Podcast Guru Release Notes - Version 1.6.8

Time again for the Podcast Guru Release Notes - Version 1.6.8. This time there are some nice new features in this release. "Pull to refresh" added to the latest for forcing updates. Episode notes are now available from the Player Screen. Customizable Drag/Drop re-ordering is now possible on the library tab. Many other minor bug fixes and UX improvements.

If you’ve found a bug we’d love to hear about it! Please visit our support page and send us a message. If you love the app as much as we do, please leave a review for Podcast Guru in the Google Play Store.

And if you have any questions about how to use Podcast Guru, our FAQ page is a useful resource.

by Matyas

Podcast Guru Turkish Version

Podcast Guru Turkish Version is Now Available!

For all the Turkish podcast lovers out there, no matter if you are a Turk, or Turkophone, or Turkophile, we have some exciting news! The Podcast Guru Turkish version is now available in the Turkish Google play store. We are extremely happy that our users enjoy using the English version of Podcast Guru. Because of this we thought it was important to release a true Turkish podcast player for the Turkish speaking world! It is one of the world's major language groups after all.

Our Turkish podcast player offers two benefits:

This version of Podcast Guru allows podcast listeners to easily find local Turkish podcast content as well as foreign content.
The UI is also totally translated to native Turkish, so the experience is seamless.

Download Podcast Guru from Google Play!

Google Play ve Google Play logosu Google LLC kuruluşunun ticari markalarıdır.

Podcast Guru'a Hoş Geldiniz! (Welcome to Podcast Guru!)

With Turkey being the 17th country out of the top 50 mobile phone markets is the wold, it's safe to say Turkey likes its mobile technology. There is also a growing demand for podcasts, and a growing number of podcasts available in Turkish. A few examples can be found here in this article by the Daily Sabah. And if you've ever had the misfortune of trying to commute in Istanbul traffic during rush hour, then you know a good podcast player is essential for daily life there.

Screenshots from the app

by Matyas

Podcast Guru Release Notes - Version 1.6.2

These latest Podcast Guru Release Notes - Version 1.6.2, are a little bit over due, but we think it's worth the wait. As it turns out, this update was a fair amount of work. This is due to the fact that we fixed a number of lingering UX issues. But we this this is well worth it, since we are sure that it will make the app nicer to use. Also, we fixed a slew of bugs and performance issues. See the list below for a breakdown of what we added to Podcast Guru.

New Feature

[PG-780] - Track user ID with Instabug

Tasks

[PG-185] - Experiment with new Lifecycle Components somewhere
[PG-622] - UX defects in EpisodeListActivity

Improvements

[PG-778] - Update Download Service to use OkHttp
[PG-773] - Handle corrupted offline download
[PG-748] - Refactor Library Tab to use LiveData + Repository patterns

Bugs

[PG-786] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] MediaPlayerAudioPlayer.java line 723
[PG-787] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] SQLiteDatabaseWrapper.java line 129
[PG-775] - AudioService - some error messages are not externalized strings
[PG-777] - MediaPlayerAudioPlayer - setting wrong data source for offline content
[PG-770] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] SafeMediaPlayer.java line 89
[PG-774] - Audio Caching enabled for Offline content
[PG-769] - Download Restrictions are ignored

And if you have any questions about how to use Podcast Guru, our FAQ page is a useful resource.

by Matyas

Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.6.0

Here comes Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.6.0, and it's all good news. We made some slight changes to regional browsing and fixed some small user experience and big fixes that we think will make using the app much nicer. It's always good to hear from our users, they are why we are building this app.

Happy podcast listening!

Task

[PG-462] - Experiment with a local playback cache
Use local cache to prevent the majority of Direct streaming of episodes results in a lot of frequent playback disconnects.
[PG-701] - PodcastListActivity - sort order changes does not scroll to the top
This was irritating, so we fixed it!
[PG-741] - We should fix broken sharing
Sharing went to the incorrect URL, and was a bad experience.

Improvement

[PG-728] - Offline tab enhancement
Currently we have a delete all, but it would nice if we could also have a "Delete all completed"
[PG-735] - Make browse section region specific
The app used to default to US based content when browsing. Now it defaults so the content form the users location.

Bug

[PG-730] - When and episode is shared and the person who receives it isn't on an Android device, it falls back to the wrong URL
Fixed an issue when and episode was shared and the person who receives it isn't on an Android device , it fell back to the wrong URL.
[PG-734] - AndroidAuto Playlist Bug
Fixed an issue where Android Auto does not seem to create auto playlists correctly.
[PG-744] - Playlist ordering broken for Offline playlists
Fixed an issue where the offline playlist was getting overwritten.

by Matyas

Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.5.6

Welcome to Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.5.6, the hits keep on coming! Yes, we've released yet another version of Podcast Guru! This release includes many improvements and bug fixes. We've learned a little more about what our users want from the new mini-player UX, so we're implemented some UX improvements there. It's always good to hear from our users, they are why we are building this app.

Happy podcast listening!

Task

[PG-637] - Clean up events in Firebase to better track trends
The goal is for us to see what screens are being actively used / selected by the users the most, so we can focus on improving those from a UX perspective

Improvement

[PG-704] - Add exit warning toast
Several users have complained that it's too easy to accidentally exit the app. When the first back-button is pressed that would exit the app is intercepted, a toast should be shown with the message "Press back again to exit the app".

[PG-705] - App restart should load last played content
After we added swipe to dismiss for the mini-player, when the app starts up again, we made it not load up the last played content. Turns out that was a bad idea, users are now complaining that they can't remember what podcast they were listening to last. We should modify this so that even though swipe to dismiss still works, if you re-open the app it will still load up the last played content.

Bug

[PG-690] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] ActivityThread.java line 1832
[PG-697] - Search button appears where it shouldn’t

by Matyas

Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.5.5

Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.5.5 is here with new treats for ya'll! We've released another version of Podcast Guru! This release includes many improvements and bug fixes. One nice new feature is the swipe-to-dismiss mini-player! Now you can close the currently playing podcast episode by swiping away the mini-player. We've known you've been wanting to do that for ages... our designer sure has! Happy podcast listening!

Improvement

[PG-695] - Improve external storage logic
We needed to improved the external storage detection logic for the Note 8. Everything is good now.

[PG-687] - Make the mini player dismiss-able via a swipe.
Many of our users have asked for a mini-player that can be stopped and closed with a simple swipe. Well, we've taken this to heart and implemented it for ya'll! Some of us at Really Bad Apps were not convinced at first, but now that we've implemented, we all like it!

Bug

[PG-676] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] PlaylistsGridFragment.java line 186
[PG-680] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] EpisodeAdapterBase.java line 174
[PG-686] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] DownloadService.java line 277
[PG-692] - background thread executes UI code (in one of Glide callbacks)
[PG-697] - Search button appears where it shouldn’t

by Matyas

PhotoStacks update 1.0.4

PhotoStacks update 1.0.4 is in the App Store

PhotoStacks update 1.0.4 is live! Yes we know it's been a while, but we've updated PhotoStacks! This update includes some bug fixes, minor improvements, and branding updates. In addition to all of that good stuff, we've added some fancy app images with cool iPhone XS bezels in the App Store. We've also decided to make the app available for $1.99. We decided to charge not only because we think the app has inherent value, but we'd like to see if people will agree with us. And because we plan to get super rich of this app. 🤔Well, probably not. but what the heck.

As always, if you have any questions or ideas for improvements to the app, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to drop us a message at [email protected].

Thanks, and happy PhotoStacking!
The team at Really Bad Apps

Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

by Matyas

Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.5.4

It's that time again, Podcast Guru Release Notes – Version 1.5.4, is here! This release includes many improvements and bug fixes. Also worth noting, we're trying to improve the branding, so we've implemented an A/B test that will help us determine which logo our users like more. Happy podcast listening!

Task

[PG-623] - Featured - slow loading
Even though we are loading from cloud firestore, the loading mechanism can seem quite slow.

[PG-624] - Fix Glide deprecation warnings (SimpleTarget has been deprecated)
These are all over the app, they are getting really annoying. We need to fix them.

[PG-635] - Create a setting to allow users to switch regions
Some users want to be able to access podcasts in the language of their choice.

[PG-666] - Fix grid views for low resolution devices
We can do a better job here, might just need a simple math change for how we calculate the number of rows in a grid.

Improvement

[PG-589] - UI Alignment / Empty content screens
The UI alignment for the empty state on Library, Offline and Playlists tabs is not vertically centered, whereas on Latest it is. Let's try to get everything vertically centered, or at the very least looking consistent.

[PG-654] - Implement the new branding in an A/B test
We should implement the new branding as a variant in an A/B test. The goal will be retention.

[PG-658] - Implement new Latest Tab empty-state
Latest Tab empty-state is not a good UX. I created a design to mimic the Library empty-state: https://zpl.io/xxxxxx I think this could be ok. It's a better experience than the current one.

Bug

[PG-661] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] ActivityThread.java line 1783
[PG-663] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] PodcastEpisodeListFragment.java line 435
[PG-664] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] PodcastGuruUtil.java line 594
[PG-667] - "Refresh" overflow menu item should not appear on the Featured / Trending tabs
[PG-668] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] PlaylistFragment.java line 294
[PG-671] - When creating a shortcut the image URL fails.

by Matyas

Dark mode is here!

Dark Mode & Podcast Guru Release Notes - Version 1.5.2

Dark mode is here! We added decided it was time to add it into this releases of Podcast Guru! Many of our users have been asking for a mode that makes listening to podcasts easier at night, and well, here it is! We also made some other important bug-fixes and improvements for Podcast Guru. Happy podcast listening!

New Feature

[PG-139] - Night Mode Theme
We would like to research implementation for night mode. We would have to create another theme and selectively apply it at night. Please add the code for this.

Task

[PG-615] - Design a dark mode theme
Some users think a dark theme would be cool. We do too.

[PG-616] - Dark theme - UI research
Conform to Material Design best practices as much as possible

[PG-626] - Design a settings control to enable/disable the dark theme
Material design references: https://material.io/design/components/selection-controls.html#checkboxes

Bug

[PG-630] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] BaseActivity.java line 282
[PG-632] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] ActivityThread.java line 1872
[PG-633] - [Crashlytics] [Linked Issue] SearchView.java line 858

And if you have any questions about how to use Podcast Guru, our FAQ page is a useful resource.

by Matyas

Discover Dash for Android released by Really Bad Apps

Discover Dash for Android is out!

Discover Dash for Android is finally released! This is the latest addition to the Really Bad Apps lineup of mobile apps, and one that we are particularly excited to announce! The Discover Dash app gives Dash users the ability to locate nearby business and services that accept Dash via their Android device. Now you can find and spend your Dash wherever you are in the world!

Get the Discover Dash app on the play store!

by Matyas