or playlist to select multiple episodes to download.
What customisation settings are available?
Tap the settings icon from the subscription, playlist or bookmark view to be presented with Instacast’s main settings. From here you can access general, subscription, push notification and offline storage settings.
‘General’ allows you to set whether streaming and downloading should be allowed over cellular data; when to check for new subscriptions; whether to sort episodes by newest or oldest; adjust various playback options; whether continuous playback should be enabled by default in feed lists, playlists and smart playlists; and select local notifications.
‘Subscriptions’ allows you to customise the settings for each of your subscriptions individually. Changes made here will override changes in ‘General’, which are applied to all podcasts by default. To indicate this, the word ‘Custom’ appears next to the podcast’s name.
‘Push Notifications’ allows you to receive instant notifications when new episodes are available. You can also choose which subscriptions you would like to be notified about.
‘Offline Storage’ lets you put a limit on the amount of space Instacast uses for storing downloads. Additionally, you can also set options to allow Instacast to download and/or delete episodes automatically. Any content you have already downloaded will be displayed here, and you can manage downloaded content from this page too.
What are ‘parked subscriptions’?
Parked subscriptions are subscriptions that you choose to hide from your list of subscriptions. Additionally, these subscriptions are not automatically updated. To park a subscription select ‘Subscription Parking’ from ‘Subscriptions’ in Instacast’s main settings.
Can I export my data?
Yes. Select ‘Export Data’ or ‘Send Data as Email’ from Instacast’s main settings to export your subscriptions or bookmarks to another app or email address respectively.
General
Will Instacast work on my iDevice?
Instacast only supports devices running iOS 6 and above. Although previous versions of Instacast did support earlier versions of iOS, these have been removed from the App Store.
Is Instacast a universal app?
Yes. Instacast will work on both iPhone and iPad without having to pay twice.
Can I import my subscriptions from previous versions of Instacast?
Yes. Instacast 2.2.2 used iCloud to synchronise data. You are given the option to import this data when you first use Instacast 3. Alternatively, you can export your subscriptions from earlier versions of Instacast as an OPML file.
Is there a Mac version of Instacast?
A Mac version of Instacast is currently in development and will be available later this year.
Is there an Android version of Instacast?
There are currently no plans to create an Android version of Instacast.
Troubleshooting
I keep getting the error message ‘Media not loaded.’
Unless your internet connection is faulty, this indicates that the podcast you are trying to download has been removed from the host's server and is no longer available. It's also possible that the download has been corrupted. In this case you can delete the file and re-download it with the download button under the show notes.
Using Instacast
Instacast Cloud
General
Troubleshooting
Using Instacast
How do I subscribe to a podcast?
To subscribe to a podcast, click on the plus icon in the lower left of the ‘Subscriptions’ view or select ‘File’ > ‘Subscribe to Podcast...’ from the menu bar. This will open the podcast directory, which allows you to browse or search for podcasts to subscribe to.
How do I play an episode?
To play an episode, simply double-click on an episode from a playlist or the subscriptions list. The playback controls are located at the top of Instacast’s window. The playback controls allow you to toggle playback, skip forward or backwards by 30 seconds, drag the playback slider to change position and hover the cursor over the album artwork to display the podcast and episode names.
Are there more advanced playback options?
Additional playback controls can be found by selecting ‘Control’ from the menu bar.
What are bookmarks?
Bookmarks function in a similar manner to chapters, but whereas chapters are defined by the publisher, bookmarks can be created at any point in the recording by the user. To create a bookmark, select ‘Control’ from the menu bar and then click ‘Add Bookmark’. Additionally, you can rename bookmarks by double clicking the bookmark’s name.
How do I recover deleted episodes?
Simply reload the podcast by right-clicking on the subscription and selecting ‘Reload’.
What is a list?
A list is a collection of podcast episodes arranged into a specific order. To create one, click the plus icon in the ‘Lists’ view.
What is a ‘Smart List’?
A Smart List automatically sorts and updates podcast episodes from a variety of variables, including the following: most recent, partially played, unplayed, favourites and downloaded.
What are favorites?
Favorites are episodes that you have marked with a star to indicate preference or to refer to later. Additionally, favorites will not be deleted automatically if you have configured Instacast to delete played episodes automatically. To add a podcast to the ‘Favorites’ Smart List right-click the episode and select ‘Mark as Favorite’.
How do downloads work?
To download an episode for offline playback right-click the episode and select ‘Download File’; to delete the downloaded file right-click the downloaded episode and select ‘Delete File’. Note that this will not delete the episode from the podcast’s episode list – only the downloaded content will be deleted and the episode will still be available to stream or re-download in the future.
What customisation settings are available?
Click ‘Instacast’ > ‘Preferences’ from the menu bar to be presented with Instacast’s main settings. From here you can configure general, playback, storage, sharing and sync settings.
Can I export my data?
You can export your subscription data as an OPML file by clicking ‘File’ > ‘Subscriptions’ > ‘Export to OPML...’. Bookmarks can be exported by clicking ‘File’ > ‘Bookmarks’ > ‘Export to XPFF...’.
Instacast Cloud
What is Instacast Cloud?
Instacast Cloud is a custom built cloud synchronisation service. When using Instacast for the first time you are given the option to register an account for Instacast Cloud, and you can logout of, or back in to, your account from the Sync tab in the Preferences window.
How much does Instacast Cloud cost?
Instacast Cloud is provided free of charge for all Instacast users.
Why not use iCloud?
iCloud has a number of issues that cause a great deal of difficulty for third party developers. This is a well-attested fact, and a number of leading OS X develops are taking it upon themselves to provide their own cloud synchronisation solution to circumvent these problems. Furthermore, Instacast's own synchronisation solution is much quicker than iCloud, which means that customers will appreciate a faster user experience.
What information does Instacast Cloud sync?
Instacast Cloud synchronises the following: subscriptions, deleted episodes, played and unplayed states, playback position for individual episodes, favourites, playlists and bookmarks.
How do I sync my data?
All data is synchronised automatically, but you can trigger a synchronisation manually by going to ‘File’ > ‘Update with Instacast Cloud’. from here, you will also be able to see the last time Instacast synchronised with Instacast Cloud.
General
What are the trial limitations?
Instacast for Mac can be tested for free within 14 days. After the trial period is over, playback is being disabled.
How long will you keep Early-Bird Pricing?
Early-Bird Pricing will end May 31 2013. After that Instacast for Mac will be available for $19.99.
Will Instacast be available on the Mac App Store?
We don't have any immediate plans to put the app into the App Store. Instacast for Mac has some features that might raise concerns in the review process, like switching system audio output or integration of Flattr. If there will be a version for the Mac App Store it will most likely be one with a reduced feature set, something like an "Instacast Light".
Will Instacast work on my Mac?
Instacast for Mac will only work on Macs running OS X 10.8 or higher.
How can I retrieve my license?
You can easily get your license code back by following these steps:
- Open the "Enter License..." window by selecting the corresponding entry in the "Instacast" menu.
- Click on the "Recover license" link in the "License Lost" area at the bottom of the window.
- Enter your email address which you used when purchasing Instacast.
- Click on the "Recover" button.
After a few minutes you should get an email containing your license information.
How do I import my subscriptions from the iOS version of Instacast?
The easiest way top do this is to simply sign in to Instacast Cloud and all you subscriptions will automatically appear in Instacast for Mac. Of course, you will need to have synchronised your iOS device with Instacast cloud beforehand. if you don’t have an internet connection, you can export your subscriptions from the iOS version as an OPML file, which can then be imported into Instacast for Mac.
How do I import my subscriptions from iTunes?
You will need to export your subscriptions as an OPML file, which can then be imported into Instacast for Mac.
Is there an iOS version of Instacast?
Yes. Instacast started life as an iOS app before being developed for OS X. Instacast for iOS is available here and syncs to the Mac version via Instacast Cloud. For more details, please see the iOS version of Instacast’s product page.
Will there be a version of Instacast for Windows?
There are currently no plans to create a Windows version of Instacast.
Troubleshooting
How do I remove duplicate episodes from my subscriptions feeds?
To remove duplicate episodes you need to reload the subscription's feed manually by right-clicking the subscription and selecting ‘Reload’.
How do I get my podcast's artwork to display correctly?
On occasion, a podcast's artwork can become corrupted. To restore the artwork you need to reload the subscription's feed manually by right-clicking the subscription and selecting ‘Reload’.
Apple Media Keys are not working with Instacast.
There is a bug in OS X 10.8.4 that prevents sandboxed apps to launch applications that are not sandboxed when Gatekeeper is turned off, even though both apps are signed by the same developer. In order to make Apple Media Keys work with Instacast, we have to launch a simple helper app (that is not sandboxed). This helper app automatically quits once Instacast is terminated. To circumvent this problem, please make sure you have Gatekeeper enabled. To enable Gatekeeper:
- Open the System Preferences.
- Select 'Security & Privacy'.
- Set the 'Allow applications downloaded from:' option to 'Mac App Store and identified developers'.
Once done, restart Instacast and enable "Enable Apple Media Keys" in the 'Playback' preferences.
General
Troubleshooting
General
Instacast Privacy Policy
We only collect anonymous information.
We use technologies such as cookies (small files stored by your browser), web beacons, and unique device identifiers to anonymously identify your computer or device so we can deliver a better experience. Our systems also log information identifying your browser, operating system and IP address.
We may also collect personally identifiable information that you provide to us, including your name, address, phone number and/or email address. With your permission, we may also access other personal information on your device, such as your contacts, calendar or messages, in order to provide our services to you. If you authorize this, we may also access your profile and other information from services like Facebook.
Our systems are not designed to associate your personal information with your activities (such as pages you view or things you click on or search for).
We do not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us so we can promptly obtain parental consent or remove the information.
We collect or share your location only with permission.
In serving you, we may use or store your precise geographic location if you give us permission to do so. We do not use or share this data for any other purpose. Most devices will indicate when location services are operating by displaying a small icon. We only share your location information with others that you have approved personally.
You can request to see or delete your personal data.
You can sign into your account to see or delete any personally identifiable information we have stored, such as your name, address, email or phone number. You can also contact us by email to request to see or delete this information.
We keep personal data until you delete it.
We remove personally identifiable information (such as your name, address, email or phone number) and other preferences associated with your account promptly after you delete your account. We may retain other data indefinitely.
We don't share your personal data with other companies.
We generally do not share personally identifiable information (such as name, address, email or phone) with other companies.
No ad companies collect data through our service.
We do not allow advertising companies to collect data through our service for ad targeting.
You can ask privacy questions.
If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policies, please contact us: http://vemedio.com/support/contact
Service providers access data on our behalf.
In order to serve you, we may share your personal and anonymous information with other companies, including vendors and contractors. Their use of information is limited to these purposes, and subject to agreements that require them to keep the information confidential. Our vendors provide assurance that they take reasonable steps to safeguard the data they hold on our behalf, although data security cannot be guaranteed.
Analytics companies may access anonymous data (such as your IP address or device ID) to help us understand how our services are used. They use this data solely on our behalf. They do not share it except in aggregate form; no data is shared as to any individual user. Click to see company privacy policies that govern their use of data.
We take detailed steps to protect personal information.
We take reasonable administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to safeguard and protect your information from unauthorized access or disclosure. This includes utilizing Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the personal information you input, and storing your information in encrypted form behind a firewall designed to block access from outside our network. However, no security or encryption method can be guaranteed to protect information from hackers or human error.
Information we collect may be stored or processed on computers located in any country where we do business.
Special situations may require disclosure of your data.
To operate the service, we also may make identifiable and anonymous information available to third parties in the following limited circumstances: (1) with your express consent, (2) when we have a good faith belief that it is required by law, (3) when we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to protect our rights or property, or (4) to any successor or purchaser in a merger, acquisition, liquidation, dissolution or sale of assets. Your consent will not be required for disclosure in these cases, but we will attempt to notify you to the extent permitted by law to do so.
You can review more privacy-related information.
This privacy policy was last updated on Mai 16, 2013. Our privacy policy may change from time to time. If we make any material changes to our policies, we will place a prominent notice on our website or application. If the change materially affects registered users, we will send a notice to you by email, push notification or text.
What is Instacast Cloud?
Instacast Cloud is a custom built cloud synchronisation service. When using Instacast for the first time you are given the option to register an account to for Instacast Cloud.
How much does Instacast Cloud cost?
Instacast Cloud is provided free of charge for all Instacast users.
Why not use iCloud?
iCloud has a number of issues that cause a great deal of difficulty for third party developers. This is a well-attested fact, and a number of leading iOS developers are taking it upon themselves to provide their own cloud synchronisation solution to circumvent these problems. Furthermore, Instacast's own synchronisation solution is much quicker than iCloud, which means that customers will appreciate a faster user experience.
What information does Instacast Cloud sync?
Instacast Cloud synchronises the following: subscriptions, deleted episodes, played and unplayed states, playback position for individual episodes, favourites, playlists and bookmarks.
How do I sync my data?
On iOS
To synchronise your data you simply need to create an account when you first launch Instacast – all synchronisation is automatic. If you declined the option to create a cloud account when first using Instacast, you can find the option to make one in Instacast's main settings.
On Mac
All data is synchronised automatically, but you can trigger a synchronisation manually by going to ‘File’ > ‘Update with Instacast Cloud’. From here, you will also be able to see the last time Instacast synchronised with Instacast Cloud.
Troubleshooting
Updates made on iOS are not synced over to Mac
- To use Instacast Cloud, you need Instacast 3 on iOS. If you are still using Instacast 2, please purchase Instacast 3 on the App Store.
- Make sure your iOS device and your Mac have an active internet connection.
- Check that every device has a correct time setting. If not, please fix the time setting in system preferences.
- The Mac app can only receive push events when both devices are connected to the same local network. If that's not the case, the Mac app needs to ask the sync service explicitly. This happens automatically whenever you activate the app or bring it to the foreground. You can check whether the Mac app has been updated via Instacast Cloud by checking the 'File' menu: above the menu item for updating with cloud manually, the date of the last update is shown. Make sure this time is up to date, otherwise you will need to update manually with the 'Update with Instacast Cloud' menu item.
- If this is still not working, you should try to replace the timeline data in Instacast Cloud with the data on your iOS device. This can be done by resetting Instacast Cloud from your iOS app:
- On your iOS device, tap on this link or type 'instacast3:///sync/reset' into Safari and hit enter. The device switches to Instacast and shows a dialog box asking you which collection of data you want to keep.
- Choose 'Keep content from this device' and tap on 'Start Syncing'. The dialog disappears and the app replaces Instacast Cloud's data in the background.
- This is important: make sure you wait until the spinning icon in the status bar disappears.
- Head over to the Mac and use the 'Update with Instacast Cloud' menu item if the syncing dialog doesn't appear automatically. Once the dialog shows up, select 'Keep content from the Cloud' and click on 'Start Syncing'.
- The Mac app is now deleting all your local data and replacing it with the data from Instacast Cloud.
Updates made on the Mac are not synced over to iOS
- To use Instacast Cloud, you need Instacast 3 on iOS. If you are still using Instacast 2, please purchase Instacast 3 on the App Store.
- Make sure your iOS device and your Mac are both connected to the internet.
- Check that every device has a correct time setting. If not, please fix the time setting in system preferences.
- The iOS app can only receive push events from the Mac app when both devices are connected to the same local network. To force an update with Instacast Cloud, you can simply press the home button to return to your home screen (a.k.a. the Springboard) and tap on the Instacast icon to open it again. This triggers a manual update.
- If this is still not working, you should try to replace the timeline data in Instacast Cloud with the data on your Mac. This can be done by resetting Instacast Cloud from your Mac app:
- On your Mac, click on this link or type 'instacast:///sync/reset' into Safari and hit enter. Instacast for Mac will open and a dialog box asking you which collection of data you want to keep appears.
- Choose 'Keep content from this device' and click on 'Start Syncing'. The dialog disappears and the app replaces the data stored on Instacast Cloud in the background.
- This is important: make sure you wait until the activity icon that shows the 'Syncing…' message in the lower left corner of the main window disappears.
- Take your iOS device and tap on the Instacast icon. Once the syncing dialog shows up, select 'Keep content from the Cloud' and tap 'Start Syncing'.
- The iOS app is now deleting all your local data and replacing it with the data from Instacast Cloud.
Table of Contents
- How to list a podcast with Instacast?
- How to integrate a podcast with Flattr?
- How to link a podcast website player?
- How to provide a podcast specific Share URL?
- How to link alternative feeds with different formats?
- Should I limit the size of my podcast feeds?
- How to get my Podcast featured?
- How to make a feed refresh faster?
How to list a podcast with Instacast?
Podcasts are listed on Instacast automatically, once at least one user has subscribed the feed. All other feeds can be found using the integrated Podcast Search, that actually uses the iTunes directory to search for podcasts.
How to integrate a podcast with Flattr?
To enable Flattr payment with your podcast, please refer to this article.
We had some difficulties with Apple about the integration with Flattr. Please refer to this article for more information.
How to link a podcast website player?
Instacast can continue playback on a website or can copy a playback URL to the clipboard. To enable this feature for your website, please refer to this article.
How to provide a podcast specific Share URL?
With Instacast 2.0, users can share personal comments along with a particular section of a podcast episode. Instacast has its own web service to provide a web player which can link directly to this section. This web service also includes a link to the original site of the podcast author. However if you as the podcast author would like to provide this web service yourself, you need to support the Podlove Deep Linking specification in your podcast feeds. If Instacast detects that a deep link is provided by the podcast author, it uses this specification to create the Share URLs.
How to link alternative feeds with different formats?
Instacast 2.0 supports a method to link multiple related feeds together and present the user with a user interface to choose between them. Please have a look at the Podlove Alternate Feeds specification on how to implement this feature in your podcast.
Should I limit the size of my podcast feeds?
Absolutely, the longer your feed, the longer it loads, the longer it needs to be parsed. While Instacast, the app is not limiting the feed length yet, other online services do. Feedburner e.g. limits the maximum feed length to 512 kb. The Instacast push notification service will also limit the feed length to this value in the future.
How to get my Podcast featured?
For the upcoming version of Instacast we are working on a new online directory that allows us to feature podcasts in hit lists and categories. As a featured podcasts your podcast is moved to the top of the list and gets special artwork treatment. There can either be one or two features per podcast listing.
To get your podcast featured, please send an email to publisher (at) our domain and provide the canonical feed URL. You can also send us a special feature URL that redirects to the canonical feed URL. You can also send us your special artwork treatment. We accept two formats: 145x80pt or 300x80pt. Ideally you send us both formats in 1x and 2x resolution, so that we have all choices where to put the podcast feature. Here is an example of a podcast feature image in both resolutions:
To be more clear, this means sending 4 images: 145x80px, 290x160px, 300x80px and 600x160px.
How do we decide which podcast to feature?
Your podcast needs to meet some basic quality standards. For one your podcast feed needs to be free of parsing errors and it needs to comply to either the RSS or Atom standard. Make sure you also use the iTunes Podcast Extension to include good metadata. You can check your feed on feedvalidator.org.
The podcast artwork needs to be nice on the eye. We don't accept crappy artwork done with Windows Paint. Please also make sure that titles or slogans on your artwork can be read clearly and that colors are not over-saturated.
Another criteria is that your metadata must be clean and free of SEO bs. We don't accept podcasts with 300 character titles. Please make sure you put subtitles and keywords into its respective tags.
How to make a feed refresh faster?
Instacast makes use of the HTTP ETag header to speed up refreshes. Basically the first time it asks for the feed content, the server replies with a content relevant Etag hash that changes as soon as the content itself changes. The next time Instacast asks the server for content it passes the old ETag along and if it did not change in the meantime, the server just sends back a "304 Not Modified" message instead of the feed content. This way Instacast knows that it doesn't need to parse the feed over and over again. Make sure your feed infrastructure supports this method. In addition of faster refreshes, your server also saves a lot of bandwidth and resources. If you're using Feedburner, you are in the clear.
Latest Update: Dec 06, 2012 for 3.0
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