User Guide: Instacast for iPhone

This guide provides a first step in understanding how Instacast works and how it can be used. It is a living document that changes over time. If you have any question, please let me know on Twitter. Instacast can be purchased on the App Store.

Table of Contents

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1. Subscribing to a Podcast

Instacast is an app for managing your podcast subscriptions. It provides the whole podcast experience from automatic updates, to direct downloads over playback with pause and resume.

There are several ways to add a new podcast subscription to the application catalog. If you open Instacast for the first time you have the option for finding a podcast in Instacast's online directory, by enabling iCloud if you've already subscribed to podcasts on another device or by importing an OPML file from Dropbox.

Tap on the 'Add Subscription' button on the welcome screen or on the '+' button in the lower left corner of the subscription list to add a podcast from the online directory.

1.1 Browsing the Online Directory

The online directory has multiple categories to choose from. You can see what's currently popular among other Instacast users, what has been added recently and you can browse a list of genres. Tap on a podcast entry to get to a preview of the podcast feed. At the top it displays the title and a short description, followed by some basic properties like genre and language and a list of recent episodes. You can tap on an episode to start streaming a preview. Tap on the 'Subscribe' button in the upper right corner to add this podcast feed to the application catalog.

1.2 Searching for a Podcast

You can search for a particular podcast using the search field of the 'Search' category. Tap on the search field and enter a query to search for. You can choose to search for a title, for a description or for the author of a podcast. Tap on a search result to get to the preview of the podcast feed. Tap on the 'Subscribe' button in the upper right corner to add this podcast feed to the application catalog.

1.3 Subscribing from a URL

If you know the URL to a particular podcast feed you can use the 'Link' button in the upper left corner of the online directory to enter the URL. Tapping on this button opens a panel with a text area. Instacast supports the http://, https://, feed://, pcast:// and itpc:// URL scheme. Upon opening the panel, Instacast checks if you previously copied a compatible URL into the clipboard and pastes it into the text area automatically. Tap 'Preview' to get a preview of the podcast feed. Tap on the 'Subscribe' button in the upper right corner to add this podcast feed to the application catalog.

1.4 Importing from the Music App

If you've already downloaded podcast episodes from iTunes into the Music app, you can use the 'Music App' category of the online directory to find the particular podcast feed. Instacast accesses the media library of your device and searches for podcast episodes. This search unfortunately only works with audio episodes so far. Video episodes are currently not accessible by 3rd party apps. Instacast also does not display episodes of podcasts you already subscribed to.

Tap on an episode to start the search for the podcast feed. If the podcast feed could be found, Instacast displays the feed preview. Tap on the 'Subscribe' button in the upper right corner to add this podcast feed to the application catalog. You can also choose to subscribe to all podcasts at the same time. Instacast then performs a search for all podcast feeds and automatically subscribes to those that can be found.

1.5 Importing an OPML Document

OPML stands for Open Processor Markup Language, a variant of XML that can be used to store lists of named attributes and string values. OMPL documents are used in the podcast community to exchange lists of podcast subscriptions. Instacast can import and export OMPL documents and you can export your podcast subscriptions in iTunes to an OMPL document.

1.5.1 From Dropbox

To import an OPML document from Dropbox, you need a Dropbox account. Place the OPML file into a subfolder of the Dropbox root folder called 'Instacast' and name it 'Subscriptions.opml'. This file location can be customized in the settings under Instacast > Accounts > Dropbox > Path. Tap on the action button in the lower right corner of the list of subscriptions and choose 'Import from Dropbox' from the options panel. Instacast imports all podcast feeds contained in the OPML file accordingly.

1.5.2 From an Email Attachment

If you received an email containing an OPML document as file attachment, you can tap on the file and choose 'Open in Instacast'. Instacast then opens and starts importing the podcast feeds contained in the OMPL document.

1.6 Importing Subscriptions from iTunes

If you have subscribed to a bunch of podcasts in iTunes and you want to import them into Instacast, first export your subscriptions from iTunes.

1. Make sure you have 'Podcasts' selected in the iTunes source list
2. Right-click or Cmd+Click on the 'Podcasts' source item
   
3. After selecting 'Export...' from the context menu you will get a save dialog with an option to choose where to save the file, the name of the file, and the format.
4. Change the format to 'OPML'
5. Change the name to 'Subscriptions.opml'
6. Click save
   

You can either import this OPML file by emailing it to yourself or by using Dropbox (see above).

1.7 Using PCAST and ITPC URLs

Every podcast feed has a particular URL. This URL normally starts with http:// or https://. If you tap on such a link, the system automatically opens Safari to show the content behind this link. You can tell the system to open Instacast instead by simply changing the URL scheme from http:// to pcast:// or itpc://. Tapping on any of these links system wide (e.g. in Email, Safari or Notes) opens Instacast and subscribes to the podcast feed automatically.

1.8 Subscribing to Premium Podcasts

Premium podcasts are a way for podcast publishers to raise money to support the creation of premium content. Normally these podcast feeds are protected by some username and password authentication. Instacast supports normal HTTP based user authentication and pops up a dialog box to enter your credentials when getting the content of the feed. If authentication was successful, Instacast stores username and password values in the encrypted application keychain. This keychain can not be accessed by other apps.

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2. Podcast Subscriptions

The central starting point for controlling podcasts is the list of podcast subscriptions. Tapping on a subscription brings you to a list of episodes. You can either choose between a particular subscription or the 'All Episodes' list. Depending on the content filter selected in the bottom toolbar, the 'All Episodes' list shows all unplayed, all starred or all downloaded episodes. If the 'All' filter in the middle of the selector is selected, the number right to a subscription indicates the count of not yet finished playing episodes and the number is enclosed by a rounded rectangle. If the 'Starred' or the 'Downloaded' filter is selected, the number indicates the count of starred or downloaded episodes in this list and it is not enclosed by any shape.

2.1 Refreshing Subscriptions

You can refresh all subscriptions by pulling down the list until the arrow in the left upper corner is pointing upwards. Then you remove your finger from the screen. The list of subscriptions is refreshed one by one as displayed. Instacast is also able to continue refreshing in background, once the refresh has been triggered it notifies you of new episodes if you choose so.

Refreshing in this case means that Instacast is loading the content of the podcast feed and is looking for episodes that are not already stored in the application catalog. In most cases these are new, just released episodes. A new episode is marked as not yet played and if 'Auto-Download' is enabled for this episode, Instacast starts downloading the episode automatically. You can find new episodes in the 'All Episodes' list or in the list of episodes of the particular subscriptions.

2.1.1 Refreshing an Individual Subscription

To refresh an individual subscription:

1. Open the list of episodes for that particular subscription.
2. Pull down the list like you would on the main list of subscriptions (see above).

2.1.2 Auto-Refresh at Start

You can choose if you want Instacast to automatically refresh its subscriptions 'Once a day', 'Every x hour' or 'Never' if you don't want Instacast to take care of refreshing automatically. The default is 'Once a day'. Instacast can not automatically refresh on its own, when it is not active. As soon as you activate the app, it checks if a refresh is necessary and starts it accordingly.

2.2 Unsubscribing or Deleting a Subscription

To unsubscribe a podcast:

1. Go to the main list of subscriptions.
2. Swipe with your finger across a subscription from left to right or from right to left.
3. Tap on the 'Delete' button that just appeared.

Unsubscribing a podcast deletes all episodes, the cache of all episodes and the subscription itself. However it does not delete the playback information. This means that when you subscribe to the podcast later again, all already played episodes remain marked as played.

2.3 Deleting Multiple Subscriptions

To delete multiple subscriptions at the same time:

1. Go to the main list of subscriptions and tap on the 'Edit' button in the upper left corner.
2. Tap on the red '-' button left to the subscription you want to delete.
3. Tap on the 'Delete' button that appears afterwards.
4. Repeat with every subscription you want to delete.
5. Tap on the 'Done' button when you're finished.

2.4 Sorting Subscriptions

You can sort subscription either manually or in alphabetical order. The sorting of subscriptions also affect the sorting if the episodes in 'All Episodes' if 'Grouped Sorting' is enabled in the settings.

To sort subscriptions alphabetically:

1. Tap on the 'Edit' button in the upper left corner of the main list of subscriptions.
2. Tap on the sort button in the upper right corner.
3. Tap again to revert the order from A-Z or Z-A.
4. Tap 'Done' to leave the edit mode.

To manually sort subscriptions:

1. Tap on the 'Edit' button in the upper left corner of the main list of subscriptions.
2. Use the '=' area right to a subscription and move it up or down with your finger.
3. Tap 'Done' to leave the edit mode.

2.5 Subscription Filter Options

In the middle of the toolbar below the list of subscriptions there is a three-button-selector that can be used to filter subscriptions and episodes for starred or downloaded episodes. Tap on the star button to only show subscriptions that contain starred episodes. Tap on the arrow-down button to only show subscriptions that contain downloaded episodes.

2.6 Getting Info about a Subscription

If you like to get more information about a subscription, e.g. when you want to get the feed URL or when you want to go to the website of the podcast, you can do so by going to the list of episodes for a particular subscription and tap on the header field above the episodes list.

On the podcast information view, if you scroll down the description there are buttons for going to the website of the podcast or to the respective page in iTunes. Going to the iTunes page means that Instacast has to first search for the podcast in iTunes. It might be possible that the podcast can not be found.

When you tap on the action button in the lower right corner, you have multiple options of doing something with the URL of the podcast feed. You can copy it to the device clipboard, send it as email or tweet it. Instacast uses the pcast:// URL scheme. You can change it to http:// if you like.

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3. Podcast Episodes

Every podcast subscription has a list of episodes. This list is sorted after publish date with newest first per default. This sorting can be changed in the settings. And there is a special list of episodes called 'All Episodes'. It is located above the list of subscriptions and contains all unplayed episodes.

3.1 Sorting Episodes

You can choose to sort the list of episodes 'Newest first' or 'Oldest First' separately for the subscription episode lists and the 'All Episodes' list via the respective settings.

Additionally you can enable to sort the 'All Episodes' list grouped. This means that episodes are grouped together using the podcast subscription order, e.g. if you subscribe to 'The Talk Show' and 'All America Life' and have 'The Talk Show' subscription sorted above the 'All American Life' subscription, you will see all 'The Talk Show' episodes grouped together above all 'All American Life' episodes. This option is very handy, if you stopped listening for a while and have multiple unplayed episodes from a number of subscriptions and you want to play the episodes in order of their subscriptions.

3.2 Getting Rid of Old Episodes

Episodes in Instacast can not be deleted at this point. Instacast needs information about already imported and played episodes when looking for new ones. However you can choose to hide played episodes. The setting is called 'Show Episodes' and the default is 'Newest 200' which means, even if there are more than 200 episodes of a podcast available, Instacast will only show the newest/latest 200. In general you should not change this setting to 'All', only if you know what you're doing. Getting a list of thousands of episodes puts a real burden on the hardware of a mobile device. The user interface can get sluggish and internal memory can fill up until even crashing the app.

3.3 Marking an Episode as Played

If you don't want to play an episode until the end you can manually mark it as played. This can be done by either navigating to the show notes of the episode and tapping on the left most button in the lower toolbar or by swiping your finger from left to right over an episode entry in a list of episodes. Both options are toggle functions, which means that when you do it again, the episode changes to unplayed again.

3.4 Marking an Episode as Starred

You can mark an episode as starred by tapping on the second button of the toolbar below the show notes or by swiping your finger from right to left over an episode entry in a list of episodes. Both options are toggle functions, which means that when you do it again, the episode changes to not starred anymore.

3.5 Downloading Episodes

Episodes can either by downloaded manually or are downloaded automatically.

To download a particular episode manually:

1. Navigate to the show notes of the episode.
2. Tap on the 3rd button of the lower toolbar. If the episode is already downloaded this button changes from an inbox with an arrow pointing down to an inbox with an 'x' in it and the functionality changes to clearing the cache of the episode meaning removing the downloaded file from the internal storage.

You can download multiple episodes at once by using the download button in the lower right corner of a list of episodes. Then select all episodes you want to download and tap on the 'Download' button.

Downloads are queued internally and Instacast can download multiple episodes at the same time. Once a download is complete a green triangle with a white arrow pointing down appears in the upper right corner of the episode entry.

You can cancel a download at anytime by using the red 'x' button next to it. If you choose to continue downloading later, Instacast can most likely resume downloads without starting over again if resuming is supported by the server at the other end.

You can restrict downloading to WiFi only by disabling the 3G caching option in the settings. Then every time you start downloading an episode over 3G, Instacast puts the episode on the download waiting list.

3.5.1 Download Waiting List

There are multiple possibilities when downloading is not available or possible at the moment. In these cases, Instacast will put a download on the download waiting list and will start downloading automatically once it is able to do so again. To indicate that an episode is on the download waiting list, Instacast will show a blue triangle with containing a white clock symbol in the upper right corner of an episode entry.

Occasions where downloading is not possible:

• Network is not available
• 3G Caching is disabled and WiFi is not available
• Download interrupted due to network failures
• The background download limit is reached

Instacast will check if downloading can be continued every time the network conditions change or if you bring the app to the foreground.

To remove an episode from the download waiting list tap on the 3rd button of the toolbar below the show notes of an episode.

3.5.2 Background Downloading

Instacast can continue downloading in the background once downloading was triggered when the app was in the foreground. However the operating system limits background tasks to 10 minutes if audio is not playing. After this time has elapsed and downloads have not yet finished, Instacast stops downloading and puts the downloads on the waiting list just before the application is halted by the system. This limitation is not in place when you play an episode. Then download can be continued as long as audio is playing.

3.5.3 Auto-Download of Episodes

You can choose to enable or disable Auto-Download for audio and video episodes individually, because video episodes tend to need much more disk space and can fill up your device quickly. You can also choose to only download new episodes automatically. Then Instacast will check the publish date of the episode and only downloads it if it is not older than 7 days.

3.5.4 Auto-Remove of Downloads

Instacast offers a number of options to remove the downloaded file of episodes automatically. These options can be configured in the settings. The default is 'New episode loaded', which means that Instacast removes the downloaded file of episodes you already finished playing as soon as a new episode is available and downloaded completely. To make sure that the downloaded file of older episodes is deleted correctly, make sure to mark old episodes as played.

3.6 Supporting Publishers using Flattr

If you like, you can choose to support your favorite podcasters by donating a tiny bit of money. These donations work with a service called Flattr. Flattr is a website for social micropayments. Pick how much you’d like to spend per month, for example €3. Then, whenever you see a Flattr button on a blog or website that you like, click it. Flattr counts up all of your clicks at the end of each month and distribute your monthly spend between everything you’ve clicked on. Instead of finding the website of the podcast and clicking the Flattr button, you can use Instacast 1.5 to flattr podcasts and individual episodes. You can also choose to let Instacast flattr for you automatically once you start playback of an episode. Once you see a Flattr indicator like this:

you can tap on the action button in the lower right corner under the show notes and tap on "Flattr this!". The first time you will need to enter your Flattr username and password and authorize Instacast to access your account. After that Instacast asks you if you like to enable "Auto-Flattr" or if you want to flattr manually. You can activate or deactivate "Auto-Flattr" in the Sharing settings at anytime.

See also Podcast Publisher Information: Integration with Flattr

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4. Show Notes

Every episode can have show notes which basically is a document written by the authors of the podcast that may contain text, images and links. Some podcast authors try to add other widgets that might not work on the device. Instacast is doing its best to filter out those widgets only leaving a clean, easy to read document.

4.1 Archive Show Notes for Later Reading

You can send show notes to Instapaper, Readability or ReadItLater by tapping on the action button in the lower right corner of the toolbar below the show notes. Then choose 'Read Later'. The first time Instacast will ask you which 'Read Later' service you prefer. Select one and enter your username and password for the service. You won't be asked again, but you can change these preferences in the 'Services' settings.

4.2 Send Show Notes as Email

Instead of sending the show notes to a Read Later service, you can also send them via email. Tap on the right most button in the toolbar below the show notes and choose 'Send via Email'.

4.3 Links

Show notes can contains links among other things. Tap on a link to browse to the website. Instacast will slide over a rudimentary website viewer which provides a quick look.

If you want to continue browsing from this point, it is recommended to switch to Safari for a richer browsing experience. To do so, tap on the right most button below the webpage and choose 'Open in Safari'.

You can also send this link as email or tweet it. Instacast uses the built-in tweet sheet of iOS 5. In iOS 4 it will open up the first Twitter client it finds or if none is installed, it will open Twitter in Safari.

You can also choose to send links to Instapaper, Readability or ReadItLater. The first time Instacast will ask you which 'Read Later' service you prefer. Select one and enter your username and password for the service. You won't be asked again, but you can change these preferences in the 'Services' settings.

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5. Playback

To start playing an episode, either use the green start button above the show notes or tap and hold an entry of an episode list. The start button may have different titles depending on the situation.

• If you are about to stream an episode over the air, the start button is labeled 'STREAM'.
• If an episode is not downloaded and you are not connected to the internet, Instacast is not able to stream the episode and thus the start button is labeled 'OFFLINE'.
• If you are about to start a newly downloaded episode, the button is labeled 'START'.
• If you are about to continue an already played episode, the button is labeled 'CONTINUE'.

5.1 Skipping Forward and Backward

You can fast skip sections by using the << and >> buttons left and right to the play/pause toggle button. Per default this will skip 30 seconds forward or backward. You can change the skipping time interval in the settings. Please note that these skipping buttons are not |<< or >>| an thus do not skip to other tracks like the buttons in the Music App.

5.2 Skipping to a Particular Time

You can use the slider above the playback control buttons to manipulate the playback time. Tap on the small handle and drag your finger across the slider. While dragging you can move your finger up or down to change the accuracy of the slider. The more you drag your finger away, the more accurate the change becomes relative to the last slider position.

5.3 Playback Speed and Volume

You can change the playback speed for audio episodes by opening the player and double-tapping the podcast image. Then playback options will appear below the top bar. Tap on the left most button to change the current playback speed. Tap again to change again. The default playback speed is 'Normal (1x)'. This can be changed in the settings. Instacast is not saving the last selected playback speed but always reverts to the default one.

The playback options also contain a volume slider which changes the system volume for media playback. You can also use the hardware volume buttons on the left side of your iPhone or iPod touch, the volume control buttons on your headphones or the volume slider in the left most panel of the task bar.

5.4 Activating AirPlay

AirPlay can be activated in a number of ways. You can either use the AirPlay button in the playback options field, after double-tapping the podcast image in the player. You can also use the AirPlay button in the task manager or on the lock screen. Instacast support AirPlay for audio only devices and AirPlay Video for streaming to the Apple TV.

5.5 Getting a List of Chapters

Some podcast can contain chapter information and/or have multiple images for different parts of an episode. These podcasts are called 'Enhanced Podcasts'. Instacast supports these as well. Once chapter information is available Instacast shows a button in the upper right corner of the player containing a list icon. Tap on the icon to reveal the table of chapters. Tap on a chapter to instruct the player to directly jump to the respective time index.

5.6 Visiting a Chapter Link

The title of the current chapter is being displayed just above the playback controls on top of the episode image. Sometimes these chapter titles contain links to websites. If that's the case Instacast displays a small arrow right to the chapter title. Tap on the chapter title to open the website in a small website viewer.

5.7 Resuming Playback of Last Played Episode

Instacast keeps track of the last episode being played and shows a black button containing an arrow up in the upper right corner of the main navigation bar. Tap on this button to popup the player and continue playing the episode.

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6. Miscellaneous

6.1 Settings

Yes, there are settings and not only a few. Please open the Settings app, scroll down and navigate to the Instacast settings page.

6.2 iCloud Sync

As you might already know, if you change a document on one device, this change is uploaded to the cloud and pushed wirelessly to all your devices and thus synchronizing the content. Instacast is using this mechanism to write out the state of the application, not the whole application catalog though. This document is then pushed to your other devices and as soon as Instacast gets the iCloud notification, it synchronizes its application state with the one of the other device.

Instacast synchronizes an ordered list of your podcast subscriptions as well as the played and starred markers of any episode you've ever seen and last there is the playback information, consisting of the currently playing episode, the current playlist and the current playback position. With these three things, Instacast is able to completely reconstruct the application state on all your devices.

The application state is constantly changing, e.g. when you refresh your podcasts, when you change the order of your podcast list, when you start listening to a new episode, etc. And when you play an episode, the position changes every second. Your internet connection would be occupied constantly if there wasn't an intelligent mechanism that aggregates small changes and only synchronizes at important times. These times are e.g when you pause playback, when you lock the screen, when you send Instacast to the background, when you do nothing for a moment and so on. The great thing about it is, that you don't need to push a sync button. The minor downside is that you can't expect it to be in sync all the time, if you look at more devices simultaneously. Writing out the information, uploading it to the cloud and pushing it to all your devices may take some time.

From time to time, it may happen that there is a conflict during synchronization, which means that there are more then two different versions of the same application state, e.g. when you change the application state of Instacast on more than one device at the same time, or when both devices are offline for a while and both have changes that need to be pushed. In this case, Instacast will try to merge the changes together and resolves the conflict. Let's say you add a podcast on two devices at the same time, then the result will be that both new subscriptions will be on both devices, after the changes have been merged and pushed back. If you mark an episode as played on one device and another episode on the other, both episodes should be marked as played on both devices after a certain time. But the best thing is always to avoid conflicts all together. Try not to use more than one device at the same time. Give it some time to synchronize before you switch devices.

iCloud Sync should be easy. It should only be a matter of enabling or disabling it either on the welcome screen or in the settings. However it seems that the matter is much more complex than that. If you have difficulties, please have a look at the iCloud FAQ. It is frequently updated with new informations.

Latest Update: Feb 06, 2012 for version 1.5.