Subject line says it all. On EVERY work’s page, the subscribe in iTunes button is broken in two ways. First, an error in the HTML code has text overlaying the button making efforts to tap it, on an iPhone, usually fail. Second, if you do manage to tap it, this error message appears:
“Safari cannot open the page because the address is invalid.”
Directly below this broken iTunes button is the equally broken RSS Feed button. Tapping it on an iPhone produces this message:
“Cannot Open Page
This is a link to an RSS feed. Would you like to search the App Store for apps that can display RSS feeds?”
If you have such an app on your phone, it will attempt to open the link. However, Apple’s Podcasts app, present on every iPhone & the main podcast app in the known universe is not such an app. Nor is any other podcast app I’ve tried.
So both the buttons that should allow users with a single tap begin listening to any LibriVox work as a podcast in the way they’re used to doing with any other podcast DO NOT WORK!!!
I’m talking on a standard iPhone with latest iOS. The biggest global listenership cannot listen to LibriVox works as a podcast, by far the easiest & best way to listen.
This is frankly insane. All the hours of work by so many ppl to create the amazing LibriVox collection is needlessly very difficult for your average podcast listener to actually listen to. Our biggest audience, hungry for our work, has this huge hurdle to overcome to figure out how to hear any of it!
iTunes subscribe button broken on EVERY page
Edited to clarify - addressing these points first:
Pointing out that there's a problem is a necessary first step to fixing it. But it is only the first step.
LV doesn't pay anybody - anyone who could do steps 02-?? would be volunteering to do it, instead of something else they could choose to do. The more of this you can do yourself, and the less hyperbole involved, the more likely someone will be both able and willing to do the rest.
Also, LV's collective priority is recording audio books, and putting them out in the world with no limitations. We do have a web site, but there are plenty of other ways to listen to our books.
That includes (ad-supported) third-party apps. I know a few people "in person" who regularly listen to LibriVox on iOS. All of them use one of these third-party apps bearing the "LibriVox" name. None of them seem to use the Podcasts app for anything at all, preferring bespoke apps for each type of "show" they listen to.
On Android, I sometimes listen as a podcast (I know of one app that doesn't work right, and at least two that do...), but often prefer an open-source app called Voice. I can download MP3s or M4Bs with my web browser, drop them into a folder, and have a very convenient listening experience for LV, along with any audiobooks I might buy (DRM-free) elsewhere.
With disclaimers and anecdotes out of the way, here's addressing the technical points:
iTunes button: text overlaying it
I know that making a site look different on a mobile browser is called "responsive design", but I don't know exactly how that applies. If you fancy experimenting with a desktop web browser's developer tools (I know Firefox has a mode where it will pretend to be a little phone screen for troubleshooting), then you might be able to find the right CSS adjustments to correct this. I'd be interested in what you find!
iTunes button: invalid address
I remember this working way back when I had access to a PC with iTunes (the link type is itpc://). Could you point to an example of another site/feed that works on mobile Safari? Any idea what's done differently?
RSS button: no app to display RSS feeds
If an app can't open an RSS feed, it is not a podcast app, no matter what you name it (and yes, Spotify, I mean you too). The standard for a podcast is RSS, not whether it is included in the Apple Podcasts directory. It may only be coincidence that Apple Safari, on Apple iOS, doesn't make it convenient to open a third-party, standards-based podcast app.
But if you can find another podcast link that actually does work the way you want on mobile Safari (and is not just a pointer to the Apple Podcasts directory), then I'd be glad to see if we can spot the difference.
Well... you're not wrong about iPhones being broken, and I'm just not going to argue about market sizes.Delysid wrote: ↑April 24th, 2024, 6:30 am I’m talking on a standard iPhone with latest iOS. The biggest global listenership cannot listen to LibriVox works as a podcast, by far the easiest & best way to listen.
This is frankly insane. All the hours of work by so many ppl to create the amazing LibriVox collection is needlessly very difficult for your average podcast listener to actually listen to. Our biggest audience, hungry for our work, has this huge hurdle to overcome to figure out how to hear any of it!
Pointing out that there's a problem is a necessary first step to fixing it. But it is only the first step.
LV doesn't pay anybody - anyone who could do steps 02-?? would be volunteering to do it, instead of something else they could choose to do. The more of this you can do yourself, and the less hyperbole involved, the more likely someone will be both able and willing to do the rest.
Also, LV's collective priority is recording audio books, and putting them out in the world with no limitations. We do have a web site, but there are plenty of other ways to listen to our books.
That includes (ad-supported) third-party apps. I know a few people "in person" who regularly listen to LibriVox on iOS. All of them use one of these third-party apps bearing the "LibriVox" name. None of them seem to use the Podcasts app for anything at all, preferring bespoke apps for each type of "show" they listen to.
On Android, I sometimes listen as a podcast (I know of one app that doesn't work right, and at least two that do...), but often prefer an open-source app called Voice. I can download MP3s or M4Bs with my web browser, drop them into a folder, and have a very convenient listening experience for LV, along with any audiobooks I might buy (DRM-free) elsewhere.
With disclaimers and anecdotes out of the way, here's addressing the technical points:
iTunes button: text overlaying it
I know that making a site look different on a mobile browser is called "responsive design", but I don't know exactly how that applies. If you fancy experimenting with a desktop web browser's developer tools (I know Firefox has a mode where it will pretend to be a little phone screen for troubleshooting), then you might be able to find the right CSS adjustments to correct this. I'd be interested in what you find!
iTunes button: invalid address
I remember this working way back when I had access to a PC with iTunes (the link type is itpc://). Could you point to an example of another site/feed that works on mobile Safari? Any idea what's done differently?
RSS button: no app to display RSS feeds
If an app can't open an RSS feed, it is not a podcast app, no matter what you name it (and yes, Spotify, I mean you too). The standard for a podcast is RSS, not whether it is included in the Apple Podcasts directory. It may only be coincidence that Apple Safari, on Apple iOS, doesn't make it convenient to open a third-party, standards-based podcast app.
But if you can find another podcast link that actually does work the way you want on mobile Safari (and is not just a pointer to the Apple Podcasts directory), then I'd be glad to see if we can spot the difference.
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Winnifred
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Probably not much help, but I’m an Apple user too, and I get the same results from these two buttons on an iPhone. However, I wouldn’t generally even think to use them. If I want to listen to a short piece, I just click on the link to stream it right from the site. If I want to listen to a longer work offline, I’d download it to my Librivox app (no, not created by Librivox, I know) and listen to it there.
I tried opening the feed in Feeder (the only rss feeder I have), but nothing happened. Feeder opens, but all I see is a different feed I’m already subscribed to elsewhere. I’d have to go find the Librivox one and subscribe to it to get anything, and there are several available, but none of them seem to provide recent results.
It’s my sense that rss feeds aren’t used as much anymore. I always found them unnecessarily complicated to set up. It’s easier to just do a search for what I want, then download it to an app, and listen there.
If you need a guinea pig to test anything, I’d be happy to help.
Cheers,
I tried opening the feed in Feeder (the only rss feeder I have), but nothing happened. Feeder opens, but all I see is a different feed I’m already subscribed to elsewhere. I’d have to go find the Librivox one and subscribe to it to get anything, and there are several available, but none of them seem to provide recent results.
It’s my sense that rss feeds aren’t used as much anymore. I always found them unnecessarily complicated to set up. It’s easier to just do a search for what I want, then download it to an app, and listen there.
If you need a guinea pig to test anything, I’d be happy to help.
Cheers,
Well, I might just take you up on that offer! Does [url=feed://librivox.org/rss/20491]this link[/url] work for you on iPhone? I have no clue which app it would open with if it does, but worth a look.Winnifred wrote: ↑April 28th, 2024, 10:32 am I tried opening the feed in Feeder (the only rss feeder I have), but nothing happened. Feeder opens, but all I see is a different feed I’m already subscribed to elsewhere. I’d have to go find the Librivox one and subscribe to it to get anything, and there are several available, but none of them seem to provide recent results.
...
If you need a guinea pig to test anything, I’d be happy to help.
Edit: Apparently, our forum software doesn't like to render these link types as actual links... which makes sense for security reasons. But makes it a little harder to figure things out.
I did borrow a friend's computer and I can verify the Subscribe with iTunes button still works... if you're on a PC with iTunes. No idea why Apple would decide not to support the same link on iPhones.
As for subscribing with Feeder using the RSS link, it may require copy/pasting the URL. I use RSS to follow ongoing things - like our Latest Releases feed, to add things to my listening list! - but yes, when something is completed, I usually want to load it all at once instead of listening as a feed.
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Winnifred
- Posts: 2743
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- Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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It opens Feeder, but there I have to paste in the link again, and the only item that comes up is “Eagle and the Flower,” the latest fortnightly poem, which is the latest upload to the site. Is that what you were looking for?
Yes, that feed:// link was from The Eagle and the Flower. The hope was that it would bring up all 14 readings of it. Does Feeder show only the one?
If so, it matches the bug I've seen in one Android app, but that's a separate thing.
But regardless, if you had to copy/paste, it seems that this other link type isn't any better for conveniently subscribing to books as podcasts on iOS.
If so, it matches the bug I've seen in one Android app, but that's a separate thing.
But regardless, if you had to copy/paste, it seems that this other link type isn't any better for conveniently subscribing to books as podcasts on iOS.
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Winnifred
- Posts: 2743
- Joined: February 4th, 2022, 4:50 pm
- Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Contact:
It brings up all 14. It just takes a bit of time to load them all. And when I click on my reading, it just opens the project in Librivox and I have to scroll down to the one I want. So, no, not a one-click solution!redrun wrote: ↑April 28th, 2024, 5:45 pm Yes, that feed:// link was from The Eagle and the Flower. The hope was that it would bring up all 14 readings of it. Does Feeder show only the one?
If so, it matches the bug I've seen in one Android app, but that's a separate thing.
But regardless, if you had to copy/paste, it seems that this other link type isn't any better for conveniently subscribing to books as podcasts on iOS.
Ok, so it would seem that it works exactly as well as the RSS feed button.
I certainly think if they were allowed to, the Feeder folks would be quick to make it more convenient, but this particular question would seem to be in Apple's hands. Again, unless somebody can find a counterexample, with some other link type that works as desired.
Thank you for testing it out!