Stitcher for Podcasts

I also had the same issue where the app would crash when reaching the "local" selection. I had the issue in almost every other area of the app as well. A new update has been released. I just tested it and I think the issue has been resolved.

Sticher Radio was one of my absolute favorite that I used on a regular basis. Found the application very easy to maneuver around. Stitcher Radio just updated their application to a new version yesterday to version 4.4.017023. Now the application is very hard to maneuver around. They completely redesign the interfaces. There are a few buttons not labeled however it is all Voice Over usability. It may be just me but I am having a great deal of problems in figuring out the new interface. Very disappointed and wished I hadn't updated it. Very confusing to use now.

I just had an incredible dialog with one of the developers over the last week. Some of the recent updates changed the way the program looked when you launch the app as the last comment stated. I'm thinking they wanted to feature their new in house content of audio news headlines, and other new stations on the front screen. The latest update gives you more control over the interface, and it let's you set to which screen the app opens on launch. This is under more/settings. I have mine set to open directly into my favorites station. They have added a smart station where they suggest shows based on your preferences, and you can ban shows altogether from Stitcher with a thumbs down. They also added a sleep timer you access from the More page. My other concern was it was very difficult to adjust the play speed of the podcast. The way you do this is that from the stream window You are supposed to press the power user button, and the play speed appears maybe just to the left of the thumb down button. But I was told the window disappears after 10 seconds. Sometimes VO would still see this button, only the speed wouldn't change because the functionality had already gone away. Sometimes the button wouldn't show up at all. The screen just wasn't redrawing. They said that based on my suggestion, in the next update this window will stay on screen for 20 seconds, giving us plenty of time to find and hit the button for the 4 different speed levels. Here's another tip. You can rewind and fast forward a podcast by doing a double tap and hold on a slider. You drag your finger left or right. It is difficult to know how far you've gone, so you just sort of have to guess. I requested fixed increment buttons on the power user page, as well as adding the sleep timer to this page to make it easier to access while listening to a stream. We will see what happens. There is a 30 second rewind button on the power user page, but I haven't found it with VO. The main thing for me is that this is a wonderful app. After the demise of Audio Press I was prety much bereft! I love a program that let's me stream all my favorite shows like NBC Nightly News, Clark Howard, 60 minutes, and so many more, without having to save them on the device. I like that you can even add live stations to your favorite stations screen. The program is very stable, and they are listening to their users and continuing to update this app quite regularly, and they are aware of our accessibility concerns. So because of these reasons I am nominating Stitcher for our app Hall of Fame.

New major update that contains quite a few new features. The interface is not the best. Still seem to be very accessible with a few label buttons. What's New in Version 5.0.0 ✦ New! Offline Mode– Listen to your shows anywhere in offline mode, our most requested feature. Stitcher automatically updates in the background when you open the app, so you’re always up to date. Set Stitcher to update via WiFi only to conserve your cellular data. Worried about space? Stitcher always displays the amount of storage used, and you can delete saved shows with one tap. ✦ New! Comments – See what other people are saying about your favorite episodes and join the conversation. ✦ Easier Sharing to Facebook – Keep the sharing alive with pre-populated show descriptions, sources and a bigger comment box. ✦ Improved Search – It’s even easier to search for past episodes on iPad. ✦ Improved AirPlay and connected device integration – Stitcher will always pass show information to iPod/iPhone compatible devices and AirPlay. ✦ Key usability improvements and crash fixes – Stitcher is more reliable and intuitive, with improvements to make searching and playing shows even easier.

I believe we are up to 6.0 now. The app is still useable, but some problems have been introduced. I detail those below, and they say an update is coming that should resolve many of my issues. Hello Reginald, Thanks for taking the time to give us this excellent feedback on the voiceover experience. We are collecting a number of similar such feedbacks from our sight impaired users and will be putting out a bug fix release in a few weeks with as many of these issues taken care of as possible. Sorry we didn’t get it all right first time. Ashley On Apr 4, 2014, at 8:50 AM, Reginald George wrote: Well, it’s interesting. I’ll try to put these in order of importance. There is a button under the heading of now playing that does not appear to be labeled. Voiceover just says button. I believe it's purpose is to expand the now playing window to full screen. We need to know this. Especially when trying to access or toggle between segments in a podcast, or between the recent episodes, and listeners also like views. Next, a window pops up randomly, probably when ads are being served, and it obscures all the controls in the window. Voiceover just says caiphoneredirec.php link progress halted. The close button next to it is available, but this definitely hinders navigation. Could this ad window be made invisible to VO users, or could it go away on its own immediately? Thirdly, and this is a huge one for me. If you expand now playing to full screen in a podcast with segments like PBS News Hour, then you can see the segments with their descriptions interspersed with play and listen later buttons. This window is almost impossible to comprehend because the segments aren’t numbered, and you can’t tell what you’ve already heard, or where you are as you flick your way through the window. Also there are no previous and next segment links or buttons as there were before. The skip button as before jumps you to the next item in the play list. Same with the previous and next track buttons on the lock screen. There has got to be an easy way under the regular now playing window to jump between segments. I don’t need all the segments visible on the screen at the same time. If you want to put them all there even though it’s cluttered, that’s cool, but give me an easy way to jump to the previous and next segment. And label that now playing expand and collapse button. A minor issue is that in car mode the tool tip or navigation hint says swipe down to exit car mode. For us it would be more accurate to say “Swipe down with three fingers to exit car mode”. Another minor issue that has been in the interface for some time is the speed button doesn’t say normal or 1X when it’s back to default, or give any indication as you cycle through the choices what speed you are hearing. I know this is possible as the native iPod app does give you this information. It could even just say 1x, 2X, and so on. I do appreciate the label for the Toggle Advanced Controls button. Lastly, it still feels like Voiceover support is an after thought. You guys don’t mention when improvements are made to VO support on the App Store update page, and when major revisions like this to the interface come out, things get broken, upsetting your loyal visually impaired users. I would like to see our needs take a slightly higher priority than they have in the past at Stitcher. A specific help and tips page listing accessibility features in the app would also be helpful. Respectfully, Reginald George

I have to thank Reginald for this app and suggesting it to me. I do wonder though what the in ap purchases are supposed to be for. I do like the fact that you can have this launch from your favorites list as I set that in my preferences. But, I was wondering if there was a way to have the ap play all of your stations that you have selected in your favorites. One right after the other non-stop until you have reached the end of your list. I would also like to see something improved with VoiceOver when you add something to your favorites list since you get no notification about this. That is something I will surely ask the developer's about. I bring this last point up in the event you are totally blind and you aren't sure if the button has been selected or not. If you have a little bit of vision, you can see this.
Other then that, this ap is awesome and is great for listening to podcasts. I don't download the podcasts to listen off line as my iPod fifth gen is only a 15 gb unit.