Downcast vs Google Hangouts

Downcast can be set to automatically download new episodes of podcasts in the background.

You can change the playback speed to fit your needs up to 3x the speed.

Downcast can synchronize podcasts and settings across iOS devices through iCloud.

Downcast supports multi-touch gestures for navigating around.

You can set Downcast to shut off podcasts after a set amount of time.

The ability to set the end time to be x seconds / minutes from the end is so excellent.

The ability to set the start time to be x seconds / minutes from the start time is amazing.

This app helps users subscribe to podcasts through browsing top lists and categories as well as entering a feed or OPML address.

Downcast has a straightforward, intuitive user interface.

You can have Downcast prioritize your playlists automatically, allowing you to listen to podcasts in the order your prefer without you having to manually reorganize them.

Downcast can be set to automatically remove podcasts that have been on your device for a certain amount of time or take up a certain amount of space on your device. This can be done to groups of podcasts or on a per podcast basis.

Selecting a podcast for playback will bring up shownotes, instead of the more common choice of album art.

Hangouts offers both an Android and iOS app so users can participate from nearly any mobile device in addition to his Desktop.

Any user can share his screen (or only a specific desktop or window) while still continuing an audio conversation.

Hangouts works with up to 10 participants using video out of the box or up to 15 if you are a business, government or school. It determines who is the primary speaker at any given time, and the camera view automatically switches to that user.

Hangouts can scale to become a videoconferencing solution for an entire company, since the software can run on nearly all platforms. In fact, Google itself uses Hangouts as its meeting room video conference software.

Hangouts is integrated with Gmail & Google+, does not require you to download desktop software, and all chats can take place directly in your browser, significantly reducing the barrier to entry for a new user.

Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support.

Hangouts work on Android, iOS, Chrome OS, web and as a Chrome extension.

With Google+ “Hangouts on Air”, you can broadcast any hangout to an unlimited audience via your Goolge+ Profile or simply a generic YouTube link. Moreover, any Hangout on Air (public or private) is automatically saved as YouTube video that you can keep for private reference or use in any way that you would normally share a YouTube video. This allows you to record conversations without additional obtrusive software.

Allows for a fixed phone number, receiving and making calls. Calling US or Canada is free.

When chatting with people while trying to plan a meet up, the share map button can be extremely useful.