It’s no secret that I like Apple products. Maybe that’s is an understatement, but they work for me.
I also love podcasts. I listen to them almost exclusively. I’ve been podcasting, myself, on and off since 2005, so I know a thing or two about the medium.
So what does the guy who “literally wrote the book on church podcasting” think about the iOS Podcast app? This review might seem late since the app came out several months ago, but I think it hasn’t been ready for review until very recently.
When Apple announced the Podcast app, I was hoping that it meant that podcasts would be given a special place in iOS. Hopefully, the app would make it easy for new users to discover podcasts and subscribe for themselves.
I really wanted the app to solve some of the problems that I had using Music app. Before Apple added wireless syncing and iCloud, connecting to iTunes from time to time was fine. That ship has sailed now. I don’t want to connect my iPhone to my computer except in the most dire circumstances or for an update.
When iOS 5 was announced was how they were going to deal with podcasts. Apple’s answer is the podcast app.
Positives
The very existence of this app proves that podcasting is still important to Apple. Some people had speculated that the company who’d single-handedly brought podcasting closer to the main stream was abandoning it. You don’t write an app for something you’re abandoning.
The Podcast app enables you to discover, subscribe, download, and play podcasts. With each podcast you can choose to automatically download new episodes and either keep all unplayed, the most recent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or all episodes.
The “top stations” feature helps you find new shows, preview, and subscribe to them. As I was researching this piece, I found two new podcasts, myself. Additionally, if you want to find a podcast that isn’t widely known, just head over to the store in the app and either look in the top charts or in the featured, audio, or video categories. If that doesn’t work, you can just search for what you want.
The latest update made it easy to turn on automatic updating for all the podcasts you have in your list. Now, every day, I get new podcast episodes. I don’t have to sync when I run out. They’re just always there.
Unlike the music app, the podcasting app can play both audio and video. When you’re playing a video, you can easily shut off the screen and just listen to the audio. This is a distinct advantage over the other Apple apps that can play video. You don’t need to subscribe to both the video and audio versions of a show if you might want to just listen to the audio while you’re driving or doing chores, but also like to watch the video when you can.
Undownloaded podcasts can be played while they’re downloading if you have a reliable internet connection. I haven’t tested it recently, but in the past, a loss of connection during the download sometimes meant that the next time that episode was played it would start from the beginning. I do like that if I’m on a wifi connection I can play episodes without downloading them and syncing with iTunes.
Since this is a self-contained app, I can clear out all my old podcasts from iTunes and just keep the ones I listen to on my iPhone itself, saving space on my Mac and time with syncing. This is a great reason to ditch using iTunes and just use the Podcast app for podcast aggregation.
Negatives
There’s a lot of potential in this app, but it’s not all good news. First, the app doesn’t seem finished to me. When it quits, it doesn’t pick back up on the podcast you were listening to last. In fact, if you use the audio system of your iPhone to listen to anything else like music or audio on a website, the Podcast app doesn’t even indicate what podcast you were listening to previously.
There’s no way that I can find to tell the iPhone or iPod Touch that you want the Podcast app to be the default audio player. If no audio apps are currently running and you press the play button on the lock screen (after a double-press of the home button), the Music app will play. Likewise, the play button on the headphones will start the Music app unless there’s a podcast that’s been paused and the podcast app is still running.
The list of unplayed podcasts is arranged from most recent to oldest. That means if you’re trying to listen to the podcasts in order, you always have to scroll to the bottom of the list before you can get to the one you want to hear.
It took me a couple of months to realize that when you finish one podcast, the app starts playing the next one up in the list. That assumes that the next podcast has been downloaded or that you have a good Internet connection. It’s possible to have a long list of podcasts that haven’t been downloaded. This can mean a long pause between podcasts if the last downloaded podcast is several from the next one on the list.
The list view of the podcast library is the only view that has the unplayed podcasts category. The cover view only shows the cover art of the podcasts you have subscribed to.
While you’re playing a podcast, the default view contains a volume indicator, transport controls, and cover art, but no indication of how far into the podcast you are and how much time is left. For that information, you need to tap on the cover art. This view shows a reel to reel tape player with speed, sharing, and sleep timer controls. Some of this is helpful, but I’m almost 40 and I’ve only been in a room with a reel to reel player a hand full of times in my life, so I can’t imagine that picture speaks to anyone younger than I am.
Early versions of the app were so horrible that I nearly quit using it several times. I’m glad I gave it one more chance after an upgrade because that fixed a crashing problem that had plagued it since the second version. Now, it’s been pretty stable for a couple of versions.
Conclusion
Apple could make this into a great app if they just tweak a couple of things. I hope that it doesn’t become a forgotten app. If it stays on the list of supported technologies, it could be a great app some day, but today it’s only so so. The paid podcast apps are probably a better choice unless you’re cheap like I am. đŸ˜‰
How about you, how do you feel about the Podcast app in iOS?
Brian Alexander says
i have had some of the same frustrations, but i like podcasts too much not to use it. Hopefully Apple will address these issues in the next versions.
Paul Clifford says
I think it will get better. The fact that they’re doing anything at all gives me hope.