Horrendous app. Pod-catcher developers needn't be worried. Gawd. The whole app is terribly inefficient and laborious.
And... no iCloud syncing? Seriously!?
My favorite podcast app is "Downcast". I've had it for about 2 weeks and absolutely love it. I especially like the fine grained controls for speeding up listening (some people talk very slowly and I have the option to listen to them up to 3x speed).
For $2, Downcast remains greatly superior. Primary among its advantages is the ability to fine-tune playback speed. I found the UI easier to navigate as well, which is surprising given the plethora of buttons and gee-gaws.
Apple has a limited variable-speed playback in Music, but oddly, not in Podcasts. I still haven't figured out the auto-download either. It certainly *looks* nicer than Downcast.
Syncing is another issue. When I opened Podcasts for the first time it found all the subscriptions I had in iTunes. Downcast did not, and I had to re-enter them all. This was a minor one-time annoyance.
I suspect I'll switch to Podcasts at some point, but that will have to wait until there's vary-speed playback.
I'm wondering if this spells the end for iTunes as an all encompassing application to be replaced by a series of individual apps.
One certainly hopes so.
On iOS you have the iTunes store, Music, Video and Podcasts. On the Mac we have iTunes. Uggg.
We bought a subscription to Mad Men this season (no cable, in Canada, so getting it is otherwise tough). It worked great on the ATV, but on the wife's iBook it insisted on downloading instead of streaming. Downloading *twice* that is, one in HD one in SD. All of this happened only when you Check for Downloads, which took us a LONG time to find. It was all very annoying, and long due for an overhaul.
For each of my Podcasts I have gone into them and selected to keep the unplayed ones and then to show then in reverse date order. That's great, because then when I select to listen to a podcast I get to hear it in chronological order of its production.
However, when I go into "All" unplayed podcasts it shows them all in the wrong order i.e. with the newest at the top. A real pain, because I want to hear all of them in chronological order they were produced/uploaded.
I've been using this all morning and can honestly say it's a terrible app. I usually use Downcast, which is incredibly feature rich but rather slow and crashy. Apple's podcast app is not only devoid of features, but also full of annoyances, AND even slower and more crashy than Downcast.
The crashes were so extreme that I had to reboot my iPhone to get the app to reload, as simply killing it somehow didn't kill it completely.
I could write a big list of all of it's many, many failings, but I think it's summed up best by the bizarre, completely ridiculous skuemorphic design of having a reel to reel tape player animation in the background. Apple need some better graphic designers before their entire UI is littered with this junk.
I've been using this all morning and can honestly say it's a terrible app. I usually use Downcast, which is incredibly feature rich but rather slow and crashy. Apple's podcast app is not only devoid of features, but also full of annoyances, AND even slower and more crashy than Downcast.
The crashes were so extreme that I had to reboot my iPhone to get the app to reload, as simply killing it somehow didn't kill it completely.
I could write a big list of all of it's many, many failings, but I think it's summed up best by the bizarre, completely ridiculous skuemorphic design of having a reel to reel tape player animation in the background. Apple need some better graphic designers before their entire UI is littered with this junk.
I've experienced no crashes from Downcast. Did you completely shut down and restart before using the app?
I've experienced no crashes from Downcast. Did you completely shut down and restart before using the app?
I use Downcast for several hours every day, and I've tried everything to make it more stable. It's particularly prone to crashing when firing up the next podcast in a playlist, or when switching back to Downcast from another app.
That said, it's hugely more stable than Apple's horrible podcast app.
I love that this app finally is here, and free, but I have serious problems getting it to DL some podcasts, mainly Cnet ones.. Anyone else have problems with this? I get an error saying that the podcast could not be downloaded at this time. In itunes it works just fine, and other podcasts work too.
I love that this app finally is here, and free, but I have serious problems getting it to DL some podcasts, mainly Cnet ones.. Anyone else have problems with this? I get an error saying that the podcast could not be downloaded at this time. In itunes it works just fine, and other podcasts work too.
On my iPhone it doesn't even load about 90% of the time. It just pops up with the grey colour fade background, sits there for a minute or so, then crashes.
It's by far the worst app Apple have ever produced, which is saying something given previous train wrecks such as Game Centre.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
Horrendous app. Pod-catcher developers needn't be worried. Gawd. The whole app is terribly inefficient and laborious.
And... no iCloud syncing? Seriously!?
My favorite podcast app is "Downcast". I've had it for about 2 weeks and absolutely love it. I especially like the fine grained controls for speeding up listening (some people talk very slowly and I have the option to listen to them up to 3x speed).
Will do...Thx!
For $2, Downcast remains greatly superior. Primary among its advantages is the ability to fine-tune playback speed. I found the UI easier to navigate as well, which is surprising given the plethora of buttons and gee-gaws.
Apple has a limited variable-speed playback in Music, but oddly, not in Podcasts. I still haven't figured out the auto-download either. It certainly *looks* nicer than Downcast.
Syncing is another issue. When I opened Podcasts for the first time it found all the subscriptions I had in iTunes. Downcast did not, and I had to re-enter them all. This was a minor one-time annoyance.
I suspect I'll switch to Podcasts at some point, but that will have to wait until there's vary-speed playback.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaun, UK
I'm wondering if this spells the end for iTunes as an all encompassing application to be replaced by a series of individual apps.
One certainly hopes so.
On iOS you have the iTunes store, Music, Video and Podcasts. On the Mac we have iTunes. Uggg.
We bought a subscription to Mad Men this season (no cable, in Canada, so getting it is otherwise tough). It worked great on the ATV, but on the wife's iBook it insisted on downloading instead of streaming. Downloading *twice* that is, one in HD one in SD. All of this happened only when you Check for Downloads, which took us a LONG time to find. It was all very annoying, and long due for an overhaul.
Found one problem with the app!
For each of my Podcasts I have gone into them and selected to keep the unplayed ones and then to show then in reverse date order. That's great, because then when I select to listen to a podcast I get to hear it in chronological order of its production.
However, when I go into "All" unplayed podcasts it shows them all in the wrong order i.e. with the newest at the top. A real pain, because I want to hear all of them in chronological order they were produced/uploaded.
I've been using this all morning and can honestly say it's a terrible app. I usually use Downcast, which is incredibly feature rich but rather slow and crashy. Apple's podcast app is not only devoid of features, but also full of annoyances, AND even slower and more crashy than Downcast.
The crashes were so extreme that I had to reboot my iPhone to get the app to reload, as simply killing it somehow didn't kill it completely.
I could write a big list of all of it's many, many failings, but I think it's summed up best by the bizarre, completely ridiculous skuemorphic design of having a reel to reel tape player animation in the background. Apple need some better graphic designers before their entire UI is littered with this junk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kotatsu
I've been using this all morning and can honestly say it's a terrible app. I usually use Downcast, which is incredibly feature rich but rather slow and crashy. Apple's podcast app is not only devoid of features, but also full of annoyances, AND even slower and more crashy than Downcast.
The crashes were so extreme that I had to reboot my iPhone to get the app to reload, as simply killing it somehow didn't kill it completely.
I could write a big list of all of it's many, many failings, but I think it's summed up best by the bizarre, completely ridiculous skuemorphic design of having a reel to reel tape player animation in the background. Apple need some better graphic designers before their entire UI is littered with this junk.
I've experienced no crashes from Downcast. Did you completely shut down and restart before using the app?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
I've experienced no crashes from Downcast. Did you completely shut down and restart before using the app?
I use Downcast for several hours every day, and I've tried everything to make it more stable. It's particularly prone to crashing when firing up the next podcast in a playlist, or when switching back to Downcast from another app.
That said, it's hugely more stable than Apple's horrible podcast app.
Quote:
Originally Posted by driver28
I love that this app finally is here, and free, but I have serious problems getting it to DL some podcasts, mainly Cnet ones.. Anyone else have problems with this? I get an error saying that the podcast could not be downloaded at this time. In itunes it works just fine, and other podcasts work too.
On my iPhone it doesn't even load about 90% of the time. It just pops up with the grey colour fade background, sits there for a minute or so, then crashes.
It's by far the worst app Apple have ever produced, which is saying something given previous train wrecks such as Game Centre.