We are in the process of submitting a new, improved app into the App store and it will take 1-2 weeks from today (17th August 2016) to be available for download. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
- Kevin of ChinesePod
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I’m testing it now. The new app allows you to manually download the full lesson, dialog only, and vocab review audio files respectively. It’s not automatic though; you have to figure out where to get to the menu to do that, since it’s fairly well hidden. But I did try playing the files with the iPhone in airplane mode and it worked, which solves the major fault of the previous iOS version. Maybe Gwilym will make a video tutorial on how to use the new app once it is released and appears stable.
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Several’question.
- who are you Kevin? The new iOS dev?
- is it this update which is available in TestFlight?
Did you read the X millions idea in order to improve the app and will it be added?
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Dialogue only??? We need the full class
francesco155, It says “download the full lesson, dialog only, and vocab review audio files respectively”, so the full lesson should be there. 
Sorry I was not clear: I meant full lesson OR dialog only OR lesson review are the three different menu items.
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I do really like the app but I agree with podster - it was difficult at first to find where to download the lesson.
Also I thought “full lesson” meant that it would download EVERYTHING (lesson, dialogue, and vocabulary review) but that’s not the case. The Full Lesson means it’s the “full lesson” haha I guess I understand why because that’s what it’s called here on the website but maybe there should be an “Tour of the App” to explain this.
Also I wish the we could study the vocabulary in the lesson in a flashcard format.
Last two problems is that I find that navigating the lessons is quite slow, even on wifi, or even when the lesson is already downloaded & the “lesson introduction” doesn’t work - whatever that is.
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Based on my experience today it may not be possible to download the full lesson (by which I mean dialog and discussion, not including vocab and expansion files) for every lesson. There still seem to be quite a few bugs in this version, and I have no idea to whom I should report them and how. Given the time frame he cited I presume that what will be released will be the same version as the one I am currently testing via Test Flight. Maybe if people report the bugs to CPod customer support word will eventually reach the company that is developing the app.
I don’t even know how you guys got on the test. All I know is this Kevin guy promoted the app in a spam like way and avoids all questions directed at him. Like really? Do we need “iOS users please read this” on the main page after you copy and pasted the same ad into multiple threads? I don’t even know why users are waiting for a app after we came to the conclusion you can do the same thing better and faster with the podcast player. Spam is wack.
Looks like he is not a developer. Just a “customer support” person who was given a mandate to “promote the new app”. Apparently he does not read the forum. Or if he does he does not know the answer to your question. Whether the app really turns out to be “new and improved” time will tell, since as before there seems to have been no real beta test. At least one of the previous fatal bugs seems to have been fixed. (The no offline access bug) .
The Test Flight version I have is v0.7.4 . The current version in the iTunes store is 0.7.1, updated March 11, 2016. What do you have? (Under the menu in the upper left hand corner of the home screen, “About”. )
Same than you!
And think as well… He is not the developer… Would like they hire one, or they communicate more with us 
Yes but I’m not fully aggree with you. I hope with the app they could add nice feature as the exercise offline, click and show the pinyin and translation for each word etc… Little bit as the website you see… But now it will be one year with have the app who sux… And honestly, is it so difficult to find some one with the right skills who can do it?!
My bad, your right. I always forget that people use the exercises and pay for premium features such as that.
And yes it is quite surprising they can’t find someone qualified to build the app. But who knows how much money they have and is it even worth it to them. Because there definitely are people with those skills out there, if you have the money to pay for them. Maybe it’s a logistics issue because when I looked at the job opportunities on the site they appear to be looking for a Taiwan local developer, but who really knows?
The most annoying thing about the way they are promoting this is the fact that there is no list of what to expect, what bugs were solved etc. just hey everyone there’s a “new app” coming. If you aren’t going to let people know what to expect why even promote it like that. Just let it drop when it does.
Maybe they have gotten a lot of refund requests from premium subscribers using iOS who found out that the app was not working. I think it’s strange that they make it only available to premium subscribers anyway, but maybe it is an effective selling point. By dangling a “new and improved” app maybe they hope to get some new customers and reduce attrition of existing customers. Just a guess. Neither the previous owners nor the current owners of ChinesePod have had success in developing a stable, usable app. I wonder how OpenLanguage is doing with their mobile app development. Looks like they are still re-selling ChinesePod content, but Chinese is only available for “unlimited” subscribers at $50 / month. Wow!
It would be nice to see a list of issues addressed. My suggestion for future releases is quite a simple one… Could you please put the controls for playing the full lesson or dialog or review track on the individual lesson rather than burying them in another menu? I’d like to select a topic and choose which item to play without having to drill down yet again. With larger screen sizes and no video, there is plenty of real estate in which to position the controls.
Thanks Kevin!! Looking forward to it.
I found the “contact” link in the app and started submitting bug reports. I got automated response e-mails saying to expect a response in 48 hours, but nothing after that. One curiosity I asked about was that the forthcoming “new” version shows a date of 7/3/2015. Everything old is new again?
When will I be able to view the videos and listen to the audio again?
Hi users
Just to clarify, I am currently in charge of Customer Service for ChinesePod and not a developer. Based on feedback from the development team, although we are considering majority of the suggestions and recommendations from users, we will not be able to implement each and every single one. The recent app submission to Apple was declined because the app does meet the IPV6 support requirement and is unable to verify app receipts. The next submission will be by mid-September 2016. Thank you for your understanding.
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