UCIrvine iMedEd iPad App Review

App Name: Downcast

Price: $1.99

Brief Description:
Full featured podcast app. Supports audio and vido podcasts, with a vast array of configuration options including iCloud synching, volume amplification and playback speed modulation.

OVERALL
Pros:

• Amazingly flexible podcasting app, which can do any number of things, from subscribing to custom URLs (as is needed for our podcasts) to syncing through iCloud to one’s iPhone (if available). It can modulate playback speed from 0.5x to 3x in increments of 0.25x (except 0.75x). It has a pre-amp that makes the (so far) quiet podcasts understandable in a slightly noisy environment. It can handle video well and has built in Airplay support.
• I haven’t even begun to go into all the customizations it supports (partly since I haven’t discovered them myself yet).
• The reviews on the iTunes Store are universally praiseworthy, and I see no reason for a medical student to use any app but this to listen to their podcasts on the go.
• Once the video podcasts get posted somewhere, those will work just fine in the app as well.

Cons:
Only downside is it costs money versus the free podcasting app Apple puts out, but it more than makes up for it.

Overall rating (Scale of 1-10, 10 is highest): 10
Recommend for medical students: Yes

Reviewer Name: Stephen Schale, MS1
University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Review Date: August 13, 2012

Read the complete review at: http://www.machealthcare.org/articles/32/downcast