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Apple Updates Podcasts iOS App With Custom Stations, Playlists, and iCloud Syncing

johnmacward

johnmacward

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
342
252
Just updated yesterday evening. Huge improvements to this app in terms of functionality and speed. The reel to reel is gone (it was actually nice, but pointless) and I assume this is where the speed increases have come from.

The ability to sort the play order is great, if you like a podcast you don't want to listen to it backwards but from the first episode till the latest and this is now a feature!

An app that went from to CRAP to APP!
 
T

The Phazer

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2007
2,997
930
London, UK
Rogifan said:
Why do they belong in music? I don't listen to one podcast that's related to music.
Click to expand...

The music app has elevated privilages from the OS that apps installed from the App Store (such as this one) don't get for backgrounding.

As such, one example of screwups is that if my phone has cleared out all running apps and I press the unpause button on my remote it will start to play something from the music app, rather than the Podcast app, even if that was the last thing I listened to.

It also means the app gets lower priority in background audio conflicts, and it's impossible to do mixed podcast and music track playlists.

You actually can delete it and get Podcasts in the music app already, where they should be, but it leaves no ability to put new podcasts on the device whatsoever other than syncing with an iTunes desktop installation.
 
M-O

M-O

macrumors 6502a
Mar 15, 2011
502
0
dang it!!! they cut the time on my andy ihnatko button in half!!! now i have to press it twice as much.
 
J

JetLaw

Cancelled
Jan 21, 2009
246
750
While I appreciate all the bickering about skeuomorphic design, why is nobody pointing out the fact that this update does NOT fix syncing with the Mac using iCloud? It syncs only between iOS devices - just like the last version did; so either MacRumors headline is wrong, or Apple screwed up, and based on my reading of the release notes, MacRumors is wrong and iCloud syncing went unchanged in this update.
 
I

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,392
843
Squilly said:
Fwiw, I haven't touched this app since it's unveiling.
Click to expand...

What do you use to listen to podcasts?

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ArtOfWarfare said:
I used to listen to podcasts back in the days of classic iPods... IDK why, but it seemed every show I listened to got boring or ended so I haven't listened to a podcast in years now...
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's fair to say podcasting is entering a renaissance or if it's just maturing as a medium, but the quality of podcasts seems to be improving. Some of the podcasts I watch and listen to regularly are all across the board, and some (God Hates Fangs) are great, but clearly made by a British couple using their iPhone microphone to record! Others (anything by the TWiT network, Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcasts, Kevin Smith's Smodcast network) have very high production standards, and are always informative and/or entertaining.

Most are in the middle - like Engadget's HD podcast, The TUAW talkcast, Transporter Room 3, The Ready Room, Dork Trek, AV Rant, Angry Mac Bastards, the HT Guys podcast, where you've got passionate or expert hosts, and a good pacing and decent production.

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talmy said:
I got sick of this awful app and went with Downcast a month ago. Far faster and more reliable.
Click to expand...

One big reason I switched to Downcast was because of one of the annoying things that the old one would do when I was listening to a podcast in Apple's podcast app, if I paused playback for longer than it thought was reasonable, when I resumed playback, it would switch over to the music player app, and I would hear whatever the last song I'd been playing was. Arghhh! My blood pressure!!

Downcast doesn't do that.

I'll play around with Apple's 'cast app to see if they fixed that.

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CptnJustc said:
About... friggin'... time on the iCloud syncing.

To tell the truth though, I thought the reel-to-reel skeumorphism was kind of charming. My secret shame! :(
Click to expand...

Oh, God, I hated it. It was hidden most of the time playing back, and you had to click on the cover art of the 'cast to even see it.
 
C

canyonblue737

macrumors 68020
Jan 10, 2005
2,147
2,620
The old Podcast app had a major bug that existed for months that showed up on the iPhone 5 and cost many a user money. Basically if podcasts began streaming on wi-fi and you then transitioned to LTE it would not only stay streaming but then would enter a rapid "download" state and quickly download the whole podcast then start again and download it again and again and again. As a new iPhone 5 user with LTE (I have had many iPhones before with AT&T) this added up to about 1.5 GB of data download AN HOUR while out for a run listening to an AUDIO podcast. It took two times of this (4 GB wasted) before I realized what had caused it and then saw dozens of other users reporting the same bug for weeks on the app store for apple podcasts. I quickly dumped the app and started using downcast with no problems.

i would love to return but frankly my faith is really shaken in the app... can anyone confirm that this bug has long again been corrected?

Here is an article about the bug: http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/11/14/podcast-bug-in-ios-60

UPDATE: an of course it appears that OS 6.01 long ago fixed the issue that appeared in conjunction with the podcast app... still shows how darn buggy this app was.
 
I

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,392
843
vodouman said:
No longer supports 3X speed playback.
Click to expand...

Never played at 3x.

No loss.

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jigzaw said:
Yeah, that's what I figured but it's not just showing podcasts I've downloaded.. it's counting ALL podcasts from all my subscriptions, even those I haven't downloaded. And why even show something like that? It's not like a podcast is an urgent message that needs to be dealt with. Seeing a number like 1000+ slapped on top of my app icon is absurd. This is kind of discouraging to subscriptions. I'll probably unsubscribe to everything and just manually check podcasts when I'm in the mood.
Click to expand...

Wow, it doesn't take much to get you worked up, does it? :p

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blucurv said:
This is good example of skeumorphism gone bad. It's too confusing and not user friendly.
Image

I remember the days of Leopard when Apple had finally started to get their GUI for OSX to look more cohesive. Before, it was a total mess. Then comes Mountain Lion with Reminders, Calendar, and Contacts. Ugh. I wish the OSX apps could have more of a cohesiveness to them. Never fear though, Jonny is on the job.
Click to expand...

And, there was a disconnect between the digital playback and the analog tape reels. For example, when you played back at 2x or 3x, the reel's rotation speed didn't change to match.

Sloppy coding, I thought.
 
M

MacUser5

macrumors member
Feb 11, 2009
41
0
Is the Podcasts App inspired by the Downcast App?

They both feature Freakonomics Radio in the App Store?

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SHAL0MINTHEH0ME

macrumors newbie
Feb 25, 2013
15
0
marc11 said:
So this update, after updating my library for aout 15 minutes, just brought back 100 episodes of podcasts I already listened too....good job Apple! Now I get the pleasure of removing them all again, thanks for the extra work.
Click to expand...

Stop whining, Marc.

:p

I had the same issue. It took me about 5 mins to go through all my podcasts and now the app handles old podcasts much better than before. First off, you can mass delete by using the "edit" button. Also, the options to keep only and download only the latest episodes works much better. Now instead of ~35 "unplayed" of each podcast, I finally have only 1!

This update is all good!

Oh, and you're slow.
 
I

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,392
843
Medic311 said:
my gosh, this update is an ***** godsend to the performance of the Podcast App. it runs SO much better, it updates podcasts more reliably, and overall feels like a much more polished experience. there were so many bugs in the last version.

it also seems to download quicker? anyone notice this? it's downloading Podcasts much much quicker than before - nothing on my end has changed regarding internet speed or 3G speed
Click to expand...

I noticed Safari seems snappier. :p


Couldn't resist!

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marc11 said:
So this update, after updating my library for aout 15 minutes, just brought back 100 episodes of podcasts I already listened too....good job Apple! Now I get the pleasure of removing them all again, thanks for the extra work.
Click to expand...

What should they have done?
 
scapegoat81

scapegoat81

macrumors 6502a
Oct 7, 2012
758
148
Philly
Love the update but its useless right now. Mine crashes everytime i launch it within 10-15 seconds. Is anyone else experiencing crashes ? I can't do anything at all. This really blows. I'm on 6.1 w/ an iP4S
 
Squilly

Squilly

macrumors 68020
Nov 17, 2012
2,260
4
PA
Irishman said:
What do you use to listen to podcasts?

----------



I don't know if it's fair to say podcasting is entering a renaissance or if it's just maturing as a medium, but the quality of podcasts seems to be improving. Some of the podcasts I watch and listen to regularly are all across the board, and some (God Hates Fangs) are great, but clearly made by a British couple using their iPhone microphone to record! Others (anything by the TWiT network, Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcasts, Kevin Smith's Smodcast network) have very high production standards, and are always informative and/or entertaining.

Most are in the middle - like Engadget's HD podcast, The TUAW talkcast, Transporter Room 3, The Ready Room, Dork Trek, AV Rant, Angry Mac Bastards, the HT Guys podcast, where you've got passionate or expert hosts, and a good pacing and decent production.

----------



One big reason I switched to Downcast was because of one of the annoying things that the old one would do when I was listening to a podcast in Apple's podcast app, if I paused playback for longer than it thought was reasonable, when I resumed playback, it would switch over to the music player app, and I would hear whatever the last song I'd been playing was. Arghhh! My blood pressure!!

Downcast doesn't do that.

I'll play around with Apple's 'cast app to see if they fixed that.

----------



Oh, God, I hated it. It was hidden most of the time playing back, and you had to click on the cover art of the 'cast to even see it.
Click to expand...

I don't listen to them.... if I do, just YouTube.
 
D.T.

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
Sybok said:
...put all my audio files in ONE app again!:confused:
Click to expand...

What about video podcasts? Do they go over in the stock video app?

For me, my Podcast consumption is such a standalone activity, I don't mix it with listening to music, I don't want hybrid playlists, it's fine as a standalone app.

However, I hear what people are saying about things like headphone audio controls (that seems like an obvious, and straight forward fix where the last app playing registers itself as the handler for external controls).

APlotdevice said:
Not quite true. You can import your own videos from your computer into the video app, and they will play so long as its in a format that iOS natively supports.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, we convert over to MP4, then they're available across our entire network, to all devices, or can be easily copied over to a device for watching outside of the network.

For those starting with MKV, you don't even have to re-encode, it's just a simple container swap, 2hours in about 2 minutes :)
 
Daws001

Daws001

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2011
449
274
The States
I haven't tried Podcasts since the initial launch but these updates are pretty major. It seems comparable to Downcast now. The one thing I noticed, in the few minutes playing around with it, it doesn't let you download podcasts over 50MB (outside wifi). I don't have this restriction on Downcast so I'll stick with it. Podcasts looks like a solid alternative, though, and it's free.
 
Medic311

Medic311

macrumors 68000
Jul 30, 2011
1,659
58
Irishman said:
I noticed Safari seems snappier. :p



What should they have done?
Click to expand...

haha i appreciate the humor.

in all seriousness though, this App's performance makes everything run better in the App whether it's downloading or opening a podcast etc

it's a much needed performance improvement. i couldn't care less about the aesthetic changes - the performance improvements alone are enough for me
 
jonnyb098

jonnyb098

macrumors 68040
Nov 16, 2010
3,987
5,442
Michigan
M-O said:
dang it!!! they cut the time on my andy ihnatko button in half!!! now i have to press it twice as much.
Click to expand...

Hahaha. Thats hilarious. I do agree Andy and Leo have been getting very long winded lately on ads specifically Audible. A few weeks ago I recall almost 7 minutes!
 
L

lucidhysteria

macrumors member
Mar 22, 2013
41
57
WestonHarvey1 said:
I get why people don't like stitched leather calendars, but this whole "nothing on my interface should remind me of anything in the real world" thing goes way too far. It's not based on anything real. It's just dogma.

We have high resolution 32 bit color graphics, and people won't be happy until we have a totally flat 4 color interface. I just don't get it.
Click to expand...

Bravo! You get a standing ovation from me, friend.

My thinking is that, like anything else, there is good skeumorphism and bad skeumorphism (I personally love Notes and Reminders, but could do without the Calendar skinning on OS X, for example), and there are applications in which a completely flat, chrome-free approach is the best way to go, but this whole "zero tolerance" policy for skeumorphism is just an aimless trend that helps people feel current and hip, if you ask me.

And I actually loved the reel-to-reel thing as well — it was only there when you wanted it to be there, and it didn't hurt anything; it was a nice touch. Of course, the problem was that they put so much effort into the interface WITHOUT MAKING SURE THE REST OF THE APP ACTUALLY WORKED. But to act like the skeumorphism itself was in any way part of the problem... bah.

Oh well. This trend will die (as they all do) once people are satisfied that they've raised the term "skeumorphism" in conversation enough times to make themselves sound really smart and important :)
 
mcfrazieriv

mcfrazieriv

macrumors 65816
Jan 30, 2012
1,105
2,843
So they remove everything that makes the Apple app have personality? :confused:

I get it. Some people hate it, some love it, but minimalism ON EVERYTHING is going to flat out make it look so basic.
 
G

gloryunited

macrumors 6502
Oct 29, 2010
316
1
Why do they take away the best part, the tape spinning thing?? I'd still love to be able to flick open the lid and see the inside!

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lucidhysteria said:
And I actually loved the reel-to-reel thing as well — it was only there when you wanted it to be there, and it didn't hurt anything; it was a nice touch. Of course, the problem was that they put so much effort into the interface WITHOUT MAKING SURE THE REST OF THE APP ACTUALLY WORKED. But to act like the skeumorphism itself was in any way part of the problem... bah.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I wish they keep that as an option.

But it's Apple. They don't like giving us options.
 
T

Tomade

macrumors newbie
Mar 21, 2013
1
0
Medic311 said:
haha i appreciate the humor.

in all seriousness though, this App's performance makes everything run better in the App whether it's downloading or opening a podcast etc

it's a much needed performance improvement. i couldn't care less about the aesthetic changes - the performance improvements alone are enough for me
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly, I can't believe how many folks here seem hung on the look of the UI, which ultimately boils down to matters of personal taste that as such are really not debatable. They could have replaced the reel tape deck with a Victrola phonograph for all I cared, as long as the damn thing stopped being a daily source of frustration while trying to operate it. Very happy now, it's an app on par with the other Apple ones in iOS and chapters are starting to make a comeback too - very useful in those podcasts that support them.
 
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