Downcast Loads Up With iPhone 5 Support And Lots Of Other Improvements

Downcast, one of the most popular podcast apps for iOS and arguably a much better app than Apple’s own Podcasts, has just gotten another neat update. Unsurprisingly, the new update brings support for the four-inch screen of the just-released iPhone 5. But beyond that, the update delivers a rather long laundry list of improvements. To start with, Downcast has gained several new settings. These comprise settings for disabling rotation, enabling automatic feed refreshing on Wi-Fi only, and sorting podcast and playlist lists. But while it adds new features, the update also removes some, particularly a number of playback speeds. In the new version of Downcast, support for the 1.25x, 1.75x, 2.5x, and 2.75x playback speeds has been removed. Not to worry, though, as the 5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x, and 3x playback speeds are kept intact. The other changes brought by the latest update to the app are as follows:

• Publication dates are now shown on the main podcasts list
• Publication dates are now shown in "Top Podcasts" lists
• Publication dates are now shown on podcast search result details view
• New "share" icon (consistent with Apple's "share" icon)
• New "actions" icon
• New "info" ("i") button for viewing episode information
• New icon on episode rows that indicates played/unplayed/in-progress
• Indicate partially played status on episode details view
• Chapter names, if available, are now displayed on lock screen and external devices
• Chapter names, if available, are now displayed on the video player
• Indicate errored downloads when notifying that all episodes have downloaded (local notification)
• The auto-lock timer is re-enabled when pausing videos (previously, the idle timer was disabled as long as a video was displayed, regardless of play state)
• iCloud syncing improvements
• Total known size of queued downloads is now shown in the download queue footer
• Display of cumulative episode time in episode lists and playlists now show "time left" rather than "total running time" (total time is displayed if all episodes are played)
• Better handling of streaming videos from podcasts that incorrectly identify their episodes as audio within their feeds
• Removed support for iOS versions earlier than 4.3
• Many other minor bug fixes

The latest version of Downcast is available now in the App Store as a free update or as a new $1.99 download for your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [gallery link="file" order="DESC"]

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