Cosmicast
Cosmicast is a beautiful podcast player that works & syncs across all your Mac & iOS devices!
I wanted to compile a few of my thoughts on the podcast player Cosmicast I’ve seen making the rounds. I’ve broken down my impressions of the app into three categories: what I love, what I dislike, and features I’d wish for in future updates of the app.
Love
Universal Purchase: I cannot express my appreciation that a single purchase unlocks the app for the Mac, iOS (including iPhone/iPad), Apple TV, & Apple Watch. Having a podcast player that works, organizes, and syncs across all my devices while maintaining a consistent UI across platforms is a dream!
Customizable App Icons: Changing app icons is my Kryptonite.
Design: Cosmicast struck the right balance between having a modern-looking UI built around a skeuomorphic vinyl player motif. And rather than just look pretty, the spinning vinyl allows for fundamental interactions - a Haptic Touch opens up the episode chapter menu, while a finger drag left/right skips the podcast by 15-seconds.
Speed Options: Cosmicast doesn’t have Overcast’s “Smart Speed” toggle that dynamically adjusts the speed by shortening silences, but it does have the option to skip silences and change the playback speed of the podcast with a fair bit of granularity (0.5x to 2.5x, in increments of .25x)
No Subscriptions: Currently, Cosmicast is a single-purchase app with no in-app purchases or subscription model. As a consumer, I love this model but recognize that continued app development benefits from a constant revenue stream to the developer. Cosmicast’s $9.99 price-tag is shockingly reasonable for a single application that will work across all of your devices, and I had no hesitations making the purchase.
Dislike
Chapter/Notes Navigation: Overcast’s swipe left/right to access show notes and chapters has to be my favourite implementation for navigating through a podcast episode. It’s simple, fast, and intuitive. On Cosmicast these features are available, but require you to hit the ‘dial’ icon on the top right, select ‘this episode,’ and then select either ‘episode details’ or ‘episode chapters.’ Alternatively, you can Haptic Touch on the vinyl to access this menu. Preferably, I would love to see a system where both lists can be accessed by a swipe gesture or single click than though a menu system each time.
Popular/Library/Topics: Cosmicast’s menu system breaks podcasts into ‘Popular,’ ‘Library,’ & ‘Topics’ categories. But in my use scenario, the Library is where I spent 95% of my time, rarely venturing to find a new podcast. For that reason, having two-thirds of the menu dedicated to interactions I don’t use is frustrating. I’d much rather have Popular nested into Cosmicast’s Topics menu, with Library & Recently Updated getting separate options on the menu bar.
Minor Non-Intuitive UI Frustrations: I’ve lost count of the number of the times when I am in the library menu, and I tap on the vinyl above, hoping to get back playback UI, and nothing happens. Instead, you need to either tap the arrow icon on the middle-left of the screen or drag down from below the vinyl to bring back the playback interface.
Wish For
Separate Recents from Subscriptions: Rather than have recently updated podcasts live under the same “Library” menu as my subscriptions; I would love the option for there to be a separate menu for my recently updated subscriptions. Options like: Recently Updated, Library, & Topics (under which popular podcasts would be nested) would fit my workflow much better.
Dark(ish) Mode: I found Cosmicast’s dark mode took away from the vinyl motif it has and feel like it would benefit from having a dark(ish) mode similar to what apps like Things and Twitterrific are doing!
Folders: The ability to create folders for my podcasts. I love the ability to organize folders of episodes I want to save for later, in addition to collections for my ‘smart podcasts’, and also for my ‘dumb’ podcasts. I would love to see a future update that brings the option of creating playlists that would sync across devices.
External Link
Cosmicast: iOS & Mac App Store
¹ Apple did not nail the skeuomorphic balance in their early podcast player.
