We loved the new Castro podcasting app in our recent review, but our main beef with the app was with the lack of non-iTunes subscription support. In previous versions of Castro, there was no way to manually add feed URLs from podcasts that aren’t listed in iTunes. This meant that shows like Let’s Talk Jailbreak, which are not on iTunes, couldn’t be played via Castro.
The good news is that Supertop, the developers behind Castro, didn’t let this glaring omission go on for too long. The team has just pushed Castro version 1.0.2 to the App Store, and with it comes the ability to subscribe to podcasts directly from URLs. The update includes quite a few more additions to the app as well; check inside for the full change log.
With the addition of URL support, now it’s totally feasible to listen to both Let’s Talk Jailbreak and Let’s Talk iOS within Castro. The release also adds new options to manually download episodes on mobile data, podcast art search, sound effects disabling, and a whole host of additional bug fixes.
Castro video reveiw
Here’s the full change log for Castro 1.0.2:
- You can subscribe to podcast from URL copied to clipboard.
- You can manually download episodes using mobile data even if you have it turned off to automatic downloads.
- Adds larger cache size options. See Castro settings in the Settings app.
- Adds setting to disable sound effects.
- Fixes bug that could cause data loss if you tried to play an episode from the lock screen after a device restart.
- Enables pull to refresh on Episodes tab even when no episodes are showing.
- Uses search result artwork if podcast feed is missing artwork.
- Original podcast art on the lock screen.
- Fixes a layout bug when tapping into a podcast from search results.
- Fixes bug where download notifications weren’t getting sent sometimes.
- Fixes bug where downloads found when on mobile data weren’t getting downloaded when back on Wifi.
As I stated in my original review:
If your a seasoned podcast listener who doesn’t need a lot of superfluous features, then I think you’ll love Castro.
I still stand by that quote, especially since the app remains priced at $2.99 on the App Store. Be sure to share your thoughts on this latest Castro update and your experience with the app in general.