PodBreeze

The new home is shaping up

podbreeze — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:54:29 +0000

The new home has now got its own domain, over at www.podbreeze.com. This will probably be the last post here, since we’re devoting all our time to the new site.

A new home for PodBreeeze

podbreeze — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:21:10 +0000

We’re busy making the new home for PodBreeze over at http://sbpodbreeze.appspot.com. Please visit us there in the future.

The main reason for the move was that I tired of the blog format. Releasing software can be done in a blog format, but it’s a hassle.

The new home uses Googles AppEngine. It’s very rudimentary at the moment, but we’ll continue to enhance & improve

Graphics contest

podbreeze — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:46:22 +0000

We’re looking into moving off WordPress, giving PodBreeze a better home and easier downloads. As a part of that, we need the following:

A logotype for the new web site, in vector format (AI or similar)
An icon for the site and the program, in vector format as well. Should work at sizes from 16×16 pixels up to 128×128 pixels.

We’re not graphics designers, so we need some help from you. Thus the contest. The designer of the logotype and icon that we choose will receive a free lifetime license to PodBreeze. You can of course choose to do only 1 of them, and you’d still get a license if you won.

Further leniency implemented – build 9.529 released

podbreeze — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:35:49 +0000

Further leniency implemented – build 9.529 released

I received reports about two feeds that didn’t work with PodBreeze, and found that to be true when I tried them. Further investigation revealed that the two feeds lacked a crucial piece of information, present in every podcast feed I’d seen to date. The feed is supposed to include information about how big each downloadable item is, in bytes. None of the feeds had that, and they didn’t even have an empty placeholder. That’s why PodBreeze barfed. PodBreeze will now report the size of enclosures for such feeds as zero, and will get the real size when the enclosure starts to download.

Download links

Normal version for most users

USB version for installation on your MP3 player

Accessible version for visually impaired users

Update version for existing users

I received reports about two feeds that didn’t work with PodBreeze, and found that to be true when I tried them. Further investigation revealed that the two feeds lacked a crucial piece of information, present in every podcast feed I’d seen up to that point. The feed is supposed to include information about how big each downloadable item is, in bytes. None of the feeds had that, and they didn’t even have an empty placeholder. That’s why PodBreeze barfed. PodBreeze will now report the size of enclosures for such feeds as zero, and will get the real size when the enclosure starts to download.

Download links

Normal version for most users
USB version for installation on your MP3 player
Accessible version for visually impaired users
Update version for existing users

Redirections revisited – build 9.528 released

podbreeze — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:23:27 +0000

X-Play’s daily video podcast started using another form of weird redirections a few days ago, resulting in all downloads from them being named QuerySplicedItemContent, and not be moved to your player or added to your WMP/iTunes. I have added a fix for this now, so it’s working!

Download links:

Normal version for most users
USB version to run on your player
Accessible version for visually impaired
Update version for existing users

One feature and one fix – Version 2.1 released

podbreeze — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:29:15 +0000

Deleting files is a thing that I simply hadn’t considered putting in PodBreeze. I use PodBreeze with an MP3 player, which everything is moved to, and I delete episodes right after I’ve listened to them, on the player itself. But it’s been added to the program now, just visit the Settings, and you’ll find it on the General tab. I even ended up using it, to keep down my backlog – so thanks to the guy who suggested the feature!

I’ve also changed how the program uses some Windows components, after getting complaints of a couple of users getting “Class not registered” errors after the last update. Please try v2.1, and get back to me with the results!

Download links

Normal version for most users
Update version for existing users
USB version for installation on your USB MP3 player
Accessible version with basic menus

Minor but nagging bugs fixed, and an autumn treat – version 2.02 released

podbreeze — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:46:23 +0000

It took me a lot longer to get to fixing the bugs than I thought, mainly due to an insane workload.

I got reports, and experienced myself, that some feeds didn’t show the full content. Still not sure what the cause was, but changing the way the RSS files are downloaded (from using WinInet to MSXML) fixed it.

I’ve also tried thinning down the program’s huge hunger for CPU cycles. Deep down in the program was a progress routine that was called far too often. Not easy to spot, but it does make the program more well behaved.

There’s also been some reports about being unable to cancel downloads that aren’t yet fully started, and I found the probable cause. It works for me now, please report if it doesn’t work for you!

I’ve been listening to books from podiobooks.com for quite a while, and I’ve learned that some of you are too. I’d written an importer for their book feeds more than a year ago, but was told to hold off – they were going to go through a major site overhaul, which would break my code. Since it still works, and no overhaul has been sighted, I’ve decided to release it. Simply select Import from the menu, and select the Podiobooks.com option.

I’ve also realized that PodBreeze sometimes mangles the ID3 tags for some MP3 files, probably because something in that file isn’t quite right. Now PodBreeze won’t even touch the tags in an MP3 file, unless you explicitly tells it to in the Settings dialog.

Download links:

Normal version for installation on your hard disk
USB version for installation on your USB MP3 player
Accessible version with basic menus (for screen readers and Braille)
Update version for existing users

Upcoming version

podbreeze — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:19:21 +0000

Version 2.02 will be released shortly, with one major fix – the CPU eater has been found, and dealt with. There might be some other minor things added too, but the CPU issue is the reason for releasing it.

PodBreeze and Jungledisk – another way to run PodBreeze on multiple machines

podbreeze — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:48:19 +0000

I haven’t tried this myself, but listening to Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson discuss Jungledisk on “The Tech Guy” gave me an idea.

If you need to run PodBreeze on multiple computers, and don’t want to store a backup of PodBreeze’s database on your MP3 player (or are not able to, as in the case with MTP players), Jungledisk is a viable option. Just make a folder on your Jungledisk drive, and tell PodBreeze to place it’s backup there. Do this on each computer you run PodBreeze on, and you’ll always be synchronized – provided that you close PodBreeze on each computer before starting it on another one, of course.

Using PodBreeze on multiple machines

podbreeze — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:05:24 +0000

I’ve received some questions about how to use on several machines, like your work and home computer. The easiest thing to do is what I do, setup PodBreeze to backup it’s database to your MP3 player. Do this setup on both computers, and PodBreeze will always use the newest database, either the one on the local computer or on the player. This of course requires that you always connect the MP3 player before starting PodBreeze.