Hi, Could you guys tells me some of the differences between this app and google listen? I'm just starting to get into regular podcasts for my daily commute, and have been using listen for the past couple of weeks. I'd take the trail period, however I already downloaded (and refunded) when i got my phone, before really knowing anything about podcasts!!
So needless to say i can't remember anything about it. Would really like some info on this as the app is quite expensive to find out!
Feel free to purchase it again and take as long as you like to test it out. I can issue a refund if it's not doing what you need.
I really can't speak much about Listen as I'm not very familiar with it at all. Maybe some of the other users could comment. I would guess at least some of them would have tried it.
What do I have to do to get a refund?
Just send your order # to support at snoggdoggler.com and I'll issue the refund.
Being able to pull down video podcasts is the difference that sold me.
IMO, Listen beats DoggCatcher when searching new podcast ... For everything else, DoggCatcher beats Listen... But hey, you do that at the beginning and after, you dont need to search a lot...
To me, the killer "feature" is auto-management of downloads etc... It auto-downloads (# you of episode you wants), option to download only on wifi (I use Timeriffic to turn-on wifi when I'm sleeping), deletes old episodes by itself, etc ... It's way more easier to get the app do the job instead of having to do it yourself...
I'm curious about what's lacking in DC search.
Is it appealing to have a search that return items that match as wells as feeds that match?
Are the search results missing feeds that should be there?
There's one known shortcoming in the DC search and that is that it doesn't break up your search string, so if you search for 'google developer' it, only matches on that exact phrase rather than the words that make up the phrase. There's an open mantis issue to fix this in the next release.
DC returns a lot of duplicate results, some of which don't work. One that I recall off the top of my head is the cranky geeks podcast.
You're right, I've noticed the same thing before but forgot to create an issue for it...just created one now - http://mantis.snoggdoggler.com/view.php?id=344
Also, I am currently working on a feed preview so when you are browsing search results, you can press on a feed to see the items for the feed. That should help some with broken ones.
This would be a great improvement for this product. Please implement.
I really found Listen to be so buggy, and I never saw updates for it. I'm glad to find a program that is supported quickly by their developers, and listens (no pun intended) to their users.
Just purchased Doggcatcher and have been playing with it for a few days. Here are my current take aways and comparisons:
Doggcatcher: great customization, auto download, auto delete, supports all types of feeds (articles, video and audio), better interface, more ipod like functionality, current version is buggy on droid, adding feeds not that easy because of duplicates - same problem though for listen, sees audio podcasts as articles and won't let you play them.
Listen: simple interface, does what it says, limited customization, doesn't pause when call comes in, earphones removed, etc., does download and recognize audio podcasts.
Doggcatcher would be better if it were more stable and actually recognized audio podcasts. I am continuing to use Listen and trying to get Doggcatcher to work in the interim.
It would be nice if they gave you an opportunity to test before you buy. $6.99 is at top of application cost bracket in android market. It should work without all the fuss.
Can you explain a little bit more about the problems you are having? I you are getting crashes, please send the logs (in the dc menu...debug log) to support at snoggdoggler.com. I'm not sure what you mean by not recognizing audio podcasts.
I agree about the test drive, I wish devs could determine how long the refund period was, or offer free trials that could be easily upgraded to paid version. Right now it's possible to do the free -> paid upgrade by having two separate apps, but that can confuse some people. Hopefully there will be changes in the market to make this a bit easier.
I've been using Listen and it seems to have a problem with the TWiT family of podcasts thats been driving me nuts. All other podcasts work great but the TWiT ones seem to break the seek bar/buttons. If I miss something, or I want to go back earlier in the podcast, or skip the commercials, the timing winds up way off. For example, listening to Security Now, I was about 30 mins in, and wanted to hear a segment again, so I drag the bar a little tiny bit back. I wind up at the BEGINNING of the podcast with the time being reported as 28 minutes in. Skip a commercial, wind up at the end of the podcast. It's incredibly frustrating and only happens on TWiT podcast.
Does doggcatcher work right with these? If it does, I'll totally buy it.
EDIT: Oh, and can you set it to NOT download podcasts? Verizon's 3G around here is good enough that I'd never need to download them, and I'd much rather save the battery life and memory card space.
With regards to seeking, this isn't a problem with DC. I'm assuming you are referring to downloaded files and not streamed files. Seeking in streams doesn't work well with some feeds.
Downloads - yes, you can set DC to not download.