Do some user studies on newbies
It has taken quite a while to get any sound out. - I have never used a podcast listener before.
Your documentation says that a new subscribe will download available episodes? It seems to wait until the next scheduled download time, and I get the message that I should download instead of stream - I expected it to have downloaded already.
Arr! I guess I just don't understand what "download" means in this context.
P
As explained on the main page when you first start the app you just have to press the + button to subscribe to a podcast and then tune the settings.
Once that’s done you just have to open the episode you want to listen to and press the Play button (or the download button and then the play button once it has been downloaded).
When you enable automatic download it will be applied for new episodes (as explained in Settings/Downlaod/Automatic Download). If you want to download past episodes after the first podcast refresh you can do it manually, or for a selection (use the Action Mode menu) or for all of them if you want to (Long press on the podcast and select Download unread)
The message you get about downloading the episode first means that you are streaming an episode and that if you want to listened to it offline it’s better to download it first.
FYI there’s a Getting started guide available in Settings/FAQ