Getting Started

Step 1: Create an Account

If you already have a Google/Gmail account that you want to use with Play, Look and Listen, you can skip this step. Otherwise, please do the following:

Go to http://www.google.com/reader. You can do this on your iPhone/iPod, iPad or on another computer.
Click the "Create an account" button on the right side of the screen and complete the screens that follow.

Step 2: Make Sure You Have the Latest Updates

Please be sure that you have the latest version of Play, Look and Listen. When you launch the application, the login screen should report "v3.1.3xx" on the lower half of the screen. If you do not have at least version 3.1, please visit the marketplace or app store on your device and switch to the 'Updates' view. You should be offered an update to the application. Install the update before continuing.

Step 3: Login

Launch Play, Look and Listen on your device. If you have never signed in to Play, Look and Listen before, a Google login screen will appear. Enter your Google/Gmail username and password and click "Sign In". You may be asked to grant the application access to Google Reader. Please approve this request. Please note that Play, Look and Listen does not use or store your user or password -- the login screen presented is provided by Google. Once you have signed in, Google issues a secure token to Play, Look and Listen which is used to access your podcast subscriptions.

Step 4: Adding Podcast Subscriptions

Bring up the "Options" menu in the Play, Look and Listen interface. This menu can be accessed by clicking or tapping on the appropriate button for your device:

On iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Windows or Mac OS X tap on the icon in the lower left of the display that looks like a file cabinet:
On Android, press your device's MENU button.
On Windows Phone 7, tap on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen.

On the menu that appears, select "Find Podcasts". This will take you to the podcast search screen. On this screen, enter one or more words that describe the topic(s) in which you are interested. For example, enter "technology", "computers", "television", "astronomy", etc. A list of podcasts will be displayed. If you see a podcast to which you would like to subscribe, click or tap on it in the search results. Play, Look and Listen will ask you to confirm that you would like to add the subscription.

Viewing Podcasts

Once you have one or more podcast subscriptions established, tap on a subscription in the subscription list which appears after you login to your Google account. Note that the subscription will be greyed-out if there are no episodes currently available. This can happen if the podcast creator hasn't provided new content in recent months.
The list of subscriptions will be replaced by a list of available episodes of that podcast. An icon appears to the left of the episode to indicate whether the episode is audio-only or video. (An audio-only podcast will be represented by a microphone icon. A video podcast will be represented by a film strip icon.)
Tap on the episode you would like to listen to or watch. This will present you with the playback screen that includes the episode title, a written summary (if available) and playback controls at the very bottom of the screen.
To begin playback, tap the 'Play' button:
If the podcast contains video, you can make the video display full screen by rotating your device to landscape (for iPhone/iPod, Android and Windows Phone 7) or by tapping the 'Full Screen' button in the lower right corner of the screen (iPad, Windows and Mac OS X only):
When in full-screen mode you can tap anywhere on the screen to bring up on-screen controls that allow you to pause or end playback, seek to different points in the video and exit full-screen mode.

Using Other Features of the Application

Play, Look and Listen has several features designed to give you the best podcast experience. Many of these features are accessible by opening the Options menu. Note that the menu options presented will change based on the current . For example, if you press Organize while viewing a list of episodes, you will be presented with options for managing the list including downloading episodes to your device (recommended if you are connected via WiFi so you can easily play the episodes when not on WiFi without potentially incurring charges, depending on your data plan) or marking all episodes as 'played'. If you display the Options menu while viewing the details of a single episode, you will be presented with menu options relevant to that episode, such as downloading just that episode or adding a 'star' in Google Reader.

If you have any problems, questions or issues using Play, Look and Listen, please do not hesitate to send us an email at support@apocalypseinterrupted.com.

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