Podcast Addict v2024.11
Changelog - October 5, 2024
Player engine technical update
The latest update introduces a significant technical change with the integration of Google's ExoPlayer engine directly into the Android codebase.
Previously, ExoPlayer was maintained as an external project on GitHub, requiring separate updates and maintenance.
This update migrates the app from using the standalone ExoPlayer project to the newly integrated built-in version within Android, ensuring better compatibility, streamlined updates, and access to the latest features and improvements of the player engine.
Image caching improvement
- Enhanced Artwork Caching: A new setting has been added to improve the caching of podcast artwork in notifications and widgets, helping to boost performance and reduce loading times.
- Disabled by Default: This setting is turned off by default. You can enable it by going to Settings > Display.
- Contact Support if Needed: If you experience any issues with artwork display in notifications or widgets after enabling this feature, please contact me for assistance.
Skip silence algorithm improvement
The skip silence feature has been enhanced to provide a smoother and more natural listening experience. Here’s what’s new:
- More Natural Silences: Instead of removing silence completely, the updated algorithm now keeps a fraction of the original silence, making pauses sound more natural, like they would in a real conversation.
- Smooth Transitions: The volume no longer drops instantly to zero during silent parts. Instead, it gradually fades in and out, preserving some background noise to make the transitions feel softer and more realistic.
These improvements help create a listening experience that feels closer to the original recording, while still skipping through unnecessary silent moments.
Minor Improvements
- Enhanced app startup time and performance.
- Added the option to open an existing subscription when adding a duplicate RSS feed.
- Optimized episode selection code to reduce unnecessary UI thread work.
- Enhanced metadata sanitization to prevent crashes on some car UI systems (hopefully...).
Bug fixes
- Resolved crash issues related to Chromecast on some Android 14 devices.
- Resolved an issue where support for Base64 artwork files was broken since January 24.
- Handled multiple consecutive pause commands from some watches by processing only the first command.
- Minor fixes.