Why we put the Internet into your favorite podcasting app

by Gennady Chibisov

I love to listen and I’m not alone. There are so many people who love to listen music, radio, podcasts, audiobooks. Recently we’ve built a small service for integrating different data sources into your favorite podcasting app, which is the most convenient app for listening audios and watching video content. The service could be found here https://docast.me.

In general, Docast builds a podcasting feed from your Dropbox, Youtube, Pocket and other services accounts. For futher details keep reading.

Audiobooks

Recently I’ve started listening historic and fiction audiobooks. But I was surprised that iTunes is not capable to play them in a simple mp3 format. I have to use third party apps to import them to the iPhone. But what if I could just place my folder with mp3 files to the Dropbox and start listening audiobooks?

Special apps for audiobooks is another problem. They all are out of date or wants you to use their cloud (e.g. audible). Try to find these apps for Windows Phone.

I want more! I want to change speed, remove silence, boost voice (especially when I’m in the subway).

To sum up. App for reading audiobooks should:

  • Be capable to play simple mp3 files from simple folders
  • Have audio filters
  • Track my listen history
  • Be integrated with Dropbox

There is an app with the all (except latest) described features. It’s already on your device and it’s called the podcasting app!

Watch short video how you can listen audiobooks from the Dropbox in Overcast:

Youtube

I like to watch interesting videos from Youtube. Most of them I want to listen. I don’t need to see an image from Antony C. Sutton's interview. I just want to listen, that’s it! But Youtube app on my iPhone has a big problem - it stops playing audio when I lock my phone!

Let’s talk about an offline mode. I use a public transport to commute to my work. And it’s horrible to watch youtube with 3G, LTE or even with WI-FI in an underground. Yeah, I know about Youtube Red, but:

  • It wants 10$ a month
  • It still has problems with stopping audio when phone is locked
  • It isn’t available in my country =(

Another feature I need is a synchronization. I want to start listening or watching process on iPhone, continue with iPad and finish with my Mac. Moreover I use an Android device! And I want to work it there to. Thankfully there is an app for that. It is called Pocket Casts. To watch videos in offline you just have to enable auto download. It keeps in sync your watch progress across the all devices. It’s cross-platform. Did you know that Pocket Casts is available in your car or chromecast?

Look at a short video how you can watch videos from your Youtube’s "Watch later" playlist:

By the way, if you use only Apple devices then it keeps your episodes in sync out of the box.

Pocket

I like to read articles from the techcrunch. If want to read some publication I’ll add it to my Pocket. But after a day in front of my computer I want to listen it, not to read. Yeah, I know about text to speech integrated into Pocket, but it’s inconvenient in many ways:

  • When you lock your phone it will hide most of the controle buttons
  • Sometimes it flushes all your listening history
  • There are no audio effects mentioned above
  • It works only on iOS and Android devices

With Docast you won’t have these problems. All you need is just to connect it with your Pocket account and subscribe to podcast.

Look at a short video how you can listen text articles from any page in the Internet. Moreover, Docast can extract audio and video content from any page. It’s compatible with more than 500 services (e.g. Youtube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, etc…):

To sum up

I’ve been consuming all my media content in a podcasting app for more than 3 months by now. I’ve been listening articles from Pocket. I’ve been listening audiobooks from Dropbox. I’ve been watching videos from Youtube. On any device. It’s all in sync. In offline mode. Magic!

One day I came to a conclusion that podcasting app is the most convenient media center app with opened capabilities for integration. Till now there was no simple way to integrate your personal content into this media center. That’s why we’ve built Docast.