This is a Development BETA build! It contains new features and bug fixes that we
are planning for the next public release.
We try to keep our BETA builds as stable as possible (this is
what we use daily in our personal devices). Keep in mind that not all features are
completely tested yet and some unexpected results or crashes may still occur!
What is new in this version
- Small optimization to speed up the process of "pushing" the read/starred statuses of items back to Google Reader.
You can get the latest PUBLIC version from
Android Market.
To give the DEVELOPMENT beta a try, download the .apk file below directly to your
device. Once the file is downloaded, you can click on it in the download list to
install.
- 2.3.10
- Changed the 'Keep screen On during playback' setting. It was renamed to 'Screen
Timeout' and now has more options (Device default, Dim if Charging, Bright if Charging,
Always Dim, Always Bright)
- Fixed a bug where in some cases categories are being reset on each restart.
- 2.3.7
- Added a setting that controls if playback should resume at the end of a phone
call (if playback was automatically paused). The setting is On by default and located
in BeyondPod's Settings > Player Settings.
- Added a workaround for an Android bug that on some devices deletes downloaded
video podcasts when the SD card is rescanned.
- 2.3.6
- You can now slide left/right to switch between the player and podcast views (this
makes it consistent with the way other views work)
- Added a setting to prevent device's keyguard when the BeyondPod window is displayed.
The setting is Off by default and located in BeyondPod's Settings > Player Settings
- Added a setting to keep the screen on (dimmed) during audio playback. The setting
is Off by default and located in BeyondPod's Settings > Player Settings
- Added a setting to lock the player in landscape (Car) mode. The setting is Off
by default and located in BeyondPod's Settings > Player Settings
- Added a setting that pauses the playback during system notifications (GPS directions,
new e-mail, SMS etc.) The setting is On by default and located in BeyondPod's Settings
> Player Settings. (This setting is applicable only for devices running Android
2.2 or later.)
- Added a setting to set a podcast as "already downloaded" when you mark the associated
feed post as "Read". This provides a more direct way to skip the download of podcasts
during automatic update. The setting is Off by default and is located in BeyondPod's
Settings > Feed Content Settings
- On devices running Android 2.2 BeyondPod can now save its configuration settings
to the standard "device-wide" backups so they will be automatically restored during
application reinstalls. (This affects only the settings configured in Menu > More
> Settings. BeyondPod still continues to use the SD card to backup feed subscriptions
and downloaded podcasts.)
- Various Bug Fixes
- 2.3.5
- Added transition animations when navigating between the main views
- If the playlist is not empty, pressing the Play button in the Feed Content View
(or long press on the Feeds's podcasts button in the Feeds View) now offers an option
to Play or Add to playlist. This should prevent the occasional unintentional "replacement"
of the playlist when trying to add an item
- In the List of downloaded podcasts, podcasts that are already in the playlist,
now have an "in-playlist" icon next to the podcast date. This makes it easier to
see which podcasts are already in the playlist.
- Added support for the external sdcard on some Samsung devices (where the external
sdcard is mounted as /sdcard/sd). You can decide where to store podcasts by moving
the "BeyondPod" folder between "/sdcard/BeyondPod" (if you want to use the internal
storage) or "/sdcard/sd/BeyondPod" - if you want to use the external SD card.
- Several Bug Fixes
- 2.3.4
- Fixed an issue where, when downloading podcasts for some feeds, BeyondPod was
failing to create correctly the local download folder (based on the feed name).
This resulted in false "Insufficient Disk Space" errors.
- Several minor UI enhancements
- 2.3.3
- Fixed an issue where on some devices BeyondPod does not detect correctly the end
of playback (resulting in "Stream Error" message)
- Playlist is now correctly saved after playlist items are manually reordered
- 2.3.1
- Fixed an issue where on some devices resuming a paused playback causes about a
half second portion from the beginning of the podcast to be played before the playback
jumps to the resumed point.
- Added a configuration setting that disables the pause of playback when the headset
is removed. The setting is called "Pause on Headset Disconnect" in the Player Settings
(Pause on Disconnect is ON by default)
- Long press on the right title bar button (the musical key) switches directly to
the player screen
- 2.3.0
- Minor bug fixes in preparation for the public release
- 2.2.41
- Fixed an issue where, when streaming under Android 2.2, sometimes BeyondPod did
not detect that the track has finished streaming
- Added some extra error handling for diagnosing Reader Login issues
- Added an option to use a 3D flip animation when switching between player and podcasts.
The animation is off by default but can be turned on in Player's Global settings
- Several minor cosmetic changes
- 2.2.40
- Fix for AVRC/Headset button issues introduced by Android 2.2 (Froyo).
- On Android 2.2 devices BeyondPod now remembers the last played position in streamed
podcasts (courtesy of the HTTP progressive streaming support in the new "Stagefright"
media framework)
- Categories and Feeds can now be included more than once in the Smart Playlist
(for example you can set it to play latest 2 feeds from "News" category then latest
2 feeds from "Technology" category then next latest 2 feeds from "News" category
again etc.)
- Added an easier way to Share links to feed Posts and Podcasts (tap and hold on
a feed post or podcast and select 'Share Link')
- Several small bug fixes
- 2.2.30
- Redesigned the landscape mode of the player to use larger buttons and fonts (it
is more "car" friendly now)
- Video podcasts can now be played in the built-in audio player (as audio only).
Long press on the video podcast and select 'Add to Playlist (audio only)'
- Fixed an issue with handling of feed item published dates when the device is set
to use a language other than English
- Added a workaround for the issue that caused phone to restart if USB cable is
connected while downloading podcasts
- 2.2.20
- Improved Update and Download Queue screen. It now shows the content of the queue
with a list of pending downloads. (You can access it from the notification drawer
during update and download).
- When browsing feed posts, a Long Press on the show Read/Unread button (on the
right side of the footer) will mark all 'Unread' posts as 'Read' and take you back
to the feed list.
- Experimental support for the internal Storage of HTC Incredible. If BeyondPod
is unable to find a storage card during startup, it will check if internal storage
is available (should exist as 'emmc' mount) and use it. If both exist, BeyondPod
will still use the SD card.
- 2.2.19
- The Playlist can now be accessed and managed from the Podcasts screen
- Improved the Player seek bar to allow more precise positioning in podcasts
- The player now shows the remaining podcast playing time (instead of the total
time)
- Fix for an occasional "black screen" bug on 1.5/1.6 devices
- Fix for a bug that prevented the download of podcasts with non English names
- 2.2.18
- Improved feed Item Content View to maximize the reading area
- You can now set a custom sleep timeout for player's "Sleep" function. (Menu >
More > Settings > Player Settings > Custom Sleep Timeout)
- Entries in SmartPlaylist can now be reordered
- When manually deleting a podcast, the podcast post is now automatically marked
as "Read"
- Added a better handling for Media Rss attachments in WordPress feeds. Anyone
that has problem with unwanted attachments in feeds, please send me the feed URL
and I will investigate if this is a "legit" attachment or an attachment that can
be ignored. Please keep in mind that many WordPress feeds attach images to posts
and those images will be recognized as downloadable attachments. Also if the attachment
does not have a file type specified, or the file type is not a valid audio, video
or image - (for example PDF) BeyondPod currently assumes that this is an audio file.
- 2.2.16
- Updated the user agent used when requesting feeds and podcasts.
- Added a detection of paid feeds that use IP address tracking for authentication
(like www.dennismillerradio.com). BeyondPod now shows a special warning when such
feed fails to update due to IP authentication error.
- 2.2.14
- Added a workaround for WiFi losing connectivity during long downloads on Nexus
One. BeyondPod now detects those situations and turns the screen on (which keeps
the WiFi connection active)
- Enhanced the detection of rss feeds in web pages. When clicking on RSS link while
browsing in the Android web browser, you will get an option to subscribe to the
feed. (Many "Subscribe in iTunes" work too.)
- 2.2.13
- Enhanced support for Media RSS enclosures
- Updates to Google Reader Authentication. The use of existing (global It is now
enabled only for deivces running 2.1 and later
- 2.2.12
- For feeds and posts, BeyondPod now shows the updated time (if the update is today)
- Fixed a bug where the screen font size in the Feed Content View reverts to a default
setting on screen rotation
- Some BeyondPod features (PLAY/PAUSE/UPDATE_SMART_PLAY/PLAY_SMART_PLAY) can now
be controlled from external applications by sending Android broadcast intents
- 2.2.9
- Added an option to hide "Read" feeds (use Menu > Hide Read in the Feed List)
- Each feed now shows the number of unread items
- Added (experimental) support for Scrobbling. It currently requires the ScrobbleDroid
application from Android Market. It can be turned on in Menu > More > Settings Player
Settings.
- On devices that run Android 2.0 or above, you can now use the device account (set
in device's "Accounts and Sync" Settings) to login to Google Reader.
- Fixed an issue with resuming partially downloaded podcasts when the server does
not support partial downloads
- Fixed an issue with changing the zoom level during orientation change in the Web
View.
- 2.2.8
- Added a new setting (Menu > Settings > Player Settings > Default Video Player)
to select the default video player - Internal or External. (The default player is
the Internal player where BeyondPod can track the play progress)
- BeyondPod can now track the playback progress, pause and resume the playback of
downloaded Video Podcasts
- Added support for tracking application usage and errors using Flurry Analytics
(http://www.flurry.com). BeyondPod will report to Flurry some anonymous application
usage data such as which screens or actions are used most often and any runtime
errors. By default the usage tracking is turned on only for Beta testers, but can
be turned on/off in the General Settings.
- SmartPlaylist can now include podcasts across categories (for example play newest/oldest
in News...)
- Added high resolution icons for Motorola Droid/Nexus One phones.
- Added a setting to control which posts should be marked as "Read" on open (All
posts/Posts without podcasts/None)
- Various Bug Fixes
- Audio Podcasts can be now streamed using the internal player. Please note that
when streaming, BeyondPod does not retain the last played position - the playback
always starts from the beginning.
- Feeds can now be set to "Download" podcasts or "Stream" podcasts. When set to
"Stream", instead of downloading, BeyondPod creates "streamable podcasts" that can
be played, added to the playlist and included in SmartPlay.
- Simplified the screen for configuring the feed settings.
- Added global settings for several frequently used feed parameters (number of podcasts
to download/stream, "Keep at most" etc...). The global settings can now also be
"applied" to all existing feeds.
- Added "Fit Width" setting to the menu of the screens that show HTML content. In
most cases this eliminates left/right scrolling when reading feed content
- Added a setting to automatically close the Feed Content View when navigating away
from it. (This way it gets out of the way and makes it easier to navigate among
other views)
- When reading a post, there is now a way to manage related podcast (download/play/stream),
without the need to go back to the list of posts
- The setting for feed content text size now also changes the size in the list of
feed posts
- Fixed an issue where the number of downloaded podcasts was not easily distinguishable
in the Dark theme on some Hero devices
- Improved the compatibility with Android 2.0.1 - this should fix the issue where
on some Cyanogen ROMs BeyondPod would stop playing on background.
- Fixed the issue with downloading CNet video podcasts.
- Podcast list can now be easily switched to show podcasts from the Current Feed,
Current Category or across All Feeds.
- Starting with this version BeyondPod supports multiple themes (skins). You can
try our second (light) theme, designed by the talented graphic designer Mike Beecham.
To switch themes use: Menu > Settings > General Settings > Current Theme.
- Improved the Back Key navigation. To reduce unintended "exits", there is now a
warning before you close the BeyondPod window using the back key.
- Improved screen navigation. Added buttons that can be used to jump to the player
or home screen from any other screen.
- Added a setting that allows hiding of "skip to end" button in the player screen.
- When browsing feed posts, long click on the post title (or the globe icon at the
bottom) will now open the feed link in the external browser.
- When importing feeds from Reader or OPML you can now automatically create a category
based on the folder that the imported feed resides.
- You can now use "Share Link" from the Android browser to subscribe for podcasts.
Just tap and hold over any link to RSS feed in the browser and select "Share Link".
- Added buttons to Zoom-in/Out the feed post content
- By default, BeyondPod now shows all downloaded podcasts regardless of the type
(there is still an option to show only supported types)
- In rare cases where a feed has multiple formats for the same podcast (for example
hi/low bitrate, mp3, mp4, wmv etc.), the Feed Properties Dialog now has a setting
to pick the preferred format podcast to download.
- If your feeds happen to use "untraditional" order of posts (for example new posts
are added at the end), you can now configure BeyondPod to apply a custom sort when
displaying posts -"Newest First", "Oldest First" or use the defualt order of the
feed.
- Improved the handling of some video file formats.
- Various speed improvements and many bug fixes
- You can now use Volume Up/Down hardware buttons to scroll among the feed posts
(items)
- Restored the ability to Email links to feed items (in addition to sharing)
- You can now click on the post title to open a link to the full article (in addition
to clicking on the globe icon at the bottom)
- Redesigned the Feed Content View. It now uses a more "traditional" layout where
posts and post content are split between 2 windows - one showing a list of posts
and second (pop-up window) shows the content of the post.
- Switched the positions of the Podcasts/Player and Feed Content views. The views
are now in the following order from left to right: Category <-> Feeds <->
Feed Content <-> Podcasts/Player. In the new arrangement, the Player view
stays "out of the way" when switching between Feeds and Feed Content views
- Added "SmartPlay" - a feature that automatically generates playlist based on your
listening preferences (for example first play the 3 newest podcasts of feed A then
play the 2 newest podcast of Feed B etc.)
- Added a Player Widget that provides a convenient way to play podcasts from the
home screen (including starting a "SmarPaly", and updating the feeds included in
"SmartPlay")
- Added a setting (located in Settings - Feed Update Settings) to hide the notification
icon at the end of update
- Small fixes to "Mark Item as Read at the end of Playback" functionality. Added
extra logging that should help trace any remaining issues there.
- Added an option to "color tag" categories. This should make it easier to locate
a category in the list (added to edit category screen)
- Added an option to search on the Feed Import Screen. Now it is easy to "filter"
the feed/podcast directories to find a particular feed. (also works when importing
from Google Reader)
- We are back to the default (black) background.
- After podcast finishes playing, the respective feed item is now marked as "Read".
This will work for the new podcasts that are downloaded from now on.
- Refactored the implementation of "Force Unique Names" in feed properties, to handle
podcasts that change their download urls on every update.
- Added a fix (hopefully) for situations where podcasts are being interrupted if
BeyondPod is not the active application. There is still possibility that downloads
will be interrupted if the device experiences a severe memory pressure (but that
should happen less frequently). In those cases BeyondPod will try to resume the
download when memory becomes available.
- Refactored the "Add Feed" screen to be a single place to search for feeds, browse
feed directories or import from Google reader or OPML file. A common list of popular
feed/podcast directories is now stored on the BeyondPod web site and can be easily
updated. (If you know of a feed directory that you would like to see there, please
let me know)
- Added an easier way to access BeyondPod Log file for debugging purposes. (Menu
> More > About BeyondPod > Tap and Hold on the line that shows the version number.)
The new screen has a Menu to to e-mail the logfile as an attachment to our support
email.
- Added a setting to turn logging of scheduling and download history events. The
log information should help track down cases where podcasts are being incorrectly
downloaded more than once or when BeyondPod misses scheduling update. To turn on
logging use Menu > More > About and "long press" on the version line (e.g. BeyondPod
v1.1.X)
- Fixed a bug where in some unknow reason BeyondPod database was reported incorrectly
as "missing", which resulted in re-importing the feeds from the backup. The end
result was that each feed got copied again and appears twice in the list of feeds.
- Refactored the way BeyondPod checks for an Unlock Key which should result in somewhat
smaller overall memory usage.
- Added a setting that can be used to hide BeyondPod podcasts from the built In
Android Media Player. The setting is called "Share Podcasts" in the "General Settings"
section.
- Downloaded icons are also now excluded by default from being visible in the Android
Gallery (picture viewer) application.
- Fixed a crash caused by recycling of bitmaps during the low memory conditions
- Fixed a bug where the player will not always correctly start playing the Next
Podcast when using stereo Bluetooth connection
- Various improvements in the feed content view based on user feedback
- Added a global setting for configuring the page size in the Feed Content View
- Added a global setting for configuring the default number of podcasts to download.
(Only applicable when adding a new feed)
- Fixed several issues in Update Scheduling service. BeyondPod will also warn if
you schedule tasks that start at the same time or can "overlap".
- Replaced the feed storage from using an XML file to an Android database. (BeyondPod
still creates automatic backups to the storage card every time feed subscriptions
are modified.)
- The player has now a "Sleep" function with a choice of 90, 60, 30 minutes.
- Fixed an issue where the feed repository was not correctly recovered from backups
if the primary repository fails to load for some reason
- Added support for AVRC profile.(AVRC allows you to control play/pause, next and
previous track from a Bluetooth device such as a stereo headset). Both the wired
headset button and AVRC should work if they are enabled in the global BeyondPod
setting - "Use headset button" (OFF by default). You can run the build on both 1.1
and 1.5 devices but AVRC will be available only on devices running 1.5 (Cupcake)
build.
- Added special handling for links to YouTube videos in feeds. BeyondPod will "attempt"
to recognize several variations of links to YouTube videos and try to reformat them
such that they are playable in the built in YouTube player."
- Added a global setting (called "Format Pages For Mobile") that allows BeyondPod
to forward links to external pages to a mobile optimization service (Such as Goolge
Mobile or Skweezer). Reformatted pages are simpler to browse and download much faster.
- BeyondPod is now built using the official 1.5 SDK. It is still fully 1.1 compatible
- so far no 1.5 specific features are used.
- Added the ability to search for feeds. Feed search is accessible using "Menu >
Add Feed"
- Feed images (the ones shown in the feed list for each feed) are also supported
for for Google Reader feeds. The image will be automatically downloaded (if the
feed has one) the first time you update the feed. To "refresh" the images for the
existing feeds, you can clear the feed cache and run an update.
- You can now control the podcast playback using the headset button (similar to
the built in media player).
- Single click - toggles play/pause
- Double Click - skips to the end of the current podcast.
- Long press - skips forward 30 seconds
Keep in mind that BeyondPod takes over the control of the headset button only if
your BeyondPod playlist (when you pull up the drawer on the player screen) has podcasts
in it!
- For aggregate feeds imported from Google Reader (for example "My Starred Items")
BeyondPod now shows the name of the original feed from which that item came.
- Feed and history repositories are now stored on the main phone memory (instead
of the storage card). This should resolve issues where FAT table corruption on the
storage card occasionally causes all feeds to disappear. Backups of all repositories
are still stored on the storage card every time a feed is added or deleted. Because
of the repository location changes, if you would like to be able to go back to version
1.0.40 make sure you make a backup copy of your repository files (TrackState.xml.
BeyondPodHistory.bin, BeyondPodItemHistory.bin located in /sdcard/BeyondPod) before
running the 1.0.41 build.
- Fixed a bug where moving the player progress bar (for example when you want to
seek to a given point in the podcast) was not working correctly.
- Improved integration with Google Reader. BeyondPod can now recognize "Starred"
items and push both "Read" and "Starred" items back to Google Reader. Make sure
you read the Google Reader Integration section
in the Help!
- All external links from the feed content are now opened by default in the same
browser window (rather than launching the default browser). Long press over any
link will open a context menu with options to e-mail or copy the link. (There is
now an option in the global settings to switch to the old style and open all external
links in the default browser).
- Small improvement in the way BeyondPod controls the power management during updates
that should result in reduced battery usage.
- Various improvements in the HTML generated for the feed content.
- Added infrastructure to create an automatic secondary backup file of the repository
every time a feed is added/removed. This backup will be used as a last resort if
the repository and the primary backup both get corrupted for some reason.
- Added basic support for RDF feeds
- The behavior of the Back button (to loop between Feeds and Categories or to close
the main window) is now configurable in the global settings
- BeyondPod notification icon is now cleared from the notification area when the
main windows opens
- The title of the Feed Content View now shows the number of unread items in the
feed
- The Back button on the Feeds View now switches to categories instead of going
to the home screen
- If the built-in player is playing, is paused before BeyondPod starts playback
- Various bug fixes reported thru the Beta feedback
- "Read" Feeds are now displayed with a slightly darker color to make them more
distinguishable from the unread ones
- Several small bug fixes in various parts of the product
- When the Beta version expires (v 1.0.31 is set to expire on May 1), BeyondPod
now switches to a restricted mode (instead of refusing to start). Restricted mode
limits downloading of only one feed or podcast at a time.
- Added a menu for Clearing the WebView Cache (stored in /data/data/mobi.beyondpod/cache/webviewCache)
and the Feed Cache (stored in /sdcard/BeyondPod/RssCache). The option is located
in Menu > More > Clear Caches
- Added support for password protected feeds. Now you can add user name/password
in the feed properties.
- There is an option to change the color of the item titles in the feed Content
view (used to be Orange). The option is located in the global settings.
- Fixed an issue with the Scheduling where it did not set correctly the start time
of the schedule if the repeat interval was set to hours
- Fixed a bug in Google Reader integration where Shared items were not synchronized
correctly
- Feed parsing engine was enhanced to handle wider variety of feeds including support
for Cyrillic and other languages
- Added several improvements to the Feed Content view, including wider spacing between
controls and fixes to scrolling when items are marked as read
- Fixed the issue where BeyondPod would show java.lang.integer error in the feed
content view or crash on opening the settings screen.
- Fixed an issue with scheduling where BeyondPod would stop the update schedule
after a device reboot
- Fixed an issue where the feed progress bar remains visible after switching from
the Feed Content view to the feeds view.
- Added more graceful handling of storage card removal and insertion while BeyondPod
is running. This also affects the case when you mount/dismount the storage card
using the USB connection
- Fixed an issue that sometimes would cause a crash in the Feed Content View
- Added Update Scheduling. You can now schedule separate update schedules for each
category. (Press and hold over the category in the Category View to set the schedule)
- Added Support for streaming and playing Videos and static Images
- Added a global setting to automatically update the feeds every time they are open
in the content view
- Added a global setting to Toggle WiFi During update (WiFi On -> Update -> WiFi
Off)
- Added a global setting that prevents BeyondPod of using the cellular connection
for updates. (Useful if your cellular data plans charge for traffic)
- Added a global setting to disable the automatic download of feed images in the
browser.
- Added more spacing between the items in the items in feed content view
- Reduced the timeout when the remote server is unavailable
- Removed Accelerometer screen rotation