Argh. Dark themes must be so nice on the X. It’s almost like Apple should offer a system wide dark theme...
The new 'Black' theme is great, even on my SE. I think it's more that you *want* a dark theme on the X as it hides the silly notch.
It’s good that the third-party podcast app developers are working to improve their apps, since Apple’s own app team seems hellbent on whittling the features of the company’s app down to nothing.
No doubt. While it added a feature here or there, overall Apple does seem hellbent on destroying it. (Actually, it's probably more that they put new people on the project that don't know UI/UX design.) But, unfortunately, that seems to be an Apple trend in general.
I purchased Overcast but fail to see how it’s better than Apple's Podcasts app.
It's better in a bunch of ways. First, as already mentioned, the 'Smart Speed' with fine-grained control over playback speed is incredibly useful and smooth. I currently listen to most podcasts at an effective rate of between 2x and 3x. I wasn't able to do this with other apps. (According to the app stats, Smart Speed alone has saved me 234 hours in about a year since I started using Overcast.)
Second, the UI/UX generally makes sense and it's an enjoyable app to use. I was constantly fighting with Apple's poor UI/UX implementation or frustrated I couldn't do things I should have been able to do. (Marco has made some odd decisions a couple of times in the last year, but I think this current version irons most of them out pretty well.)
Third, since I am now subscribed to over 50 podcasts, Apple's app just couldn't handle it well. It was constantly trying to check for new episodes, using tons of bandwidth/resources, crashing often, somewhat unresponsive, etc. (Also, this creates a bunch of resource usage for the podcast RSS feeds themselves!)
Overcast gets notified of new episodes by a server that scans the feeds. This means when the app checks, it almost instantly knows if there are new episodes and the downloads begin (if set to download). What would take 5-10 minutes with Apple Podcasts often takes 30 sec to a minute with Overcast (and a TON less data, increased battery life, etc.).
Another feature I've just enabled is the ability to just dump random audio files to Overcast servers and have it integrate into my podcast listening. For example, I can text-to-audio something I need to read on my computer, or a book, etc. and easily incorporate it into my podcast listening.
It also has smart-playlists so I can pick which podcasts to put in a list and then prioritize and set rules about how they play in order.
It also has a great sharing feature, where you can send a link (or copy it, etc.) right from the app to get people to the episode you're listening to, or even to the exact point in the episode you're listening to. For example:
https://overcast.fm/+K15KU03uQ
There are a few flaws... like it seems the download or not is a universal setting. So, since I'm set to download, I end up getting every episode of every podcast... even the episodes that I end up just trashing (for the podcasts I don't listen to every episode of). That throws off that podcast's stats and uses bandwidth. Also, subscriptions set in Overcast don't register as subscribed to Apple, so you have to remember (if you're a good podcast audience member) to subscribe via Apple as well. (FYI: # of subscribers is THE metric that determines podcast ranking... so do your favorite podcasts a favor and be sure to subscribe via iTunes/Apple no matter what app you use!)
The other problem occurs (very infrequently) when something goes wonky with the above server setup. I few times I've noticed no new episodes for a podcast, and when investigating, they had new episodes in their feed. Typically this is resolved in a few days, but it once took nearly a month.
The problem with this is that Marco seems to have an ideological thing against providing support. So, you can try to contact him (haven't gotten a response), but who knows if it did any good? So, a subscription is more like a tip-jar than a real subscription or payment for an app (if you don't need a couple of the advanced features). Fortunately, as mentioned, I haven't needed much support.
