DoggCatcher

by Android Tapp Jul 8, 2009 5:00 AM – 5 Comments

Install

DoggCatcher. Manage your podcasts and RSS/News feeds with the most highly rated Podcatcher in the Market. Podcast Audio and Video (download and streaming), News/RSS – RSS 2.0, and RSS 1.0(RDF).

Price: $6.99

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Features:

Gripe Alert: Our expectations in using DoggCatcher as a RSS Reader were not met. To explain, when you enter the RSS URL with textual content, you can only see a snippet of the article thus linking you to the full article (often times the snippet is riddled with weird characters). The purpose of using a RSS Reader is to read the content without the ads or images from a website. Also, using the search for RSS feeds yields little to no results often.

Our expectations of the textual portion of the app was compared to Feedr Android App, which does an excellent job at pulling in textual/image base content, easy RSS feed search and Android Notifications of new content available (features DoggCatcher lack).

On the other hand, DoggCatcher Android App shines best as an audio Podcast reader. If you know the Podcast URL and enter it into the app, it does a good job of queuing Podcasts for download and playback from SD Card.

Gripe Alert: if the podcaster you’re listening to is not using a major broadcast service such as BlogTalkRadio.com, you might not get the true experience from the app as intended. For example, luckily we can download and listen to our friends at AndroidGuys’ weekly podcast via BlogTalkRadio… but can’t listen to some of the podcasts from “Tekzilla Daily Tip” that’s predefined with the app. We got “Cannot play video” error messages.

: DoggCatcher Feeds

: DoggCatcher Feed Item List

: DoggCatcher Enter RSS URL

: DoggCatcher Menu Options

: DoggCatcher Preferences

Usefulness & Frequently Used:

DoggCatcher Android App is useful for Android users who listen to Podcasts often.

Interface:

The user interface packs a lot into the small screen and pretty decent to navigate & use.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(3.6 out of 5)

Should you Download DoggCatcher? Determine your need for Listening to Podcasts… if it’s High… then Grab It! Just be Cautioned, it’s not the most well-round RSS Reader.

Developer: Podcatcher

Tags: Android Apps, AndroidTapp.com App Review, DoggCatcher, News Reader, Podcasts, RSS Reader

Categorised in: Multimedia

5 Comments

By Matt on July 9, 2009 at 1:01 am:

This is definitely the worst review you’ve done on this site. I’m not sure how you can call a half-italicized article a review anyway. You spent most of this “review” qualifying gripes you had with the app.

FWIW, Doggcatcher has without a doubt been my #1 most used app since it first came out (months and months ago, easily the beginning of this year). I will agree completely that the text reader is not great, and I’m still not certain why the author included that “feature.” However, it’s a moot point to me, as the app was always intended as a podcast app. Here are some of the features you neglected to mention, seeing as you neglected to mention any features at all:

- advanced feed download options (auto-delete done podcasts on update is great for freeing up SD card space)
- options for only downloading on 3G and/or WiFi
- audio pauses when power is disconnected from the phone (designed for in-car use)
- audio also pauses for phone calls and resumes after calls
- user-definable skip (jump forward 30 seconds to avoid ads)

I could go on, but I really need some sleep. I’m just a little disappointed that my favorite app didn’t get the treatment it deserves.

I do know one thing: there isn’t a better podcatcher on the app market.

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By Richard Waid on July 9, 2009 at 11:31 pm:

I have to agree with Matt. If you’re looking for an RSS/ATOM feed reader, it’s probably terrible. But as a podcast app, it’s without peer. The features for me are:

– Fast
– Solid
– Simple!
– as well as everything previously mentioned.

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By Andrew P on July 18, 2009 at 10:08 am:

Can I ask why does BeyondPod keep getting a miss? I use to love this app, but since BeyondPod was released, I haven’t been able to look back at this…

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By Tim on August 12, 2009 at 1:34 pm:

Hi there! The video not playing from revision3 is their change to the codec of their videos (no android app can play the recent videos), and they are working to fix it. My preferred Android app ‘Podcasts’ also had this problem.

http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?p=535837

as of diggnation ep 210, I believe its working again, and all rev3 videoss (tekzilla included). DOn’t take my word for it, however.

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