Downpour.com at Mac App Store analyse

App crashes or track stops playing in lock screen mode. Since this automatically kicks in on my iPhone with no way of disabling the function, this makes audiobooks cut off every few minutes and impossible to listen to. Please fix asap! Audiobooks should keep playing in lock screen mode regardless!

Downpour as a service is great. They sell drm free audiobooks that I actually own instead of license. Their membership plan is great when Im reading a lot of books easily, but its also incredibly easy to cancel it if I need to for a while. I have a tendency to read in spurts, so I may have a membership for a few months then cancel it to catch up. Theres no guilt tripping when I cancel and I can start it up again whenever I want. In addition to the monthly book, membership also gets you access to discounted books and book sales, which are usually great. So why only 4 stars? The app still needs some work. Theres a known bug where playing at a faster speed will cause the book to stop if your phone falls asleep. Im sure they will fix it eventually and in the mean time, since I actually own the books theres nothing stopping me from downloading them on my computer and playing them in another app. Thanks Downpour for no DRM!

Update: figured out how to access the sleep timer function (as well as variable playback speeds and the bookmark function) by tapping on the books artwork while it is in play mode. So, I have increased my rating from 3 stars to 5 stars even though I didnt receive a reply from the app team when I sent them my request for help with locating the sleep timer. It really is a fantastic app once you figure out how to use all of its functions. The only downside is that some of the functions (namely those delineated above) are not intuitive to access. Super fast download speeds, but missing one of the most important features (and one that is advertised as being part of the app): a sleep timer. I have an iPhone and all my software is updated. Hoping this sleep timer issue gets resolved ASAP - will give more stars when this happens.

Had given up on DP because of numerous glitches, but I decided to give it another try. Well I cant get past the first chapter, it starts the intro & stops. Take time to reload & same issue over & over, typical of older version where you needed to download several times to get going! When you are ready to listen you dont have time to work out the kinks. I agree w/ previous reviewer stick w/ Audible !! No Problems! Not to mention a lot of the improvements on the last update is stuff they copied from Audible!

Its been a known issue for months, maybe even a year now, but they still have not fixed the glitch that causes playback at speeds above or below 1.0x to stop when the screen turns off. Ridiculous.

This sight sells audio books that have been narrated for free through LibriVox. Access online with your computer. Please note smart phones have a LibriVox app that is not the true domain ... but ... is an excellent app and the books are free to listen to.

This service is a great alternative to Audible but cheaper and DRM-free. Yes, there are alternatives for LibriVox books, so dont buy those here. As for the app, PLEASE fix the bug that is making the audio stream stop when the phone goes to sleep. It is highly annoying.(Otherwise it is really great)