If you asked me two weeks ago what 5By5 is, I would have told you I didn’t know. Now, however, it plays host to Podcasts that I listen to almost by the day. A big reason for that is because I have so much new-found love for the site I have a lot of old episodes to catch up on with some of my favorite shows.
5By5 is a website that hosts many podcast shows from different subjects and the founder uses the Castro app himself to listen to their shows from when using iOS products instead of laptops and computers. I must admit that having a blog myself has made me think of how much extra traffic I could get if I had a podcasting show to be a part of like so many people already out there do. It likely wouldn’t do much for me, as most extra ideas don’t, but the option is out there to try.
If like me, you listen to several different podcasts they are difficult to navigate to on the iPhone. There’s no option other than opening a separate browser and typing in a search for each one unless you have them bookmarked, but even that isn’t as efficient as opening the Castro application. With Castro you can listen to them all from the once place after opening up the app.
Castro is available on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS 7 as a minimum requirement. It’s received an update on the 19th of February, which brings it up to version 1.0.7. It’s always been a fantastic application, however, it has had a lot of bugs in it in the past. The 1.0.7 update brings in 14 new fixes to existing bugs from the last version 1.0.6.
Coincidentally, one of the things discussed on one of the shows I was listening to was how it would be nice if the app store had a trial section. It was voted against because of the fear that consumers would do nothing but go around using the free trials instead of ever paying for the app. I disagree with that. I think free trials would be a great idea and would definitely help boost sales, while at the same time give people a chance to test applications to see if they like it first. The reason I bring that up is Castro is $2.99, and while for many that won’t make or break them, but for others it might be enough of a reason to give it a miss for now because a lot of people who listen to the Podcasts are in their teenage years and won’t necessarily have jobs.
Looking at it purely from if it’s worth that price or not, I’d say it definitely is. There are heaps of features, almost nothing missing, and the design looks amazing. The picture I’ve included that features The Prompt icon is a perfect example of one of the setting screens you’ll see inside.
Castro is available on the app store for $2.99