I've been meaning to do this for a while. The guys at @atpfm graciously allowed me to use their podcast to compare the Overcasts 'Smart Speed' with RSSRadio's 'Silence Skip'
@MarcoArment (the author of Overcast) points out that he has optimised Overcast for a 'Natural Sound'.
I have aimed RSSRadio's silence skip at about 5/10% time saving on the average indie podcast.
In iOS9, you can set the Maps app so it will interrupt RSSRadio (version 3.6.0 onwards) rather than speak over the instructions:
During navigation, press the "speaker" button on the bottom.
Switch the "Pause Spoken Audio" to ON.
iSitter 4.0 is now available on the App Store®
Whats New:
Apple will most likely release iOS9 in the next couple of weeks, i've been beavering away behind the scenes here at Dorada HQ getting everything ready.
Here are the highlights:
Will be completely compatible with iOS9, supporting front and back cameras and variable brightness "flash" to use as a nightlight. Also unlimited range monitoring for use with LTE / 3G or across different WiFi networks.
Added a WatchOS2 audio recording app to record directly on the watch and automatically upload onto your iPhone when its next available. Also added the ability to retrospectively strip out silences in the recording. Fixed a couple of long running bugs.
Support iOS9 features such as picture in picture video, split screen support and the new Safari view controller. The watch app has been re-written in WatchOS2 to make it faster and more reliable.
Later today Apple will release iOS8.4, and with it we will get our first chance to have an extensive look at Apple Music.
There is one feature i'm particularly looking forward to - better battery life for my iPhone.
Apple Music will be in 256kbps AAC, as compared to my currently (maxed out at 3000 songs) Spotify library of 320kbps Ogg Vorbis music.
I spend a lot of time making sure RSSRadio's custom audio player is as efficient on battery as it can be, so i've seen the difference Apple's hardware audio decoders can make. I can well remember when I first used Spotify on my old iPhone 3GS that the battery life was particularly painful.
Over the years Spotify has definitely got better on the battery, either through advances in iOS, the iPhone hardware or optimising their decoder (probably some of all 3), but still i'm thinking that if you play a couple of hours of music a day you are going to notice the difference.
With iOS9 giving us an extra hour of battery later this year, and Apple Music helping along, maybe we won't be hitting that 20% battery warning quite so often?