NarrowCast Release 1.1 & What's Next
The first update to NarrowCast is out, which introduces a couple of changes to the UI (the first round of several over the coming weeks):
Changes to the sidebar: You can now search/add podcast feeds from anywhere in the app, as well as collapsed/expand it at will.
Improved player bar: The player bar is now smaller and scales to snap views better.
There's also the usual bug squashing, including a particularly nasty one involving the playback of downloaded video podcasts (spoiler: You can now). If you have auto-updates on for apps then the changes should already be applied, otherwise it's waiting for you with open arms in the Windows Store.
Version 1.2 should be coming out sometime in the next week or two, which in addition to the above mentioned UI changes will also include:
Sleep Timer: Put on the timer and fall asleep to your favourite podcast. It'll automatically pause the currently playing episode when it goes off.
Auto Download: New episodes will automatically downloaded when found (and when the app is running, this will be improved in a future update).
OneDrive support: The current method of syncing will be removed due to reliability issues and replaced with OneDrive support, which should ensure near instant sync.
The very last thing I want to talk about is the lack of a phone version. There's definitely one coming, though I'm currently waiting to see what gets announced at next week's BUILD conference before I start making any concrete decisions, plus would rather at the moment focus on improving the Win 8 version.
Thank you everybody who's bought/downloaded NarrowCast. It means a lot to me.
- Corey