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Podcasts iOS App to Receive Bug Fix Update Later Today [Update: It's Out]

I was really looking foreward to this app, i was using instacast but the new update rubbed me te wrong way, aside from being buggy and having horrible hang times when you first start up the app, or switching between podcasts( easily 15-20 seconds) They need to use iCloud and actually endorse their own infastructure! I liked having my **** synced across devices. Now i dont know of i wanna wait for a usable version or go back to instacast. :/
 
Fantastic! Mountain Lion this morning was great, but knowing they're going to update this AWFUL app with SO much potential is really great news. There's a lot wrong with the Podcasts app, but most of those are because it's buggy, slow, and almost unusable right now. I really want to like it.
 
all they needed to do was put in a "working" animation for when it is looking for new podcast episodes for the shows that you subscribe to. At the moment it just appears to be frozen but it is actually downloading podcasts etc.

It was silly of them to not have this already as it was always going to cause issues with users who, for the most part, are extremely impatient.
 
phillipduran said:
Without a doubt, the Apple podcast app has been the best thing for Downcast ever. I'm curious to know the % increase for app sells over the past month or two for Downcast.
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I never used Podcasting apps on my iPad. I watch a LOT of Podcasts, but just used my computer... or the old music app.

When the Podcasts app came out I was really excited. Then it sucked. They I gave Downcast my money. I'm happy I did.

Sorry Apple... I'm not coming back to your Podcast app (I'm not sure they care as long as I'm on an iPad).
 
danimal99 said:
It's annoying when someone tries to design something halfway interesting, only to have people **** all over it, because it's not designed to YOUR specifications. Get over yourself.

Edit: And I'm talking about the reel to reel critics, specifically. I'm also surprised they released it as buggy as it was, but then it may have worked perfectly in the lab, and been atrocious in the wild. It happens. They're fixing it. Problem solved.
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Defending this app is beyond the pale.

You must be the project manager at Apple who drove this abomination.
 
Vertigo50 said:
Okay, I am seriously BAFFLED as to why anyone would use this app. There are SO MANY GREAT podcast apps in the store. iCatcher is my personal favorite, but Podcaster and many others offer so much customization, no download limits, and a bunch of fine-tuning controls that aren't available in Apple's app.

Why do people waste their time with this thing?
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Agreed. At first I was excited a standalone podcast app was available from Apple. But the app is horrible. Other better ones are out there in the app store.
 
irnchriz said:
all they needed to do was put in a "working" animation for when it is looking for new podcast episodes for the shows that you subscribe to. At the moment it just appears to be frozen but it is actually downloading podcasts etc.

It was silly of them to not have this already as it was always going to cause issues with users who, for the most part, are extremely impatient.
Click to expand...

It's not simply a matter of an animation. The UI doesn't just appear frozen -- it freezes: that is, it becomes unresponsive to user actions. In addition to an animation, they need to fully move this processing to a background thread (a basic & standard thing which is why it's so surprising that Apple muffed it. You'd expect better from a college kid doing her first iPhone app.)
 
Curious...

So is this terrible, terrible app the shameful result of HTML5? The Facebook app is equally terrible due to this resource-hogging standard, as well as Youtube playback on Macs...
 
Good news hope it helps

glad to see my experience with the app (old) re - affirmed - I thought it was my iphone 4 so far but it appears that the initial launch of the podcast app was somewhat sh@t.

Apple has always been much of the stance that "it just works" - hope this update does the mantra justice! I really hope they maintain that approach as stuff like this makes me wonder....

lets see what this "insanely great" update will bring

regards
\K
 
Vertigo50 said:
Okay, I am seriously BAFFLED as to why anyone would use this app. There are SO MANY GREAT podcast apps in the store. iCatcher is my personal favorite, but Podcaster and many others offer so much customization, no download limits, and a bunch of fine-tuning controls that aren't available in Apple's app.

Why do people waste their time with this thing?
Click to expand...

The design and feature set of Podcasts is perfect for my uses. I don't particularly like a lot of customization options because I don't want to have to screw around with them to get the app working. I just want the app to work.

The problem with Podcasts is that it doesn't actually function the way it is supposed to.
 
This app is a joke! Is it still tied only to apple ecosystem? This is the most disturbing part of it. And I thought Apple would be more open in post Jobs era. Silly me. Hardware and software are becoming a blatant ofense to any serious technology consumer.

Looking forward to see which company will take its former place.
 
iSee said:
The design and feature set of Podcasts is perfect for my uses. I don't particularly like a lot of customization options because I don't want to have to screw around with them to get the app working. I just want the app to work.

The problem with Podcasts is that it doesn't actually function the way it is supposed to.
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Fair enough, but with iCatcher and Podcaster, the default settings will work for the majority of people. Then if you want to tweak a bit more, you can. I haven't used Podcaster since I switched to iCatcher, but I never had the kind of stability problems I've heard about from Apple's app.

Based on what you say, I would give them a try if I were you. You'll never go back.
 
rodrigomarrafao said:
This app is a joke! Is it still tied only to apple ecosystem? This is the most disturbing part of it. And I thought Apple would be more open in post Jobs era. Silly me. Hardware and software are becoming a blatant ofense to any serious technology consumer.

Looking forward to see which company will take its former place.
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Well, um... Do you expect Apples podcast app to work on android devices or what exactly is your problem? o_O

As for the update: much, much better now. Faster, seems stable, auto download started fetching new episodes right away and covers finally show up correctly.
 
I just updated the Podcasts app on my iPhone 3GS. It is still painfully slow and unresponsive. Not fixed.
 
Sh4wN said:
Well, um... Do you expect Apples podcast app to work on android devices or what exactly is your problem? o_O

As for the update: much, much better now. Faster, seems stable, auto download started fetching new episodes right away and covers finally show up correctly.
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I think he means he'd like to be able to enter podcast URLs, like you can on iTunes. Right now you can only select Apple-approved podcasts.
 
lukemcurley said:
I just updated the Podcasts app on my iPhone 3GS. It is still painfully slow and unresponsive. Not fixed.
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It was just as slow for me too, until I rebooted the app. It is definitely "significantly" more stable and responsive.
 
bitfactory said:
Defending this app is beyond the pale.

You must be the project manager at Apple who drove this abomination.
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The poster was defending the design not the terribly buggy implementation (hopefully fixed now, but we'll see).

I personally like the design quite a bit.
It has all the functionality I want without endless amounts of crap I don't want.
I also quite like the tile view (that I can put in the order I want) and the asymmetric jump forward & back buttons with well chosen intervals.
I have nothing against so-called "skeuomorphic" designs which for some reason so many people suddenly seem to hate. (Personally, I suspect that most of those people are just excited to learn a new word and want to use it as much as possible, so they form a strong opinion in order to do so. Anyway, it's pretty hard to find apps with no skeuomorphic design elements so I hope people aren't really that upset by them.)
I'm not too fond of "top stations" but then again I spend 99% of my time interacting with the app selecting a podcast to play or jumping forward or back in the current podcast to skip or replay something, so I'm not too concerned with the other screens as long as they stay out of my way.

krishatesworld said:
Curious...

So is this terrible, terrible app the shameful result of HTML5? The Facebook app is equally terrible due to this resource-hogging standard, as well as Youtube playback on Macs...
Click to expand...
No. You probably shouldn't hate HTML5 as much as you do, since you don't seem to know what it is.

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Vertigo50 said:
Fair enough, but with iCatcher and Podcaster, the default settings will work for the majority of people. Then if you want to tweak a bit more, you can. I haven't used Podcaster since I switched to iCatcher, but I never had the kind of stability problems I've heard about from Apple's app.

Based on what you say, I would give them a try if I were you. You'll never go back.
Click to expand...

Well, I actually already bought Downcast, which seems OK. I do agree Podcasts was terribly unstable (hopefully fixed now). I'll probably just roll with Downcast for now.
 
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