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I'll stick with iCatcher, thanks anyway. I'm guessing this new app doesn't have anywhere near the customizability, and I love being able to make swipe gestures to skip around an episode.

Apple is about 3 years too late on this.
 
Questions before I irreversably screw anything up:

* Does it still support 2X and 1/2X speeds, like the Music app does for Podcasts and Audiobooks?

* So it syncs with iTunes. Does it sync any podcast you specify, including those not in the iTunes store but in your iTunes library?

* Does it support iTunes playlists (or creating your own on the device)?

* Somebody said the iOS app syncs your play data through iCloud, so that you can pause on one device and resume on another. Does this also work in iTunes?
 
I sure hope so too. They've tried to cram everything including the kitchen sink into iTunes and it became more and more cluttered, slow, and hard to use. So I think it's great that Apple is finally starting to separate out the separate functionalities into their own rightfully separate apps.

It sounds silly but I hate that something called 'iTunes' manages apps, podcasts, movies and TV, as well as music.
 
Not sure what to think about this.

Am I the only one concerned that this will ghettoize podcasters and make them less visible..

In iTunes, podcasts and and other "New Media" stood side by side in iTunes with "Old Media"..

This feels like a step backwards to me.

Qft, this is very sensible opinion, I wish there was someone as sensible at apple making some of these crucial choices. That's indeed what's going to happen.

Interestingly you got downvoted... Downvoted what with the level of some of the participants here seems more so than not as a sure sign that someone said something that makes sense.
 
Not sure what to think about this.

Am I the only one concerned that this will ghettoize podcasters and make them less visible..

In iTunes, podcasts and and other "New Media" stood side by side in iTunes with "Old Media"..

This feels like a step backwards to me.

How is this going to make them less viable. Isn't this still offered in iTunes on your Mac or PC next to all your media?

This just looks like Apple is thinning out some of the pieces of it's software on the iOS devices. This is for iOS only isn't it?
 
Haha great.. Another hobby app of apple that will probably be updated once every 2-3 years.
 
Wow wow wow!!! The new podcasts app isn't just good, it's the best podcasting app ever made ON ANY PLATFORM. EVER. I'm loving the seamless resume playback on all my devices. The UI is absolutely beautiful. Here's another nail in the coffin of Android. If you love listening to podcasts, owning an IOS device just became absolutely essential. Incredible work from Apple once again!

Calm yourself... :D
 
Support for podcast subscriptions!!!:D

Yep. And given that many folks had no clue there was any podcast support in Music pulling it out was, from the POV of the creators, a great move.

The timing of this release even makes sense. they will likely remove said support from the Music and Video apps with iOS 6 so they would want to have this app already being used by those that need it so they won't suddenly lose something when they update. they are already set for it.
 
Starting a podcast on the phone and picking up where you left off on the iPad works great. The 30 second forward button is nice too. I like it much better than the standard Music app.

How do you do the sync across devices so far I cant get podcasts on my phone to appear on my iPad. Does it require Itunes?
 
It doesn't seem to automatically download anything at all, even with the app open. From what I can see, you have to download each episode that you want individually, the only thing that updates is a list of available episodes. You tap the episode to stream instantly or there's a little download button to store on the device.

Not sure if you saw it already but there is an "Auto-download" switch present when you switch on "Subscription". It's hidden--you have to tap on the show's icon when you are viewing the show in your library.

But it definitely does seem to support automatic downloads. The biggest question is will it automatically download new episodes on a daily basis like Newsstand does with periodicals. My hunch says no. If it does, then that's a huge advantage over Downcast and Instacast, albeit because Apple is cheating.
 
I wish there was support for non-itunes podcasts. A local radio station here releases all their shows, but I can't do it unless I'm connected to the PC and transfer them via itunes.
 
I just hope they don't remove podcast listening from iTunes, and/or the Music iOS app; I like iTunes just fine so I can hold on to interesting podcasts as part of my collection.

I know EVERYONE prefers streaming to owning these days, but some material is worth archiving.

Mind you, I like streaming, and find Stitcher great for that for more news-y podcasts, but I like to relisten to some, like radio shows...
 
Wow wow wow!!! The new podcasts app isn't just good, it's the best podcasting app ever made ON ANY PLATFORM. EVER. I'm loving the seamless resume playback on all my devices. The UI is absolutely beautiful. Here's another nail in the coffin of Android. If you love listening to podcasts, owning an IOS device just became absolutely essential. Incredible work from Apple once again!

How are you syncing between devices? Doesn't seem to be doing it for me...
 
OR, they feel they can do it beter when it's not fighting for space alongside the latest britney fart.
Podcasts and music are different media, why not seperate them?

Especially when you consider that they have different technical needs. Before now podcasts were forced into the square hole of the music app so there was no subscription support etc. Now that they have their own hole, it's a perfect fit.
 
Hmm, how long before they update the iTunes U app so that it stores audio and video in the app, rather than jumping into the Music or Videos apps for content?

All we really need after that is for them to do something about Audiobooks (either their own separate app, or integrated with iBooks -- ooh, that'd be nice, pause the audiobook and resume reading, or vice versa), and split Videos into Movies and TV Shows apps.

Then iTunes is just for managing your store account, and maybe downloading ringtones.
 
I used to use Podcaster and Downcast was a huge improvement. It's also improved on a regular basis, when I was using Podcaster it seemed to have been abandoned for a while.
Good to know. I just downloaded it and a importing all my podcasts.
 
Not sure if you saw it already but there is an "Auto-download" switch present when you switch on "Subscription". It's hidden--you have to tap on the show's icon when you are viewing the show in your library.

But it definitely does seem to support automatic downloads. The biggest question is will it automatically download new episodes on a daily basis like Newsstand does with periodicals. My hunch says no. If it does, then that's a huge advantage over Downcast and Instacast, albeit because Apple is cheating.

Oh - you're right! I didn't see that. Silly me.
 
Wow wow wow!!! The new podcasts app isn't just good, it's the best podcasting app ever made ON ANY PLATFORM. EVER. I'm loving the seamless resume playback on all my devices. The UI is absolutely beautiful. Here's another nail in the coffin of Android. If you love listening to podcasts, owning an IOS device just became absolutely essential. Incredible work from Apple once again!

Do you work for Eddy Cue or something? :p Are you able to import podcasts via URL like you can do with podcaster and downcast? If not than big FAIL.
 
I wonder if this is a move by Apple to slowly transition to separate apps on the computer. A lot of people complain that iTunes is too bloated, maybe this will allow Apple to break it up and keep it lean.

on the Macs perhaps. But Windows will likely always be stuck with the bloat.

That said, removing Podcasts isn't really what they need to be doing to remove the bloat for iTunes. Things like having an iPhone simply pop up as an icon on the screen and you 'open' it for the sync screens without having to have iTunes on is what is needed. making the store a either a separate app like the MAS, combining it with the MAS app and/or taking both to the web is what is needed.
Merging the DVD player app with iTunes for one unified player app wouldn't hurt either. Nor would adding the ability to make plugins for things like WMA and Divx wouldn't hurt. Adding Blu-ray playback support for those that are willing to buy an external drive is unlikely but it would be a nice touch.

I downloaded the app and if I had to make any complaint it would be that when a podcast doesn't have cover art it doesn't have the podcast name on the generic logo when you are looking at the whole Top Stations thing. You have to tap the i to see what it is and that's extremely annoying.

I was also surprised that there wasn't a channel just for Apple stuff. that would fix the issue of them making every event a separate podcast for ages. They could do a podcast for every store or do it as types (meet the filmmaker, meet the cast, etc). Or even let you add your own 'stations' based on producers or topics you like. Then if they did finally get their acts together those that like those event podcasts could make an "Apple" station. Or my baby sister could make a 'station' for the 20 harry potter podcasts she still listens to. It could be an alternate way for us to sort our podcasts instead of just a flat list.
 
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Taking a look at the app, it looks great... The older episodes that I was concerned about rolled over into the app. You can also subscribe to podcasts and get auto downloads. I never had the chance to try one of the third party apps, so I can't compare them. I also like the stuff "Under the hood" with the tape recorder, speed, and share button. Gives it a nice interactive look.
 
What I do not see is how this will interact with my iMac. I do not want to manage my podcast subscriptions on my tiny iPhone screen, that's why I have my nice 27" iMac. I certainly do not want to have to download everything onto the iPhone, it's just too slow even on wifi, and I certainly do not want to stream anything. Streaming will put me over my 300MB very quickly to say nothing of the vast stretches of plains where there is only a minimal, if any, signal.
 
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