Ask The Desk: The Well-Appointed Desk on Podcasts

Ask The Desk: The Well-Appointed Desk on Podcasts

Cecelia asked:

I know you’ve done some guest podcasts–can you post a list of them/links to (or point me to them if I’m missing it). Thanks 🙂

Thanks for the question, Cecelia! Here’s a list of my podcast appearances. There aren’t a lot but here they are:

  1. The Pen Addict Episode 54: The Chair Of The Desk
  2. The Pen Addict Podcast 62: Lefty Apologist
  3. The Pen Addict Episode 71: Sharpening Rainbows
  4. The Pen Addict Episode 81: You Stole My Wish List Item! – Gift Guide 2013
  5. The Pen Addict Episode 109: I Have Colors
  6. Erasable Episode 10: The Graphites of Wrath

I hope that’s more than enough of me for anyone!

Update:

Relay.FM is kind enough to provide a guest page listing all the episodes I’ve appeared on (18 episodes and counting!). Since this post, I also recorded the first 27 episodes of Art Supply Posse and appeared on an episode of Make.Do, BYOB (#29.5) and another couple of episodes of Erasable (#54 and #38).

Link Love: Inky Overload or is it Overlords?

Link Love Link MascotArticle(s) of the Week:

A shoutout to Tina at Fueled by Clouds & Coffee for the tip. Tina creates gorgeous watercolor drawings with fountain pen ink. Definitely worth a peek!

And, in contrast to the recent “pens are dead” tirade,

Pens:

Inks:

Pencils:

Paper & Notebooks:

Other Stuff:

The Overcast Podcast App

Overcast app screenshot

To help me get through my days, staring at pixels on a computer screen, I listen to a lot of podcasts. For the last few weeks, I have been bouncing back and forth between three different podcast apps for my iPhone: Overcast (Free, unlocked all features $4.99), Pocket Casts ($4.99, for iPhone/iPad or Android) and Instacast ($1.99). Why would I have three podcast apps installed at once? I was trying to figure which one I actually prefer.

Each app offers a similar experiences and all are an improvement from Apple’s default Podcast app. After futzing around with all three, I found myself deleting Instacast first as it was the least intuitive feeling to me. It was the first podcast app I purchased after I became annoyed with the Apple Podcast app and the first to fall short for me. I love the looks of Pocket Casts but in the end, despite aesthetic superiority, there were a few things that forced it out of the running.

I’ll cut to the chase and tell you which one I prefer and why.

Overcast is my favorite podcast app at the moment, though I still find myself stumbling around the app a little. Here’s a few reasons why I’ve chosen it over the others.

  • Overcast has feature to speed up the podcast. It helps to shorten pauses in speech and make a podcast a bit more brisk. Very handy. Audio can also be sped up a lot which sounds like everyone had WAY too much coffee, but not like Mickey Mouse. Overcast also has an EQ voice booster which helps podcasts that may not have the best sound quality.
  • There is a web-based interface which lets me listen to podcasts at my computer rather than on my phone at work. It spares my data plan, phone battery and I only have to subscribe to the podcast once (not have to maintain an additional subscription in iTunes for desktop listening). Playlists don’t carry over to the site but being able to listen to podcasts in my wi-fi-free office without getting throttled by AT&T is excellent.
  • I like that I can adjust the quick forward and quick back buttons. They are clear to understand and easy to use. Some of the other apps have the double arrows  associated with fast forward and rewind which are less clear to me that I’m jumping 15 or 30 seconds in a podcast. I don’t often need to rewind a podcast all the way back to the beginning.
  • Under “Playback” there is a sleep timer and/or play episodes continuously or one-by-one.
  • Overcast is free. I appreciate that Overcast is willing to offer this app for free to entice people to try it and listen to more podcasts. When they find the app useful and easy to use, users can unlock all features for $4.99. I upgraded the app immediately.
  • Overcast uses Twitter to recommend podcasts based on what people you follow are subscribing to. The more people who use Overcast, the more recommendations. It seems a lot of my followers/folks I follow listen to the Pen Addict and Erasable. I’m shocked!
  • In the download queue, there is a switch to toggle between using cellular data for downloads and not. Which is handy that’s it’s not buried in a preferences or settings menu somewhere.
  • My one big gripe is I wish that sliding to the left would provide a “mark all as played” option. I keep deleting podcasts thinking I am deleting an episode.

Overcast recommendation screenshot

The more I use Overcast, the more I like it. If you haven’t tried any podcast app other than the Apple Podcast app, I recommend trying Overcast. If you have your own favorite podcast app, please leave a note in the comments.