Overview
Tired of listening to the same four songs over and over that the disc jockeys force you to listen to? Talk radio bores you and you’re uninterested in corny jokes and advertisers attempting to sell you everything you don’t need or want?
I can’t speak for you, but repetitive music just is not for me. I prefer silence over the radio to skip the disc jockeys and their forced music. No radio, no phone, just fresh air, and energy.
Although, with mobile technology, finding quality content that I can control is no longer an issue. I recently have been introduced to Wondercasts, available for download via Google Play. Wondercasts allows you to manage and listen to your favorite podcasts as well as discover new podcasts. The app also allows you to cast podcasts to your television, and also enables you to download podcasts to your device so when you don’t have access to an internet connection you can still listen to what you have downloaded.
Setup
Setting up Wondercasts was extremely simple. All I had to do was download the application from Google Play which is free with an ad removable option for just ninety-nine cents. After the installation was complete, I was able to start browsing within Wondercasts for podcasts without creating an account or registering any login credentials.
Function
I have been using Wondercasts daily for the past seven days. Upon using Wondercasts, I didn’t have any real expectations on what the app would or wouldn’t offer nor did I feel I needed it. I had previously used iHeart Radio on a regular basis and had no complaints. Until now, I was uninterested in searching for any podcasts or even starting fresh with a new podcast provider.
Out the gate, I was greeted with a crisp and professional user interface(UI) that utilized Google’s Material Design standards. The background was clean and white accented with baby blue(my favorite color)which was very inviting. My Wondercasts experience got off to a good start.
I was immediately able to search the vast content Wondercasts provided without being badgered to create an account or login via Facebook or Google+. Wondercasts conveniently categorized their menu allowing for easy navigation.
The menu options:
Podcast– allows one-click access to all of the Podcasts that you subscribed to.
Lists– is the section that displays the podcasts that you have saved offline to view when you have no internet connection
Downloads – shows real-time status of the size of the podcasts you are downloading along with an estimated download time.
Settings– is quite detailed and useful compared to a lot of other applications. The settings menu allows you to update podcast cover art, control playback controls, provides options to save battery and more.
Popular– this section is for content discovery where you can search popular podcasts. If you are unable to find any podcasts of interest, you are able to filter your search by genres. Example: you could search for business podcasts and catch up on TED Talks from the business section and get knowledge from the great speaker Simon Sinek. Or you could browse Sports & Recreation and find podcasts on America’s team the Dallas Cowboys if that is your interest.
After discovering podcasts that I was interested in, my experience became even more entertaining and pleasing. I stumbled upon a business podcast entitled “Build a Badass Business”. The display image of “Build a Badass Business” was crisp and high resolution. I immediately realized that the playback controls were the same color as the graphics of the podcasts which is a very nice touch. That was just the cake, here comes the icing: the playback controls have very cool animations that flip and twist when pressed. Also when listening to a podcast, you can set a timer for how long you would like to listen. Another feature that I found useful was when you are playing a podcast if you access the overflow menu (3 linear dots near the top of the application) you can access a Go-to option. The Go-to option allows you to type in the time code of the podcast to easily access a specific point in time in the podcast, down to the second.
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After using Wondercasts for the past few days, I have discovered multiple podcasts that I now listen to daily. The simplicity, design, and easy-to-discover content allowed me to quickly become comfortable with Wondercasts. Wondercasts now is a daily option for me to visit like Youtube and Spotify.
Who will find Wondercasts useful
Wondercasts is a well-rounded application that does many things right. Wondercasts is for Individuals who travel frequently and those who want to spend their driving time in a more useful manner than listening to repetitive music. Wondercasts has a wide variety of content to choose from – movies, sports, business, news & politics etc. There are multiple genres that could benefit and entertain you.
What We Like
- Beautiful User Interface
- Playback control animations
- Wide variety of podcasts /easy to discover new podcasts
- Download podcasts offline to your device
What We didn’t Like
- Upon constant usage, I did notice some forced close errors
Summary
Wondercasts organizing podcasts for you to easily discover is not a new concept. Although what is great is that Wondercasts is an old concept repackaged with great design, easy to discover content, small graphical and animated tweaks that enables a well designed useful app that simply works.
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