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Apple Releases Dedicated iOS Podcasts App

111 points by siglesias 14y ago

k-mcgrady 14y ago
I thought this was going to happen when it was left out of the iOS 6 beta but I didn't think we'd see it until the new iPhone/iOS launch. Glad they are putting it out now. I'm curious to see what, if any, impact this has on podcast creators. If Apple pushes it the way they do iBooks and other Apple iOS apps it could be huge for them.
stevejohnson 14y ago
Relevant to the "Apple changes App Store search" story from the last couple of days: I am so far completely unable to find this app by searching for "podcasts", or even "podcasts apple". A quick Google search, on the other hand, worked instantly.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  When new apps are released they are usually available via direct link before they start appearing in search results. The roll out is gradual on a per country basis. With my apps it can take 1-3 hours before they appear in search on all stores.
- siglesias 14y ago
  If the search results are sorted by popularity, it will rise to the top very quickly.
- fredsted 14y ago
  I couldn't see it on the App Store, but when going to the direct link, I got a message saying it requires iOS 5.1 - I'm on 5.0.1. Maybe it's because your device isn't up to date.
- johns 14y ago
  I founded it on the home page of the App Store (iOS 6 version) under featured. Direct link didn't work for me.
- moron 14y ago
  When I searched for "podcasts apple" it was the very last result. I guess that's noble? At the very least they weren't using their status as the owner of the store to promote their own app, I'll give them that.
- raimondious 14y ago
  Odd, I searched the store for "podcasts" and it was the first result.
runjake 14y ago
It currently isn't showing up if you search for "podcasts" but does if you search for "podcasts apple" although it won't be obvious it's from Apple until after you tap the result.
- dmix 14y ago
  Thanks I thought it was another app not supported in Canada once again. Not the case.
dmishe 14y ago
It's broken, probably an accident release.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  In what way is it broken? Edit: I've noticed one bug so far with the search UI (search bar moves over the navigation bar after a search) but apart from that it's working fine.
  - dmishe 14y ago
    Search doesn't work, UISearcBar X button is misaligned, when you focus out from search the cancel button goes inside uisearchbar
- Apple-Guy 14y ago
  Apple's own App Store twitter account promoted it. I am guessing bugs are due to it being v1.0.
pavel_lishin 14y ago
I assume that Music will still support podcasts? I'm miffed that videos were moved to an entirely different app; I'm subscribed to the TED talks video podcasts, but have to launch an entirely different application to listen to them (and yup, I listen to 99% of them as I'm walking around instead of watching them.)
- siglesias 14y ago
  It won't. Podcasts are removed from Music in iOS 6.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - pavel_lishin 14y ago
    Oh, goddamnit.
  - towelrod 14y ago
    Are you kidding me? Currently my car radio can control the music app and let me listen to podcasts. Why would they take that functionality away?
    - coob 14y ago
      Your car radio can control any app that supports the remote control API, which podcasts does.
      - towelrod 14y ago
        Interesting -- what other apps use the remote control API? I have never been able to control anything other than "Music" with either of my cars. Aside from using the phone to make calls, of course.
  - Timothee 14y ago
    Well, that's kind of silly. Not a huge deal, but I listen to my podcasts through a playlist that gathers all the podcasts I subscribe to, so it mixes it up a bit. Sounds like it won't happen anymore…
moron 14y ago
I'm glad. The Music app is pretty bad at podcasts.
- Splines 14y ago
  I don't know, this one isn't that great and I prefer the music app after using this one casually this afternoon on the way home. The download model doesn't seem as neat as the itunes separation. I keep current on my podcasts on my desktop, and I "catch up" on my iPhone. There's no way to trail behind a podcast (I use "sync 5 oldest unplayed"). Also, it didn't resume playing after receiving a phone call. Not a big deal, but it's another annoyance. For the time being I put the Podcast app in a folder and switched back to the Music app. I personally find nothing wrong with the Music app and will continue to use it - whenever I upgrade to iOS 6 I'll probably take a look at 3rd party podcast apps.
Lewisham 14y ago
Apple's highly questionable and deeply unfortunate skeuomorphism kick continues unabated. Now we're treated to a radio dial which died out in 1995, and playing podcasts presents a reel-to-reel, which died out in god knows when. It's completely bizarre. I guess podcasts are a form of talk radio, but tying them to some ancient radio technology that anyone under the age of 18 will have never touched is mental. They're even called podcasts: they arose because of the popularity of the iPod! Insane. Apple really need to sort their designers out. I wish we could somehow have Microsoft's new Metro design aesthetics on Mac OS X and iOS, then I could have the best apps and OS design, and the best UI to use with them.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  I think it's clear now that Apple likes skeuomorphism. They've been using it in the design of their products for the last few years. I presume it is helpful to less technical people (especially on device like the iPad which is attracting a lot of new and older computer users). They use this same radio design on the iPod nano radio (the first nano with a video camera). On that it's actually inconvenient and hurts the design. In this case I don't thin it really impacts either way.
  - Lewisham 14y ago
    My biggest issue with this design, unlike say, the leather bound Address Book, is that it's tied to a technology that the generation Apple would like to appeal to have never used. It's akin to changing the App Store to having hand written floppy disks. All the teenagers that Apple would love to attract have no attachment, or perhaps not even an idea, about the object Podcasts is designed about. I agree that it probably is helpful to less technical people, but only when those items they call back to are ones the user is familiar with. Choosing a reel-to-reel is a terrible decision. 11 year olds today will have never known a world without an iPod. The iPod is the music player. At least Apple didn't try an iPod within an iPod, I suppose.
    - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
      At least Apple didn't try an iPod within an iPod, I suppose. True, the music app on the iPod is called 'Music'. But do remember, the music app on the iPhone used to be called 'iPod'.
glhaynes 14y ago
Cool app in a lot of ways, but its conceptual hierarchy seems weird to me so far — the main section that you're presented with upon launch (the "Library") has a tab bar at the bottom split between "Podcasts", showing podcasts you've subscribed to and/or downloaded episodes from, and "Top Stations", showing popular podcasts on the iTunes Store. So far so good. But then there's also a "Catalog" button at the top-left that "flips the app over" (a la iBooks) and shows you a general store-browsing interface. The corresponding button to get back—which, I'll note, is on the opposite side in that view!—is labeled "Library". tl;dr: There are Store interfaces in both the Library and the Catalog, seeming to break the conceptual hierarchy, and thus annoying me.
ZanderEarth32 14y ago
Just gave it a shot, and I wasn't impressed in the least. These types of apps are where Apple really fails. It's like they don't use the same designers they do for any of their other products on these small apps. The interface is lousy, and very similar to the Music app. Discovery doesn't seem very useful either. This might be useful for a 'light-weight' user and listener of podcasts but this doesn't even come close to apps like Downcast in terms of features.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  I think Apple is probably targeting the light-weight users and trying to attract new users. Advanced podcasts features are something relatively few people care about. I listen to several podcasts daily and 99% of the time I just press play. I don't care about setting speed, bookmarks, or any of the other featured apps like Instacast (which I use) offer. It's great that these apps are still available on the store and good for the developers that Apple hasn't just killed their business with a free alternative.
  - ZanderEarth32 14y ago
    I am actually happy that this app is not what I want because I hope that this is the same sentiment for others. This will allow apps like Downcast and Instacast to further survive. My other gripe is the navigation is too stylized for my taste. I am not looking for my podcasting app to be an experience, just function as a tool.
  - smackfu 14y ago
    I don't understand why they put in poor implementations of advanced features though. Like the speed dial only has two options, too fast and too slow. Why include that at all?
mshafrir 14y ago
FYI, requires iOS 5.1
rince 14y ago
I like the radio dial, seems like a nice way to browse the different categories. But this Podcasts app is missing 1 crucial feature it looks like - no ability to let you know the podcasts you are subscribed to have new episodes. I'm hoping that is expanded upon in iOS 6. Otherwise you still have to rely on syncing with iTunes.
- pat2man 14y ago
  I thought the same thing but then I scrolled up and saw the search bar with the list view. Using the list view you get exactly what you want, a list of podcasts with tags for new episodes and a chronologically sorted list view of all unplayed episodes.
- glhaynes 14y ago
  Have you switched the "Subscription" toggle on for any of the podcasts you have? (Note this also reveals an "Auto-Download" toggle.) From the Episodes view, tap on the podcast itself at the top. I haven't had any podcasts update in the last few minutes, I don't think, so I haven't been able to test it.
  - rince 14y ago
    Thanks for the tip - I would've figured since I'm subscribed in iTunes it would have turned on this feature.
  - MBCook 14y ago
    It's really odd that doesn't transfer over. I also find the way to get to the per-podcast settings was very unintuitive, it took me a couple of tries to find it. The thing I find really odd is the recommended podcasts in the catalog. So many of them don't have pictures, and many that do have pictures that aren't descriptive at all (just a person's face, no way to know it's a knitting podcast). And the picture is all you have to go by, there is no text unless you press the little info button. I'd expect podcasts will start adding pictures now that they have another reason to, but I'm surprised Apple didn't filter out such podcasts from the top lists. It seemed very un-Apple-ly to go to a category and see up to 50% of the entries in some categories are just placeholder images. There is also no way to tell which don't have images and which are currently pulling the image over the network.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
kylec 14y ago
Breaking the podcast functionality out into its own app is interesting, but the 50MB limit for cellular downloads means that it's still completely useless for me.
- smackfu 14y ago
  Yeah, the average podcast I listen to is around an hour to 90 minutes, and that ends up being 45-70 MB.
pwelch 14y ago
I found the Music app painful to use for my podcasts. Not sure how much better this will make it. On the other hand I purchased Instacast and it is one of the most used apps on my phone.
- Samuel_Michon 14y ago
  Same here. I downloaded the Podcasts app, but it's so limited that I'll continue using Instacast. Same deal when Reading List came out; I'm still a happy Instapaper user. I think it will actually have advantageous effects for third party podcast apps: more people will get acquianted with podcasts and when they need something more powerful, they know where to look for it.
ajanuary 14y ago
So happy there's an official way to do subscription. The app's a little underwealming though. The fact they seem to have forgotten to stop the Subscription and Auto-Download cells from highlighting when you tap them is an indication of the lack of polish. It's generally pretty laggy, especially trying to do things like scrub through a track and I've had it crash several times already just trying to select podcasts.
theguycalledtom 14y ago
So,in the future, iOS will no longer have built in podcast support? iPhone users will now always have to download a separate app to get podcasts? This is a huge set-back for the podcast medium. There is so much friction convincing potential blue water podcast listeners to subscribe to podcasts. Haters are going to automatically say "podcasts are a niche, they have a small audience" so who cares? Well, before Apple put in built in support for smart phone apps in iOS with an app store on the home screen. The smartphone app audience was one of the smallest around. Now look at where we are.
- ajanuary 14y ago
  Personally I hope they do more apps as app store downloads. I don't want a stock app and I want a different calculator app. They can come pre-installed, but I want to be able to delete them and redownload them as necessary. Podcasts weren't particularly visible before. I may be remembering wrong (I've changed the tab order in my own app) but Podcasts were hidden under the "More..." tab.
  - theguycalledtom 14y ago
    Ok, if someone tweets to you "Check out this cool podcast" and provides a direct link, how many steps does it take for you to subscribe?
    - ajanuary 14y ago
      I hadn't thought about that. If it comes pre-bundled, click link, that opens in Podcasts app, click Subscribe. If it doesn't, they've still currently got podcast integration with iTunes desktop, which means there will still be an iTunes page and itunes links will work, they just won't redirect to the itms-podcast protocol or whatever it is. They could link to the app from there.
    - jonny_eh 14y ago
      The podcast app is an improvement to the old way, requiring a person to go to their computer and load up iTunes, then to sync.
smackfu 14y ago
I use Downcast every day, not even as an advanced user, but just because I need to download podcasts on-the-go. This sucks in comparison. * Catalog (aka Store) is very slow and clunky. Takes 5-10 seconds to flag episodes as "Downloaded" after I click on a podcast I have episodes for. * Clicking download button takes 4-5 seconds to react. Progress of download is not shown in store, but only in Library. * No connection between podcasts you downloaded and those in the store. So if you want to get more episodes, you need to search again. Why? * No way to add podcasts by URL. * Descriptions are cut-off after a line or so with [...], even if you press the "i" button. * No position indicator. Oh wait, it's hidden behind the cover image and you need to tap to switch. And that's the default view every time. * The position indicator has buttons at either end. They don't do anything. Or do they?? They're certainly really small. * Some of the stuff hidden behind the cover image is a button. Some of it is just shiny bits of the reel-to-reel. Guess which is which from a foot away! * Only fast speed is 2x which is too fast. Only slow speed is 1/2x which is too slow. * The share buttons everywhere just link to the podcast in general, not the episode. * Generally sluggish on an iPhone 4. Honestly, this seems like the kind of stuff Apple is supposed to be better than.
- mcfunley 14y ago
  If you add podcasts by URL, you are probably an advanced user.
  - smackfu 14y ago
    I guess? It doesn't feel advanced, it's just that one podcast that I listen to is a podcast Apple doesn't list. So I can't switch to this. Like "oh, you want to listen to music that's not in the app store? That's an advanced feature." And this is actually a lost feature relative to desktop iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html "It's easy to subscribe to any podcast using iTunes, even ones that aren't available in the iTunes Store. "
- michaelbuckbee 14y ago
  I had a significant (and expensive) issue with Downcast where it would continue to download podcasts from wifi -> 3g. I'd get in my car and my phone would be still connected via WiFi to the house, start Downcast to listen to something and then drive off - switching it to 3G and incurring mobile data overage charges.
Karunamon 14y ago
Phooey. Requires iOS 5.1.. guess it's time to upgrade and see if my jailbreak will hold.
jaysonelliot 14y ago
I understand why Apple felt the need to create this app. The current method of managing and listening to podcasts is split between iTunes and the Music app, and holds on to old models of syncing between the computer and the iPhone / iPod. It's a mess, and that, of course, is why there are third-party apps that have been doing a better job for podcast enthusiasts. Unfortunately, this is bad news for the makers of the third-party apps. My personal favorite is Pocket Casts. They put a lot of work into creating a great user experience for podcast listeners, which seems to have been replicated in some ways in Apple's "official" podcast app. (I'm not saying Apple copied them, just that some of their UX conventions also exist in the Podcasts app.) As I say, Apple did need to fix the current way podcasts are handled in iOS. Overall, it's probably going to be a good thing for podcasters, as it will make it easier for the average consumer to subscribe and consume podcasts. It just makes me feel bad for the app developers who have gone through so much work to create excellent products, only to see their role shoved out of the way as Apple integrates this new feature into iOS. It's an old story; Apple's been doing this sort of thing on the Mac for ages (remember Coverflow?), but it still gets to me a bit. I'll keep using and loving Pocket Casts, I just hope they and others can compete now that Apple's got their own Podcasts app.
- solsenNet 14y ago
  I use Stitcher. and they've put a lot of work into it...
  - pohl 14y ago
    I have been using Stitcher too, and love it. Interestingly, after The Talk Show moved from 5by5 over to Mule Radio, I contacted all of the parties involved to try to get the new version of the show on Stitcher, so that all of my postcasts are managed in one app. I got a reply from someone at Mule (whose name I didn't recognize) that said that they did not like Stitcher's business model. This strikes me as strange because I figured that the larger the audience, the better deal the podcast is giving its sponsors. But, no, apparently they don't want Stitcher to host their podcast and then serve iAds (which I ignore) in the app. But yet they have no problem with Apple hosting the podcast on their servers. This really sucks because Stitcher does a lot of things that lend to a great user experience including (but not limited to) transcoding the podcasts so that they can be efficiently streamed. Hopefully this new app from Apple will allow me to gather my podcasts under one umbrella. Edit: Ugh...no, this new app is nowhere near as pleasant a user experience as Stitcher.
ajanuary 14y ago
Does the Unplayed Episodes list seem the wrong way round to anyone else? I generally want to start listening oldest first because newer things refer to older things.
ghshephard 14y ago
Hopefully, Apple will _finally_ let me pay for a subscription to my beloved HyperCritical PodCast. I already Pay $5/month to 5by5 - and was considering increasing that - but I would happily pay $2-$3/month for a subscription to Hypercritical. John Siracusa puts an insane amount of effort into preparation, and even when I vehemently disagree with him (he's opposed to patents) - I still find his perspectives and intellectual rigor intriguing.
pooriaazimi 14y ago
Come on Apple. Release a decent Audiobook app for iPad and I swear I won't speak ill about you again (I've submitted quite a few foul-mouthed bug reports and feature requests about iPad's Music.app in iOS 5, 6 and continue to do so every month). That lousy, disgusting 'new' Music.app on iOS 5.0 (on iPad) was the reason I bought an iPhone. I just couldn't stand that app (I listen to audiobooks quite often).
thought_alarm 14y ago
About 80% of my walking around time is spent listening to podcasts, and I've been waiting for this for a long, long time. Namely: - A podcast app that's separate from Music. They're really two entirely different tasks, and I don't like losing place in a playlist just to listen to a podcast, and vice versa. - Buttons for skipping forward and ahead within a track. - Never losing place in a podcast when switching tracks. This was a huge problem with the popup playback controls, where it's far too easy to hit rewind instead of pause. - The ability to download and update podcast subscriptions directly from the device. - Syncing listened/unlistened and playback state between devices. I think they've covered all of my issues with podcasts, and it's a beautifully designed app (I have a particular fondness for reel-to-reel decks). Well done, Apple.
- tptacek 14y ago
  You didn't like Downcast, or Instacast, or Pocket Cast? I use Downcast and like it a lot. I wasn't a major podcast person before --- I'd grab the "podcast version" of the latest episodes of things I'd listen to on NPR --- but having a client keep up with all that stuff for me is a bit of a revelation.
robomartin 14y ago
Lately I have been having this thought that Apple ought to do the right thing and compensate app publishers when it chooses to, effectively, take them out with their own version of their apps. From an ethical standpoint I really don't like the idea of them watching, learning, observing and then damaging those who put lots of time and effort into understanding a problem and developing solutions for them. They've done this with e-books and other areas and now podcasts. I am not saying that they should not publish their own versions of these apps. All I am suggesting is that the right thing for them to do is to financially recognize those who paved the road ahead of them. To be clear, I am not and have not been affected by any of these Apple-released apps. I do fear the potential to come-up with something popular only to be taken out by the mother-ship.
- chadv 14y ago
  This is a nice thought, but I don't think it's realistic. Most of Apple's value comes from refining the work of others. They didn't invent the computer, the music player, or the phone, they just made great versions of each of these things. I'd argue that Apple couldn't exist at all if they paid everyone who's work influenced them. They'd have to give away everything. I'm being easy on Apple by talking about hardware items, I know. Apple's worst sins are when they rip off software. And it's frustrating how sometimes they'll buy it (Coverflow) and sometimes they won't (Watson). The way they go about it feels mean. But it just shows how competitive they are. Ruthless even. They'd rather play dirty and win than lose with honor. It's hard to stay mad at them though because they do it all with such good taste.
xam 14y ago
YES! This means Apple will finally let us sync podcasts between computers wirelessly!

111 points by siglesias 14y ago

I thought this was going to happen when it was left out of the iOS 6 beta but I didn't think we'd see it until the new iPhone/iOS launch. Glad they are putting it out now. I'm curious to see what, if any, impact this has on podcast creators. If Apple pushes it the way they do iBooks and other Apple iOS apps it could be huge for them.

stevejohnson 14y ago

Relevant to the "Apple changes App Store search" story from the last couple of days: I am so far completely unable to find this app by searching for "podcasts", or even "podcasts apple". A quick Google search, on the other hand, worked instantly.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
When new apps are released they are usually available via direct link before they start appearing in search results. The roll out is gradual on a per country basis. With my apps it can take 1-3 hours before they appear in search on all stores.
siglesias 14y ago
If the search results are sorted by popularity, it will rise to the top very quickly.
fredsted 14y ago
I couldn't see it on the App Store, but when going to the direct link, I got a message saying it requires iOS 5.1 - I'm on 5.0.1. Maybe it's because your device isn't up to date.
johns 14y ago
I founded it on the home page of the App Store (iOS 6 version) under featured. Direct link didn't work for me.
moron 14y ago
When I searched for "podcasts apple" it was the very last result. I guess that's noble? At the very least they weren't using their status as the owner of the store to promote their own app, I'll give them that.
raimondious 14y ago
Odd, I searched the store for "podcasts" and it was the first result.

runjake 14y ago

It currently isn't showing up if you search for "podcasts" but does if you search for "podcasts apple" although it won't be obvious it's from Apple until after you tap the result.

dmix 14y ago
Thanks I thought it was another app not supported in Canada once again. Not the case.

dmishe 14y ago

It's broken, probably an accident release.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
In what way is it broken? Edit: I've noticed one bug so far with the search UI (search bar moves over the navigation bar after a search) but apart from that it's working fine.
- dmishe 14y ago
  Search doesn't work, UISearcBar X button is misaligned, when you focus out from search the cancel button goes inside uisearchbar
Apple-Guy 14y ago
Apple's own App Store twitter account promoted it. I am guessing bugs are due to it being v1.0.

pavel_lishin 14y ago

I assume that Music will still support podcasts? I'm miffed that videos were moved to an entirely different app; I'm subscribed to the TED talks video podcasts, but have to launch an entirely different application to listen to them (and yup, I listen to 99% of them as I'm walking around instead of watching them.)

siglesias 14y ago
It won't. Podcasts are removed from Music in iOS 6.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  Oh, goddamnit.
- towelrod 14y ago
  Are you kidding me? Currently my car radio can control the music app and let me listen to podcasts. Why would they take that functionality away?
  - coob 14y ago
    Your car radio can control any app that supports the remote control API, which podcasts does.
    - towelrod 14y ago
      Interesting -- what other apps use the remote control API? I have never been able to control anything other than "Music" with either of my cars. Aside from using the phone to make calls, of course.
- Timothee 14y ago
  Well, that's kind of silly. Not a huge deal, but I listen to my podcasts through a playlist that gathers all the podcasts I subscribe to, so it mixes it up a bit. Sounds like it won't happen anymore…

moron 14y ago

I'm glad. The Music app is pretty bad at podcasts.

Splines 14y ago
I don't know, this one isn't that great and I prefer the music app after using this one casually this afternoon on the way home. The download model doesn't seem as neat as the itunes separation. I keep current on my podcasts on my desktop, and I "catch up" on my iPhone. There's no way to trail behind a podcast (I use "sync 5 oldest unplayed"). Also, it didn't resume playing after receiving a phone call. Not a big deal, but it's another annoyance. For the time being I put the Podcast app in a folder and switched back to the Music app. I personally find nothing wrong with the Music app and will continue to use it - whenever I upgrade to iOS 6 I'll probably take a look at 3rd party podcast apps.

Lewisham 14y ago

Apple's highly questionable and deeply unfortunate skeuomorphism kick continues unabated. Now we're treated to a radio dial which died out in 1995, and playing podcasts presents a reel-to-reel, which died out in god knows when. It's completely bizarre. I guess podcasts are a form of talk radio, but tying them to some ancient radio technology that anyone under the age of 18 will have never touched is mental. They're even called podcasts: they arose because of the popularity of the iPod! Insane. Apple really need to sort their designers out. I wish we could somehow have Microsoft's new Metro design aesthetics on Mac OS X and iOS, then I could have the best apps and OS design, and the best UI to use with them.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
I think it's clear now that Apple likes skeuomorphism. They've been using it in the design of their products for the last few years. I presume it is helpful to less technical people (especially on device like the iPad which is attracting a lot of new and older computer users). They use this same radio design on the iPod nano radio (the first nano with a video camera). On that it's actually inconvenient and hurts the design. In this case I don't thin it really impacts either way.
- Lewisham 14y ago
  My biggest issue with this design, unlike say, the leather bound Address Book, is that it's tied to a technology that the generation Apple would like to appeal to have never used. It's akin to changing the App Store to having hand written floppy disks. All the teenagers that Apple would love to attract have no attachment, or perhaps not even an idea, about the object Podcasts is designed about. I agree that it probably is helpful to less technical people, but only when those items they call back to are ones the user is familiar with. Choosing a reel-to-reel is a terrible decision. 11 year olds today will have never known a world without an iPod. The iPod is the music player. At least Apple didn't try an iPod within an iPod, I suppose.
  - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
    At least Apple didn't try an iPod within an iPod, I suppose. True, the music app on the iPod is called 'Music'. But do remember, the music app on the iPhone used to be called 'iPod'.

glhaynes 14y ago

Cool app in a lot of ways, but its conceptual hierarchy seems weird to me so far — the main section that you're presented with upon launch (the "Library") has a tab bar at the bottom split between "Podcasts", showing podcasts you've subscribed to and/or downloaded episodes from, and "Top Stations", showing popular podcasts on the iTunes Store. So far so good. But then there's also a "Catalog" button at the top-left that "flips the app over" (a la iBooks) and shows you a general store-browsing interface. The corresponding button to get back—which, I'll note, is on the opposite side in that view!—is labeled "Library". tl;dr: There are Store interfaces in both the Library and the Catalog, seeming to break the conceptual hierarchy, and thus annoying me.

ZanderEarth32 14y ago

Just gave it a shot, and I wasn't impressed in the least. These types of apps are where Apple really fails. It's like they don't use the same designers they do for any of their other products on these small apps. The interface is lousy, and very similar to the Music app. Discovery doesn't seem very useful either. This might be useful for a 'light-weight' user and listener of podcasts but this doesn't even come close to apps like Downcast in terms of features.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
I think Apple is probably targeting the light-weight users and trying to attract new users. Advanced podcasts features are something relatively few people care about. I listen to several podcasts daily and 99% of the time I just press play. I don't care about setting speed, bookmarks, or any of the other featured apps like Instacast (which I use) offer. It's great that these apps are still available on the store and good for the developers that Apple hasn't just killed their business with a free alternative.
- ZanderEarth32 14y ago
  I am actually happy that this app is not what I want because I hope that this is the same sentiment for others. This will allow apps like Downcast and Instacast to further survive. My other gripe is the navigation is too stylized for my taste. I am not looking for my podcasting app to be an experience, just function as a tool.
- smackfu 14y ago
  I don't understand why they put in poor implementations of advanced features though. Like the speed dial only has two options, too fast and too slow. Why include that at all?

mshafrir 14y ago

FYI, requires iOS 5.1

rince 14y ago

I like the radio dial, seems like a nice way to browse the different categories. But this Podcasts app is missing 1 crucial feature it looks like - no ability to let you know the podcasts you are subscribed to have new episodes. I'm hoping that is expanded upon in iOS 6. Otherwise you still have to rely on syncing with iTunes.

pat2man 14y ago
I thought the same thing but then I scrolled up and saw the search bar with the list view. Using the list view you get exactly what you want, a list of podcasts with tags for new episodes and a chronologically sorted list view of all unplayed episodes.
glhaynes 14y ago
Have you switched the "Subscription" toggle on for any of the podcasts you have? (Note this also reveals an "Auto-Download" toggle.) From the Episodes view, tap on the podcast itself at the top. I haven't had any podcasts update in the last few minutes, I don't think, so I haven't been able to test it.
- rince 14y ago
  Thanks for the tip - I would've figured since I'm subscribed in iTunes it would have turned on this feature.
- MBCook 14y ago
  It's really odd that doesn't transfer over. I also find the way to get to the per-podcast settings was very unintuitive, it took me a couple of tries to find it. The thing I find really odd is the recommended podcasts in the catalog. So many of them don't have pictures, and many that do have pictures that aren't descriptive at all (just a person's face, no way to know it's a knitting podcast). And the picture is all you have to go by, there is no text unless you press the little info button. I'd expect podcasts will start adding pictures now that they have another reason to, but I'm surprised Apple didn't filter out such podcasts from the top lists. It seemed very un-Apple-ly to go to a category and see up to 50% of the entries in some categories are just placeholder images. There is also no way to tell which don't have images and which are currently pulling the image over the network.

deleted 14y ago

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kylec 14y ago

Breaking the podcast functionality out into its own app is interesting, but the 50MB limit for cellular downloads means that it's still completely useless for me.

smackfu 14y ago
Yeah, the average podcast I listen to is around an hour to 90 minutes, and that ends up being 45-70 MB.

pwelch 14y ago

I found the Music app painful to use for my podcasts. Not sure how much better this will make it. On the other hand I purchased Instacast and it is one of the most used apps on my phone.

Samuel_Michon 14y ago
Same here. I downloaded the Podcasts app, but it's so limited that I'll continue using Instacast. Same deal when Reading List came out; I'm still a happy Instapaper user. I think it will actually have advantageous effects for third party podcast apps: more people will get acquianted with podcasts and when they need something more powerful, they know where to look for it.

ajanuary 14y ago

So happy there's an official way to do subscription. The app's a little underwealming though. The fact they seem to have forgotten to stop the Subscription and Auto-Download cells from highlighting when you tap them is an indication of the lack of polish. It's generally pretty laggy, especially trying to do things like scrub through a track and I've had it crash several times already just trying to select podcasts.

theguycalledtom 14y ago

So,in the future, iOS will no longer have built in podcast support? iPhone users will now always have to download a separate app to get podcasts? This is a huge set-back for the podcast medium. There is so much friction convincing potential blue water podcast listeners to subscribe to podcasts. Haters are going to automatically say "podcasts are a niche, they have a small audience" so who cares? Well, before Apple put in built in support for smart phone apps in iOS with an app store on the home screen. The smartphone app audience was one of the smallest around. Now look at where we are.

ajanuary 14y ago
Personally I hope they do more apps as app store downloads. I don't want a stock app and I want a different calculator app. They can come pre-installed, but I want to be able to delete them and redownload them as necessary. Podcasts weren't particularly visible before. I may be remembering wrong (I've changed the tab order in my own app) but Podcasts were hidden under the "More..." tab.
- theguycalledtom 14y ago
  Ok, if someone tweets to you "Check out this cool podcast" and provides a direct link, how many steps does it take for you to subscribe?
  - ajanuary 14y ago
    I hadn't thought about that. If it comes pre-bundled, click link, that opens in Podcasts app, click Subscribe. If it doesn't, they've still currently got podcast integration with iTunes desktop, which means there will still be an iTunes page and itunes links will work, they just won't redirect to the itms-podcast protocol or whatever it is. They could link to the app from there.
  - jonny_eh 14y ago
    The podcast app is an improvement to the old way, requiring a person to go to their computer and load up iTunes, then to sync.

smackfu 14y ago

I use Downcast every day, not even as an advanced user, but just because I need to download podcasts on-the-go. This sucks in comparison. * Catalog (aka Store) is very slow and clunky. Takes 5-10 seconds to flag episodes as "Downloaded" after I click on a podcast I have episodes for. * Clicking download button takes 4-5 seconds to react. Progress of download is not shown in store, but only in Library. * No connection between podcasts you downloaded and those in the store. So if you want to get more episodes, you need to search again. Why? * No way to add podcasts by URL. * Descriptions are cut-off after a line or so with [...], even if you press the "i" button. * No position indicator. Oh wait, it's hidden behind the cover image and you need to tap to switch. And that's the default view every time. * The position indicator has buttons at either end. They don't do anything. Or do they?? They're certainly really small. * Some of the stuff hidden behind the cover image is a button. Some of it is just shiny bits of the reel-to-reel. Guess which is which from a foot away! * Only fast speed is 2x which is too fast. Only slow speed is 1/2x which is too slow. * The share buttons everywhere just link to the podcast in general, not the episode. * Generally sluggish on an iPhone 4. Honestly, this seems like the kind of stuff Apple is supposed to be better than.

mcfunley 14y ago
If you add podcasts by URL, you are probably an advanced user.
- smackfu 14y ago
  I guess? It doesn't feel advanced, it's just that one podcast that I listen to is a podcast Apple doesn't list. So I can't switch to this. Like "oh, you want to listen to music that's not in the app store? That's an advanced feature." And this is actually a lost feature relative to desktop iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html "It's easy to subscribe to any podcast using iTunes, even ones that aren't available in the iTunes Store. "
michaelbuckbee 14y ago
I had a significant (and expensive) issue with Downcast where it would continue to download podcasts from wifi -> 3g. I'd get in my car and my phone would be still connected via WiFi to the house, start Downcast to listen to something and then drive off - switching it to 3G and incurring mobile data overage charges.

Karunamon 14y ago

Phooey. Requires iOS 5.1.. guess it's time to upgrade and see if my jailbreak will hold.

jaysonelliot 14y ago

I understand why Apple felt the need to create this app. The current method of managing and listening to podcasts is split between iTunes and the Music app, and holds on to old models of syncing between the computer and the iPhone / iPod. It's a mess, and that, of course, is why there are third-party apps that have been doing a better job for podcast enthusiasts. Unfortunately, this is bad news for the makers of the third-party apps. My personal favorite is Pocket Casts. They put a lot of work into creating a great user experience for podcast listeners, which seems to have been replicated in some ways in Apple's "official" podcast app. (I'm not saying Apple copied them, just that some of their UX conventions also exist in the Podcasts app.) As I say, Apple did need to fix the current way podcasts are handled in iOS. Overall, it's probably going to be a good thing for podcasters, as it will make it easier for the average consumer to subscribe and consume podcasts. It just makes me feel bad for the app developers who have gone through so much work to create excellent products, only to see their role shoved out of the way as Apple integrates this new feature into iOS. It's an old story; Apple's been doing this sort of thing on the Mac for ages (remember Coverflow?), but it still gets to me a bit. I'll keep using and loving Pocket Casts, I just hope they and others can compete now that Apple's got their own Podcasts app.

solsenNet 14y ago
I use Stitcher. and they've put a lot of work into it...
- pohl 14y ago
  I have been using Stitcher too, and love it. Interestingly, after The Talk Show moved from 5by5 over to Mule Radio, I contacted all of the parties involved to try to get the new version of the show on Stitcher, so that all of my postcasts are managed in one app. I got a reply from someone at Mule (whose name I didn't recognize) that said that they did not like Stitcher's business model. This strikes me as strange because I figured that the larger the audience, the better deal the podcast is giving its sponsors. But, no, apparently they don't want Stitcher to host their podcast and then serve iAds (which I ignore) in the app. But yet they have no problem with Apple hosting the podcast on their servers. This really sucks because Stitcher does a lot of things that lend to a great user experience including (but not limited to) transcoding the podcasts so that they can be efficiently streamed. Hopefully this new app from Apple will allow me to gather my podcasts under one umbrella. Edit: Ugh...no, this new app is nowhere near as pleasant a user experience as Stitcher.

ajanuary 14y ago

Does the Unplayed Episodes list seem the wrong way round to anyone else? I generally want to start listening oldest first because newer things refer to older things.

ghshephard 14y ago

Hopefully, Apple will _finally_ let me pay for a subscription to my beloved HyperCritical PodCast. I already Pay $5/month to 5by5 - and was considering increasing that - but I would happily pay $2-$3/month for a subscription to Hypercritical. John Siracusa puts an insane amount of effort into preparation, and even when I vehemently disagree with him (he's opposed to patents) - I still find his perspectives and intellectual rigor intriguing.

pooriaazimi 14y ago

Come on Apple. Release a decent Audiobook app for iPad and I swear I won't speak ill about you again (I've submitted quite a few foul-mouthed bug reports and feature requests about iPad's Music.app in iOS 5, 6 and continue to do so every month). That lousy, disgusting 'new' Music.app on iOS 5.0 (on iPad) was the reason I bought an iPhone. I just couldn't stand that app (I listen to audiobooks quite often).

thought_alarm 14y ago

About 80% of my walking around time is spent listening to podcasts, and I've been waiting for this for a long, long time. Namely: - A podcast app that's separate from Music. They're really two entirely different tasks, and I don't like losing place in a playlist just to listen to a podcast, and vice versa. - Buttons for skipping forward and ahead within a track. - Never losing place in a podcast when switching tracks. This was a huge problem with the popup playback controls, where it's far too easy to hit rewind instead of pause. - The ability to download and update podcast subscriptions directly from the device. - Syncing listened/unlistened and playback state between devices. I think they've covered all of my issues with podcasts, and it's a beautifully designed app (I have a particular fondness for reel-to-reel decks). Well done, Apple.

tptacek 14y ago
You didn't like Downcast, or Instacast, or Pocket Cast? I use Downcast and like it a lot. I wasn't a major podcast person before --- I'd grab the "podcast version" of the latest episodes of things I'd listen to on NPR --- but having a client keep up with all that stuff for me is a bit of a revelation.

robomartin 14y ago

Lately I have been having this thought that Apple ought to do the right thing and compensate app publishers when it chooses to, effectively, take them out with their own version of their apps. From an ethical standpoint I really don't like the idea of them watching, learning, observing and then damaging those who put lots of time and effort into understanding a problem and developing solutions for them. They've done this with e-books and other areas and now podcasts. I am not saying that they should not publish their own versions of these apps. All I am suggesting is that the right thing for them to do is to financially recognize those who paved the road ahead of them. To be clear, I am not and have not been affected by any of these Apple-released apps. I do fear the potential to come-up with something popular only to be taken out by the mother-ship.

chadv 14y ago
This is a nice thought, but I don't think it's realistic. Most of Apple's value comes from refining the work of others. They didn't invent the computer, the music player, or the phone, they just made great versions of each of these things. I'd argue that Apple couldn't exist at all if they paid everyone who's work influenced them. They'd have to give away everything. I'm being easy on Apple by talking about hardware items, I know. Apple's worst sins are when they rip off software. And it's frustrating how sometimes they'll buy it (Coverflow) and sometimes they won't (Watson). The way they go about it feels mean. But it just shows how competitive they are. Ruthless even. They'd rather play dirty and win than lose with honor. It's hard to stay mad at them though because they do it all with such good taste.

xam 14y ago

YES! This means Apple will finally let us sync podcasts between computers wirelessly!