downgrade my app please!!!!

As a result of your post I downloaded Evernote yesterday. Looks like it is a "freemium" app; it is fully functional in the free version but you need to have a subscription to their premium service in order to have content available offline. So if I understand correctly it does not substitute for what the CPod app ought to do, which is store the files locally on your device. (Though as I pointed out, CPod blocks you from seeing any of the content you paid for once your subscription runs out, even if it is already "on your smartphone." They never tell you that use of the app requires a subscription, so I think users could be forgiven for assuming that if they have "downloaded" lessons then they now own them. Maybe CPod should change the wording in the app to say "rent this lesson"? )

As for dropbox: to my knowledge you need an Internet connection to access things stored there, so while your solution seems quite good things could be better if CPod had a properly working app. Especially one without the self-destruct "feature." ;) .

Please feel free to enlighten my ignorance on how you are using those tools. I am also trying to figure out how to use resources like Google Drive, Drop Box, and other remote storage options for file saving and file sharing.

Finally, regarding "audio app of your choosing", let me recommend Audio Wheel. I find it really great for managing playback speed, repetition, rewinding, etc. I think anyone working on lesson transcripts would find it extremely useful.

ok, you asked for it.....:-) I might sound like i'm an expert, but I am not.....

There are many "clouds", and you cannot (and do not want to) avoid using them. The cloud discussion is much, much more than a smartphone app discussion. It's more like online computing, but with targeted specific use cases around storage, network, applications, desktops, servers, etc.. Your university (I assume) is using cloud resources and you might not know it at all. The current rage is the use of the terms "private", "public" and "hybrid" clouds. If you are using the school's intranet to post files for your students use, then you are using a "private" cloud. Cpod hosts the pdfs and mp3s on Amazon AWS (i think cpod is (or was) using EC2? I forget), so when you download all 3500 lessons (maybe 23 GB worth of files?) or so as I type this, you are accessing "the cloud". AWS which could be considered a hybrid or public cloud, because AWS allows scalable use of storage resources at insanely cheap prices. So maybe for example, your university is storing on its internet 200 Mb of files on a server that costs US $60/month to use. But by using Amazon EC2, it would cost US $9/month to store 5Gb of files (just as an example, I know EC2 is likely to be cheaper, but I don't have access to the current EC2 price list, or your university's cost structure. In my prior life, these were the scale and types of numbers being thrown around, especially around storage).

The good news is that you still don't really need to care about any of this as a university instructor. Your university IT staff likely cares deeply. But if you were in business for yourself, some of this cloud discussion would make your life significantly easier.

Here are some quick websites on which you will be tested :-)

What you might take away from these websites is that the cloud discussion embraces companies that sell to other companies, as well as to consumers. So the cloud discussion is extremely pervasive and has been so since maybe 2005-2007 or so.

http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/us/en/what-is-cloud-computing.html

http://aws.amazon.com/websites/?sc_channel=PS&sc_campaign=AWS_Free_Tier_2013_HK_C&sc_country=HK&sc_publisher=Google&sc_medium=b_core_web_mobile_social_e-web_hosting&sc_content=49955760538&sc_detail=Amazon%20web%20hosting&sc_category=digital_media_marketing&sc_segment=websites&sc_matchtype=e

http://aws.amazon.com/websites/

http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/microsoftcloud/default.aspx#fbid=-5SsvFkmCIJ

https://cloud.google.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=japac-gcp_gen-lcs-cloud-sem-hk-en&utm_content=nonbranded-keywords&utm_term=%2Bcloud%20%2Bcomputing

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/07/05/best-and-worst-performing-cloud-computing-stocks-june-27th-to-july-3rd-and-year-to-date/

The "cloud" affects all computing. It basically means you are accessing computer resources over the network, and don't physically possess the computers they are associated with. In some sense, all Web sites are "in the cloud", but the term usually refers to file storage, or the execution of your application, because until recently, one's files were always on a disk that was physically attached to your computer, and applications you invoked always ran on your computer's CPU.

Increasingly, it is more difficult to not use "the cloud". Relax and enjoy the ride.

Thanks, but I still don't really get it.

It there one 'cloud' or many?

How do you use it, and how do you avoid using it? Is it that clear cut?

Is it just a smartphone thing, or does it apply to all online computing?

As someone whose major use of computers is to create my own notes and worksheets in Word, save them to PDF, make them available to my students on my school's intranet, and definitely don't want to make them available to anyone else, am I using the cloud and do I need it? The only other thing I really do is download instructional podcasts, videos and other instructional material.

The concept of the cloud sounds so nebulous :)

Oversimplification - The cloud is stuff online that provides you a service you don't want to do yourself. Just as companies left generating their own electric power on their own facilities to having electric power supplied to them by electric power companies, the cloud is going to do the same thing for us.

More detail than you probably want here:

http://mashable.com/2013/08/26/what-is-the-cloud/

What is the 'cloud' ?

how do you download the files? audio files i mean.

In a nutshell:

Evernote - notes in the cloud

Dropbox - files in the cloud

It would be interesting to see how many complaints there are as a percentage of total users. Or how the app is rated in the iTunes app store.

Amusingly, i've gone ahead and answered my own question. The latest version of the app available is 1.15, dated June 27, 2014. It gets a 4 star rating, and has 6 reviews as I type this. boldtraveler expressed his opinion, but I don't see many other 3, 2,1 or 1 star reviews. Boldtraveler also did readers a favor by distinguishing his review, as a review of the app, not the content.

You raised a VERY important point: ChinesePod uses the app to block users from accessing their own previously downloaded (and paid for) content after the customer's subscription expires. So yes, you are right, in order to get the most value out of a CPod subscription customers should NOT rely solely on the app if they want to continue to have access to the material on their mobile devices or anywhere else in the future. I suppose this is one of the main reasons that CPod has moved away from its original "podcasting" business model to one emphasizing the app. As an aside, I continue to be amazed that something which the company seems to take as central to its business plan is so near useless, even though it has been years since the introduction of the first mobile app and after several "upgrades" / complete overhauls which included earlier versions that actually worked.

Thanks for that. So it seems that to guarantee continued access, I would have to treat it the same as an iPod. Which seems to be a reason to continue without a smartphone.

And to illustrate my ignorance, I have no idea what Evernote or Dropbox (and the like) is.

iirc you can't get in if you're not an active subscriber.

I just download all the audio files and text files when I'm a subscriber and put them in Evernote and Dropbox and the like. That way I have them forever accessible from the smartphone. I actually prefer reading the text from Pleco (popup translations and pronunciations) and while it's playing on any audio app of your choosing. I've been doing it this way for years now.

Hi steve0492,

Please contact Sean at sean@chinesepod.com

Thank you

Dear waynewaynelo,

Fixing all bugs are our main priority.

So fixing the iOS ChinesePod app has a lower priority than the development of new apps? I want a refund for my subscription for the period of time the iOS ChinesePod app is not functional.

how is fixing the bugs going?