Hi all!
I've posted a couple times in the past about Pinepods. The ultimate self-hosted podcast server that syncs times between devices, archives, plays, and manages your podcasts.
I've just finished up the very first builds of the official Pinepods mobile apps for both Android and iOS and they are now in testing phases for both the Google Play Store and the App Store respectively. However, I'm at a small stop gap, and I need help from the selfhosted community. I need some people willing to sign up for the testing program and download the app in order to get them posted officially to the store fronts. You don't even really have to use it (though I would really appreciate it if you gave it a try as Pinepods has really made strides in becoming the best it can be as one of the most feature rich Podcast platforms around) I just need people to join the programs and install the apps in order to get on the app stores. Oh and yes, before you ask, Android Auto and CarPlay support are coming in the next update. Not here yet, but very soon.
I've done quite a bit of work to make sign ups for the beta program as easy as possible, you can simply do it here. Simply choose your platform of choice and you'll get an email with a link.
And as an aside, Pinepods 0.8.0 is days away from fully releasing and has had it's api FULLY rebuilt in rust. The entire app is now 100% rust and is blazingly fast because of it. If you do want to test out Pinepods, I would highly recommend pulling down the :nightly docker tag rather than latest for the time being. It's really close to bug free at this point.
I could say more about Pinepods itself but I'll let the site speak for itself, it got an overhaul in preparation for 0.8.0 and can really sell it. I've even just rolled out an official TUI based client called Firewood. I'm really trying to make the best self-hosted Podcast platform that does it all.
GitHub: https://github.com/madeofpendletonwool/Pinepods
Official site: https://pinepods.online/
And the beta testing link once more: https://www.pinepods.online/internal-testing
Feel free to reach out via Github Issues, the feedback page on the site, or messages if you run into any problems!
Looks great, and I'm fully supportive of this.
However, I can't understand the use case, and the part I can't wrap my head around is why the server part is required... What differentiates pinepods from, say, antennapod from a functional standpoint?
Syncing from device to device. If you'd like to archive podcast episodes, say on like a NAS. Syncing of podcasts and episodes between apps and devices.
If you prefer to use one device for podcasts then Antennapods might be a good fit for you.
For me personally, not having to wait for podcast feeds to update on my local device alone is enough to sell Pinepods.. Let alone the other benefits. Granted I'm biased.
Makes sense, thank you.
For me it's syncing between devices, I listen on my PC and on my smartphone. I've been using PocketCasts for years but eventually ditched it and haven't found something to properly replace it. GPodder is an option but when I tried some years ago it didn't really work. I've been looking for something like PinePods for quite a while