Why I do not want to use another iOS podcast client than Castro

Castro is still pretty fresh in the iOS App Store (currently version 1.0.6, first release came in late 2013) but has already beaten the competitors in my opinion. Here is why:

Castro is winning by simplicity. Focusing on features and using using the fresh iOS 7 design.
Great simple feed search engine (worked perfect for my favorite German podcasts).
Push notification works.
It is stable.
Once again, I like the simple intuitive design.

Other settled podcast player in iOS market help Castro to succeed by not fixing their issues. I am coming from Instacast and this is why I think it does not fit anymore:

When I open Instacast by sliding push messages on my lock screen it crashes nearly up to 50%.
Up Next Feature does not work for me. Lists are useless, everything works just through Up Next.
Sync feature with its OS X app is a mess, similar to Apple’s Podcast app.

This is why Apple’s Podcast app does not work either:

Sync with other iOS and OS X devices is a mess.
Push notification is not existing (Is it? I have never seen any).
Navigation is too complicated.

By using Castro I completely discarded thinking about syncing podcasts on several devices, I am using Airplay devices like AppleTV or AirServer.

My ideas to improve Castro:

Add an option for continuously playing all my podcast episodes, instead of stopping after each one.
Add support for password protected feeds.
Start playing an episode immediately by opening the episode. I do not want to tap play after opening it.
Integrate Airplay button in the lower control bar.

Update:

Add missing sharing options to share your current podcast episode on Twitter.
Double Tap to play episodes immediately instead of opening it.

How to integrate AVM smart devices into HomeKit by using openHAB

After some evaluating openHAB (Vers. 2.2.0) on my NAS I wanted to do it right and started with this (German) article to use openHABian together with a Raspberry Pi.My primary goal was to integrate my AVM smart home devices to control them with HomeKit . To get started I used the following items: Raspberry PI SD Card 16 GB And the following software (I used a Mac, so you might need to replace some tools if you use another OS): Download the latest openHABian image here . This is a dedicated linux distribution to provide an openHAB server. Download SD Formatter here . Needed to format your SD card. Download Etcher here . Needed to install the openHABian image on the SD card. Installation openHABian Insert the SD card Connect the Raspberry Pi via LAN with your network Plugin the Raspberry Pi Wait about 45 minutes until all updates were installed When everything went well you should be able to connect to http://openhabianpi:8080 Connect via ssh: ssh openh...

Install and verify IIS HttpModules with custom config sections

A week ago I started to learn about HttpModules and HttpHandlers watching a pluralsight course by Robert Boedigheimer . First of all I want to really recommend this course, I learned a lot of stuff which I could not find in any other course, book or blog post. As I already did in the past with another course , I want to add some comments and extend the HttpModule part. I refer to the course example with the serverMaskModuleGAC. I walked into some trap doors and thereby I found another approach to simplify the installation process of the module to GAC a little bit. With this approach I am able to verify my custom config sections and module registration is correct. Here is my approach: 1. When you have finished your implementation for serverMaskModule, install it in the GAC as usual by using the gacutil tool. By the way, there are some traps when you need to install it on Windows Server 2012 . Here I am using Windows 8.1 64 Bit. I created my HttpModule with .NET 2.0 because it se...

How does AppFabric cache calculates the values for RequestCount, ReadRequestCount, WriteRequestCount and MissCount?

When I started to use the Get-CacheStatistics cmdlet to monitor caching activities more intensivley I was often confused. Here an example: Should not be ReadCount+WriteCount = RequestCount? Why is WriteRequestCount increasing +2 although I just send one put request? By talking to Microsoft support I figured out how AppFabric cache calculates its numbers (Thanks to Gayathri from Distributed Service Team). Number calculation behavior depends on your configuration, high availability and local cache have a major impact on it. Activity RequestCount ReadRequestCount WriteRequestCount MissCount DataCacheFactory is initialized and Named Cache is up +1 - - - Put item, not yet in local and server cache +1 - +1 (+2 with HA) +1 Get item from local cache - - - - Get item from server cache, local cache has expired +1 +1 - - Get item, local and server cache has expired +1 +1 - +1 I hope this is helpful for you when you are analyzing the caching behavior f...

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