MyPOD Help

Intro #2

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Fri, 6 Apr 2012 02:57:00 -0700

This help is available in the help browser (MENU button > help)

Welcome to MyPOD, you can get to this help by pressing menu > help from all the screens.

This help works like the standard browser so you can change the text size by pinch-zooming.

You can pop-out this page in the normal browser by clicking on the ellipsis (...) in the top-right corner and pressing the diagonal arrow. Then you can switch between the app and help by long pressing the home button.

The first page is the welcome screen, you can drill-down to all the other screens from here.

Brief Introduction:

Step 1: Add some feeds

From the home screen (press the topleft logo):
1. Select Add feeds/websites.
2. Enter some text you want to search for ...
3. Click the search button.
4. Some feeds will display you can click on each row to view the description.
5. There are two buttons:
lets you view the feed
lets you add the feed to your feeds list.
6. add the feed to your feed list - allows you to set the automatic feed updating and tracking.

Step 2: View and download files

From the home screen (press the topleft logo):
1. Press "View feeds" ()
2. Select a feed (press the row)
3. Hit "load feed" () (feed loads ...)
4. Pressing a row shows the download button ()
5. Check the settings on the popup and press "Download".
PS: you can also stream files here by pressing the stream button ()

Step 3: Play downloaded files

From the home screen (press the topleft logo):
1. Press "Downloaded files" - (you must have downloaded some first!! see Step 2)
2. Select a file (press the row)
3. Hit the play button - goes to the Player

Plea for mercy...

We need your help ... if you like MyPOD then please spare a second to give us a favourable comments on the market (there is a shortcut in preferences > check for new version).

Also, I do understand how frustrating it can be when things don't work the way you expect. Having so much functionality in one app makes it tricky. If you have frustrations then just email me (fedback email), and we can see what the issues are, and I can improve the app, the frustrated comments left on the market are generally too brief to be useful...

View feeds

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Fri, 6 Apr 2012 02:21:00 -0700

This help is available in the help browser (MENU button > help)

This is the feeds management view - you can load, update, get information, sort, search and more. Feeds can be RSS(), Atom() or just websites().

Clicking on a row shows the Context menu for the feed

By clicking on the feed icon you can select it and a tick appears on the icon. You can then use menu>selection to apply Selection Options (delete, update,...) for the feed ticked.

Screen overview

Click on an element on the screen to see what it does, otherwise scroll down to go to the overview.

Title

Description/Data

Part	Description
Feed icon	Press the feed icon to select the feed (a selected tick appears)
Selected icon	Denotes the feed is selected
New items	This box shows the number of new items since the feed was last viewed
Title	The feed title
Display data	This rows show extra data about the feed - you can select what is shown by going to menu -> display data

Search bar

All

Search Text

Sort

Tag

The search tool bar is to help manage the list, useful when lots of feeds are in the list.

Type text to search, long press the text box to clear the search.

Icon	Name	Description
	Select all	Checkbox to select all feeds, uncheck to select none.
	Search text	Type here to quickly locate a feed, the feed selection changes as you type. Long press the text box to clear the search.
	Sort icon	Sort options for the feed selection: - Title - Last updated - URL - Rating (set in Edit) - # of New entries
	Tags	Go to the Tags screen (tags can be assigned in edit feeds), long press the button to clear the tag selection

Context menu

The context menu displays option you would want to use most quickly.

Icon	Option	Description
	Load cached feed	This loads the feed from the RSS cached from the last update, and forwards to View feed
	Load feed (Long press)	This refreshes the feed by re-downloading the RSS, and forwards to View feed
	Feed info	Displays the feed information
	View down loaded files	Goes to the Files screen, but limits files displayed to the selected feed
	Options	Displays the Options dialog

Menu options

Icon	Option	Description
	Add Feeds	Link to add / import feeds
	Player	Link to player
	Selection	Displays a list of operations to perform on the selection
	Files	Link to files(episodes)
	Display data	Displays a choice of what data to display in the feed information row (the choices are: Description, Last updated, Last published, Rating)
	Help	This help

Display data

Data type	Description
Description	Display the feed description as pulled from the feed
Last updated	Display the date the feed was last successfully updated
Last published	Display the published date (taken straight from the feed)
Rating	The feed rating, as set by you, this can be set on the feed information screen

Selection options

These are available by pressing Menu > Selection all the feeds marked with a apply for the operation

Icon	Operation	Description
	Delete	Delete the selection
	Last updated	Force and update of the selected feeds -
	Clear new flag	Reset the new flag for the selected feeds
	Downloaded files	This goes to the Files screen, and limits the displayed files to ones owned by feeds in the selection

Feed options

This menu can be accessed using the options button () for the feed.

Icon	Operation	Description
	Load cached feed	This loads the feed from the RSS cached from the last update
	Load feed	This loads the feed by re-downloading the RSS
	Edit feed	Edit the feed
	Delete feed	Deletes the feed (after confirmation), deletes the feed and all downloaded files (and history)
	Feed information	Display the feed information
	Comment	Leave a comment about the feed (gets stored in the catalogue)
	Report a problem	Report a problem about the feed (gets stored in the catalogue)
	Clear new flag	Clears the new entries count ont the feed
	View downloaded files	Goes to the Files screen but limit files displayed to the selected feed

Feed info

The feed info screen allows you to see all the feed information.

The rating field is editable (its also on the edit screen) and you can sort your feeds by rating to have your favourite ones at the top. The feed rating is automatically saved in the feed catalog.

Title

Icon

Link & Email

Rating

Edit

Delete

Send

Load

Icon	Operation	Description
	Send	This allows you to send the feed to someone via email the links in the email can be opened in MyPOD. (MyPOD must be installed to the receivers device for this to work - the are links in the email to do this)

Known issues

1. Sometimes if you cancel a feed while it's loading and then you load another, the first feed seems to disappear - the first feed is actually overwritten with the seconds title.
Solution : find the second feed, for which there will now be two entries - long press the load button to reload it (or select it and update)
or you can just do "update all feeds" on the home screen (long press the updates row).

Add feeds

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Wed, 4 Apr 2012 02:49:00 -0700

This help is available in the help browser (MENU button > help)

Feed Catalogue

The Feed finder works from the MyPOD Feed Catalogue, all feeds entered into MyPOD are added to the feed catalogue and they are indexed so that other users can then find them, the feed catalogue also retains stats on the number of users using each feed, you can also comment and report problems with feed once they have been added to your feed list

Screen Overview

Initial screen

Enter search words in the text box, as you type, the keywords with your text will appear below (the number beside is the number of feeds attached to each keyword). When you have entered your keywords hit the (search button)

You can select the types of feed (Audio, video, etc) you want to search for using the checkboxes below the search box. If the keywords are showing, just tap the search text box to hide the keywords (or hit cancel on the keywords toolbar).

When the keywords are showing the toolbar at the top allows you to toggle sorting between alphabetically & number of feeds for the keyword(pressing ) the sort button () toggles ascending or descending

Note the search works only on full keywords (e.g. entering "andr" will not find any "android" feeds), it is not case sensitive.

Search Feed Types

Import options

Results screen

The results screen shows the feed available for you keyword search. Click on a row to open the description.

The Add button will take you to the edit feed screen. After a feed is added it can be automatically updated and tracked (and new episodes automatically downloaded).

The view feed button takes you to the view feed screen. You can test the fed and download / stream episodes - note the feed will NOT be tracked until you add it. (there is an add button at the bottom of the view feed screen).

Title

Rating

Subs

Content

Icon	Name	Description
	Title	The feed title
	Rating	The numbers beside are the average rating and the number of ratings
	Subscribers	The number of people currently subscribed to the feed

Feed types

The feed type shows what the delivery type is.(RSS, Atom or website)

Icon	Name	Description
	RSS	An RSS feed (this is the most common type)
	Atom	An Atom feed
	Website	This is a website - not technically a 'feed' but you can load websites in the MyPOD browser and download content from them
	Stream	This type is currently not supported, it for live streams (e.g. Shoutcast) but the player does not handle them yet. (Streaming is supported only for downloadable content)

Content types

The content type shows what type of content the feed is (e.g. audio, video,etc)

Icon	Name	Description
	Audio	Audio content
	Audio/Video	Audio or Video content (unable to determine)
	Text	There is no media enclosures in the feed (Might just be a normal blog)
	Image	Images
	Unknown	Unknown type
	Video	Video content
	Website	A website

Podcast description

Podcast graphic

Description

Types

Links

please read ...

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:45:00 -0700

We need your help ... if you like MyPOD then please spare a second to give us a favourable comments on the market (there is a shortcut in preferences > check for new version).

I do understand how frustrating it can be when things dont work the way you expect. Having so much functionality in one app makes it tricky. If you have frustrations then just email me (preferences>feedback>feedback), and we can see what the issues are, and i can improve the app, the frustrated comments left on the market are generally too brief to be useful...

Also note that this help is a bit old. Things are mostly the same but the app is changing a lot at the moment (hopefully so you wont need help ;) ). There is more help available for each screen in menu>help

all the best.
rob

Getting started video

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:15:00 -0800

Here is a short (2min 45sec) video to help people get started with MyPOD:

Getting started ...

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0800

Ok, lets get started ...
MyPod has a few UI conventions:

When you select a line buttons appear on it to interact with it.
If you long press the line a popup appears with an explanation of the buttons.
You can navigate to different screens by pressing the menu button or going back to the home screen
if you make a selection the you can usually long press the button used to make the selection to clear it.

The rest of the blog outlines the operation of each of the main screens.

The MyPOD home page is : http://www.my-pod.org/

The MyPOD forums are on : http://groups.google.com/group/mypod-discussion please feel free to add your thoughts and comments, they are highly regarded.

This blog is located at : http://mypodhelp.blogspot.com/ if you would like to view it on your desktop browser.

MyPOD is under constant development and we would love your feedback about anything related to the application to make it better. I would like to add lots of online services and functions to the app to make podcasting on android as streamlined as possible. But it all takes time ...

Please consider buying the app if you use it, using the link on the home page or paypal as this will help us all. I always prefer to keep it as cheap as possible and have more people buy and use it. It also allows you to use unlimited feeds which MyPOD is designed for.

Best Regards,
Rob

Adding feeds ...

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

To add feeds:

Select "Add feeds" () from the home page.
There are many ways to add feeds:

"Add feeds from local file" : you can save a text file with feed urls to the MyPod directory. The title can be entered on the line preceeding the feed URL.
"Enter Search text" : Type in the text to search for on google, the google search page comes up and you can browse to the podcast - look for the RSS or atom feed.
"Enter URL manually" : This takes to straight to the edit feed page where you can enter the feed url and properties.
"Import from google reader" : enter your google id and password to login to google reader the feeds are presented in a list.
"Browse for RSS or OPML files" : Enter a URL in the text box - there are some suggestions using the button. The browser window will open and you can navigate to the links for a RSS or OPML (a meta page of RSS feeds) files. MyPod tries to automatically detect the link based on the URL but the feed may just load in the browser, use the "Add RSS" or "Add OPML" from the menu button to take you to the add feed page.
"Enter the URL of an OPML file" : This can be used to enter a OPML file URL, the OPML file will be loaded and you can select the feeds you want to add.

Enter the feed details and give it a tag or two. other settings are:
- Update interval: the interval to check for feed updates (default : 7 days)
- Max items to load:limit the number of items to load for large podcasts(default: all )
- Auto download: Automatically download new episodes(default: false )
- Number episodes to keep: Specify the max number of files to be kep via autodownload. (default: 1 ) - Note that episodes downloaded manually from the feed arent included in this calculation.
Click the button to add the feed to your list.

Other ways to add feeds

Email feed:

Go to http://www.my-pod.org/feed.php

Put the feed URL into the "Feed URL" box

Click "Generate"

Click "(click here to send)" this will open up your mail client and you can post it to yourself or others.
You will have the option to open the my-pod link using MyPOD. There are also links to download the app if it isn't yet installed.

Feed management

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:27:00 -0800

Feed row: long press on the feed row for a list of options

Load feed: download the latest feed data and view it.
Load cached feed: use the feed data from when the feed was last updated (saves the downloading time).
Edit: Edit the feed properties.
Delete: Delete the feed and all files/records.
Information: go to the information screen.

Feed icon: the icon for the feed, clicking on this icon shows a tick on the icon, by using menu>files you can view just the files for this feed.
New entries: shows the number of new entries since the feed was last viewed. To clear it - load the feed.

Search bar: The search bar help you to find the feed are looking for there arfe 4 items:

Search text: Enter search text to limit the feeds display to ones with titles or descriptions haveing the required text. Long press the text box to clear the search data.
Sort: display a popup with sort options for the feed list (Title (default), Last updated, URL (the feed url), Rating: (set in the feed info or edit page), New entries (the number of new entries))
Tags: select tags to use, the feed list is limited to feeds with the selected tags. Long press the tags button to clear the tag selection.

Downloaded files screen

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0800

The downloaded files screen by default displays files downloaded on the device (by using the history button you can search back through anything you have listened to). By long pressing on the File row you can bring up the tool bar options as a pop-up. The Search bar is visible at the bottom.

More information on the file is available on the file info screen (Press the file type icon to get to it).

Each File row has the following elements:

Tool bar: When the row is selected the tool bar and the Preview bar appear. The tool bar has different buttons depending what type of file the row represents the above example is for an audio file. Some buttons use long press for the background player (See "The Player" section for details). See tool bar icons for the description.
Preview bar: By dragging the slider the current playing file(s) are turned down and the file is played from the position indicated . The play button next to it plays the file at the selected position.
Feed title: So you can see what feed the file is from.
File title: The file title as it appears in the feed.
Type icon: (Press to flip to view file info) Indicates whether the file is audio or video. If it can't be determined then an audio/video icon is shown.
Last play position: Rectangular progress indicator to show how much has been listened to (also shown in text on top).
File size:type : Shows the size of the file and its mime-type.
File flags: These little icons show what has been done with the file.

Toolbar icons
: Delete file (Long press)
: Play video - only show for a video file type
: Reload file - this will enqueue the file and remove the downloaded copy
: Add to playlist - Long pressing will add it to the background playlist (See "The Player")
: Add to playlist - Long pressing will play on the background player (See "The Player")
: Stream file - This button can only appear when you are viewing your history as the file isnt downloaded anymore and can only be streamed. Long pressing will play on the background player (See "The Player"). You can also use the reload button to re-acquire the file.

File flag icons
: The file has been deleted
: The file has been queued for download
: The file has been listened to
: The file has been marked kept (It wont be autodeleted until it is unmarked on the file info screen)
: There was an error playing the file.
: There was an error downloading the file.
: The file was automatically downloaded.
: The file was downloaded (also shows if automatically downloaded)

The Search bar has the following elements:

Search text: Type the text to search for (searches file and feed title) - Long press to clear the box.
Sort button: Sort the file in a particular order (Feed(default), Title, URL, Size, Type, Download date, Rating (the rating you give on the file info page)).
Tags: Select files whose feed has a certain tag (long press to clear).
History: MyPOD stores all files you have listened to in the database so that you can find them again later and re-listen/ re-download/ send to someone. See the "History" section for more details. Long press the button to clear the history search and just show the downloaded files.

The Player

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00:00 -0800

Why have two players?
As I was developing the app I always had a desire to be listening to music while I was listening to a voice podcast so i would play music in the background, and I found some music podcasts be a bit non-engaging by themselves. So I though I would try out the concept. I think it adds a feel when you are listening to diffrernt podcasts so i kept it.

You don't have to use it and probably I will put a config in in future to enable as its not for everyone - but you dont have to use it if you dont want to. I would like to add more to streamline the process like a voice filter - to make it a bit more manageable.

Some things to remember when using both players are:

The background podcast should be all music and the foreground should be mainly voice - it gets a bit confusing it two voices or two musics are playing at once.
the music podcasts level generally needs to be quite low as music has signal power over a lot more frequencies. the background player's volume slider is customised to have finer adjustment for the volume at low levels.
When the second file streams the UI gets a bit frozen while the file buffers - it can take about 30secs to get back to normal (i am working on it!)

Feed browser/ View Feed

feedback@my-pod.org (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:59:00 -0800

The feed browser shows all the feed items for a feed. Feed items are colour coded & labelled to show what items have been listened to (blue), downloaded (green) or queued (red). Different button appear according to the file status.

If the file isn't downloaded then a download button() and a stream button () is shown.
If the file is queued a queued icon() (not clickable) and a stream button is shown
If the file is downloaded then a play button() is shown.

The user can use links on the feed items or the feed link at the top to go through to the website for the feed and find more content available on the site. (This can happen when the feed is truncated to make it easier to download or other link to content are available on the website).

You can use the back button on the device to go back. Note that the red exit button is just a shortcut to exit the screen (even though it looks like a back button).

The info button at the bottom of the screen flips around to allow URL input and to view the browsing history.

The add button is a link to add a feed when a feed is loaded into the browser in case you find a linked podcast on the site.

Download options
After clicking the download button a popup appears to select the download options, here you can change:

The title that will appear on the "Downloaded files" section.
The other options are to download when power is connected and/or when a WIFI connection is available (Some mobile operators have "fair use" limits - which you can burn through pretty fast if you listen to podcasts a lot).

If the feed item (episode) has been used before - the feed flags are shown (see "Downloaded files" for an explanation of the flags)

Make sure you click the download button to enqueue the download (hitting back will cancel the download even though the item is not updated).