Castro: High Fidelity Podcasts app for iPhone and iPad


4.1 ( 6761 ratings )
News Entertainment
Developer: Tiny Podcast Company Ltd.
Free
Current version: 1.6, last update: 7 years ago
First release : 10 Dec 2013
App size: 5.95 Mb

Castro is a revolutionary podcast client thats smart, focused, and exclusive to iOS.

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“New podcast listening app for iPhone, with an elegant, simple interface. I don’t recall ever seeing a playback/scrubbing interface quite like Castro’s, and it’s really good.”
— John Gruber, Daring Fireball

“Personally speaking, Ive found my new podcast app of choice.”
— Richard Devine, iMore

The Financial Times crowned Castro the "Best Designed App for Listening to Serial".

“This app is great. It’s a new entrant into the iOS podcasting space, but it shouldn’t be seen that way. It’s a very functional app in a visually impressive package.”
— Benjamin Mayo, 9to5mac

“Castros a fantastic podcast app”
— Lifehacker

“Podcast clients continue to be a modern UI design playground for an evolving medium, and Castro 1.1 is a solid exponent in this field.”
— Federico Viticci, Mac Stories

“Nice app.”
— Jim Dalrymple

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HIGHLIGHTS

* Gesture-based interface that puts content front and center.
* Episodes timeline makes it easy to find the latest episodes of all your podcasts.
* Continuous play option to automatically play the next episode.
* Voice-optimized playback speed algorithm makes podcasts sound incredibly good when played at fast or slow speeds. No other podcast app sounds this good.
* Full screen themes make podcasts look as good as they sound.
* Innovative player controls, optimized for podcast listening.
* Takes advantage of iOSs background features to keep your podcasts fully updated, even when youre not in the app.
* Automatically downloads new episodes as they are published.
* Instant, clear, notifications when new episodes come out.
* Turn on News Mode to keep only the most recent episode of frequently updated podcasts.
* Exceptionally fast search.
* Simple, well thought out settings.
* Easy to manage cellular data usage.
* Sleep timer for listening in bed. Still awake when the episode pauses? Just tap play again on the lock screen or headphone remote to extend the sleep timer.
* Intelligent storage management — you set the size limit and Castro will delete old episodes as necessary to keep within it.
* Supports streaming and offline playback.
* Ability to play episodes without subscribing to the podcast.
* We keep Castro updated regularly, fixing any bugs you report and adding new features.

Pros and cons of Castro: High Fidelity Podcasts app for iPhone and iPad

Castro: High Fidelity Podcasts app good for

I really enjoy the app, and it is visually stunning. The only comment I can make is the lack of playlist support or some way to control whichever plays next. Other than that, a great app, and will keep my eyes peeled for Castro 2.
Great and original design. The new slider is pure genius. Wishlist: 2 options Sort episodes oldest first. Automatically play next episodes (from the chronological episodes list).
Easy to use, nice to look at, fast navigation, simple settings. Not a frequent combination for a podcast app. I like it much better than instacast or downcast.
Amazing UI and simple as death UX makes Castro really better than the official podcast app. A must-have!
Best and most beautiful podcast client. Would be even better if it could manage video podcast
Easy to use and beautiful. Now has the continuous playing: 5 stars. Although I think the previous version had a more elegant design.

Some bad moments

For music podcasts. You can see partial of the tracklist on the "episodes" screen but when you go into the podcast it just disappears
Its inconsistent with iOS 7, and reduces the amount of content visible on the screen vs. before. The other options are welcome, but the app looks bipolar, with its beautiful layout but ugly font
Prior to the latest 1.1 update, this app was a visual marvel and super easy to use. Now it looks clunky and basic, and new features have been added but the original idea of the app was to skip the junk that slows down other "pro" podcast apps. Unfortunately, I dont like the new design.
Most of the reviews say how great this product this-.....but be warned ....IT DOESNT DO VIDEO PODCASTS. How can a podcast app be considered excellent when it excludes a great portion of the podcasts available? $3.99 for an app that excludes video podcast is ridiculous! However once the videos have been added then it may be worth the money.
Why cant your app import my podcasts and podcasts stations from apple podcasts? Why cant your app sync across all my devices via icloud? I purchased this app specifically because you can restart the sleep time by tapping the lock screen. The problem is that the target is so small it is impossible to do this without looking at the screen and shining the iPhone light in my face. I need a full screen touch target that so I dont have to look where to touch. The audiobook player app does this. Until the above mentioned items are included I do not recommend this app
Okay so I set the settings. Done. Now, how to view a different podcast from a different URL? Huh? Its frozen. Deleted your useless product.

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