Please rate this app! Please rate this app! Please rate this app!

If you use third party iOS apps, i'm quite sure you will have seen something like this dialog. It was probably pretty annoying.

It sensible to wonder why developers would put such a user hostile interruption into an app, could it be that important for them to have their ego stroked by people telling them how wonderful their design and programming is?

Lets look at some data, here is what happened to RSSRadio downloads after the 4.0.1 release and the app rating was reset to zero:

Downloads dropped dramatically.

Now thats not ideal from a revenue point of view, but its actually a lot worse if it continues for any length of time. The App Store® uses downloads and ratings not only to place apps in top lists but also to place apps in search results, a prolonged period of low downloads will cause the app to drop in search results which will cause downloads to drop further which will... well, you get the idea...

Not having that magic 5 ratings which get your stars to appear could easily turn a viable app into a not viable one. Not a great incentive for developers to release a new version is it?

So, when you rate or review an app, you doing so will help keep an app you use (and maybe rely on) developed and maintained on the App Store® and it only costs you 20 seconds of your day. Thats not such a bad deal.

RSSRadio 4.0

I'm delighted to announce that RSSRadio 4.0 is now available on the App Store almost exactly 6 years after the first version was released.

What a long way we've come, many of you have been on this journey with me.

RSSRadio 4.0 is not about revolution, but about evolving the product - trying to remove friction and make using the app more obvious. Where i've added features i've tried to ensure everything remains well organised and as easy as possible to understand.

Many of the changes and new features are as a direct result of user suggestions and even more are the result of thinking about the common things people have questions about, so please always do contact me with feedback.

4.0 (Aug 2016)

Themes:

• Refreshed UI
• Better performance and stability through updating to new API’s
• Many user requested features implemented including listening history screen, DSP settings per podcast and cloud import/export/backup/restore
• Many small friction and pain points removed / polished

Complete Notes:

• Improved watch app performance
• Improved database performance through moving large objects to separate tables
• Watch quick launch complication
• Improved spotlight indexing of shows
• Users with very large numbers of downloaded files can now see their usage stats
• Added screen to view recently listened shows
• You can backup and restore RSSRadio’s data to any cloud drive service installed on your device
• UI to Import a media file directly from a cloud drive service
• New subscription setting - “End Playing At”
• Added “mini player” on play queue screen
• Ads have moved outside the main UI of the app, allowing free users to use the new mini player and enhanced landscape now playing view
• Improved performance with large numbers of categories
• You can view how many shows are in the database for each podcast in the usage report
• RSSRadio will warn the user of various performance issues and provide advice on fixing them
• Increased some font weights to look better with future iOS versions
• The sleep timer remembers your last selections for quick access
• A large refactoring to adopt more recent API’s means RSSRadio requires iOS9, the largest visual change is that show titles in lists are no longer truncated
• Improved 3D Touch compatibility
• If the app receives a push notification for a new show but the feed doesn’t show it yet (due to caching or internet weather) it can get the details direct from RSSRadio’s server to begin the download soonest
• You can set custom DSP settings for a particular podcast
• When you add something to the play queue, if it needs downloading RSSRadio will queue it automatically for you
• Podcast directory search is right there on the main directory screen
• ‘Add to Play Queue’ screens now make filters more accessible and you can choose whether its divided by category or not
• Show archive screens allow you to directly change the archiving setting for that podcast
• You can share a link to a specific time in a show
• For new users, archiving defaults to off to reduce confusion of shows "disappearing", when the database gets too full they will be prompted to turn it on
• Listening Statistics has its own menu option in settings

Testers Needed

I'm working on some nice updates for some of my apps and am looking for beta testers.

If you are a user of Dictaphone, UK Train Times, or RSSRadio. Drop me a line support@dorada.co.uk

Dictaphone Update Brings High Quality Professional Transcription and More...

Dictaphone 1.5 is now available on the AppStore®, bringing 2 important new features with it.

Transcription

You can now send your audio files to be transcribed to text.

To implement this feature i've teamed up with one of the most professional transcription services - dictate2us. They use professional transcribers based on secure equipment locally in their offices, bringing guaranteed privacy and a high quality of service.

Dictaphone transfers files to the service using industry standard web encryption, further ensuring the privacy of your data.

This service is available immediately for English, and will rapidly expand to other languages.

Undo Delete

I get far too many people emailing me explaining that they have deleted an audio file by mistake, and how can they get it back.

Now by shaking your device, you can get back your last deleted audio file!