Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Podcasts iOS App to Receive Bug Fix Update Later Today [Update: It's Out]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Dear god, it's even worse!
It's so laggy it's like someone else is VLCing into my phone and issuing different touch commands.
And the baffling UI remains. There's still no way to make downloading wifi only. Or see what's downloading without entering details on every single podcast. Or enter the app and not download tracks, without having to do everything for every single podcast manually (like you'd want to do if you were on 3G). Or to view pictures on Enhanced podcasts & navigate chapters at the same time. Or navigate chapters easily at all to be blunt. Many UI elements remain confusing. The defaults for new subscriptions remain ****. Deleting individual episodes vs deleting subscriptions use two different swipe to delete paradigms.
FFS Apple.
It's so laggy it's like someone else is VLCing into my phone and issuing different touch commands.
And the baffling UI remains. There's still no way to make downloading wifi only. Or see what's downloading without entering details on every single podcast. Or enter the app and not download tracks, without having to do everything for every single podcast manually (like you'd want to do if you were on 3G). Or to view pictures on Enhanced podcasts & navigate chapters at the same time. Or navigate chapters easily at all to be blunt. Many UI elements remain confusing. The defaults for new subscriptions remain ****. Deleting individual episodes vs deleting subscriptions use two different swipe to delete paradigms.
FFS Apple.
Last edited:
I had to uninstall and re download the app for my iPhoneto getting to stop crashing.
Still does not sync between my iPad and iPhone. I would have rather waited for iOS 6 to implement the new podcast app.
Still does not sync between my iPad and iPhone. I would have rather waited for iOS 6 to implement the new podcast app.
New update is still kind of sluggish and does lock-up momentarily but I have not seen a single crash yet. I would have experienced at least 3 crashes by now using 1.0.
Thanks for that. Fixed everything for me. App now works without delay. Had to re-enter all my settings, though, which was annoying.
In general, I'm happy with this app, though. I've waiting for auto downloading for years. Glad to be able to see in list view, which are the most recent casts to come in, etc.
I know it did for me. I listen to a lot of Podcasts and really liked the idea of a standalone app. But the Podcast app was a fiasco. I listened to the people here and got Downcast and love it.
Anyone else having the search field dissappear after tapping into a podcast to subscribe? I end up having to kill and relaunch the app to get it back. Plus, there still isnt an indication that you successfully subscribed. You tap subscribe and theres zero visual feedback like there is with iTunes and the App Store. I dont know if any of this is due to my iOS6 beta or its in the app itself. Havent tried to sync progress with itunes but im sure that'll fail too. This is dissapointing. Ive never seen Apple fail with thier own apps. They made the OS and device, if anyone would get it right it SHOULD be them.
Edit: and now when i sort the "store" by category all i get is a blank grey screen. This app remains useless.
Edit: and now when i sort the "store" by category all i get is a blank grey screen. This app remains useless.
Last edited:
The podcasting app was a great idea.. but it was a POS. Apple rushed it and released any old crap. Basically, Apple being lazy - ironic since they called Adobe lazy for buggy / poor performing software.
Hopefully this fixes the glaring performance problems.
Hopefully this fixes the glaring performance problems.
Finally...
Apple why did u make me suffer for 1 month with a buggy and slow app?
its much faster
Apple why did u make me suffer for 1 month with a buggy and slow app?
its much faster
One day it might actually play podcasts in the order they were created. It is not really that hard, the music app can do it.
The Missing Sync
Funny but the real problem with this app is it's lack of awareness of other Apple products -- like iTunes for example. I use iCloud for calendar, contacts, and bookmarks, but I use iTunes as the mothership for music and podcasts.
I like the idea of a dedicated app for podcasts with more controls but it needs to work with iTunes. I don't want to manage podcasts in two places.
I beam podcasts from iTunes to Apple TV or to an iOS devices via the Shared setting in the Music app. The Podcasts app doesn't even have this functionality. Again, it's an island, which is strange for a company that likes to integrate its products.
Funny but the real problem with this app is it's lack of awareness of other Apple products -- like iTunes for example. I use iCloud for calendar, contacts, and bookmarks, but I use iTunes as the mothership for music and podcasts.
I like the idea of a dedicated app for podcasts with more controls but it needs to work with iTunes. I don't want to manage podcasts in two places.
I beam podcasts from iTunes to Apple TV or to an iOS devices via the Shared setting in the Music app. The Podcasts app doesn't even have this functionality. Again, it's an island, which is strange for a company that likes to integrate its products.
Still won't let me subscribe to my particular non-iTunes podcasts.
iTunes handles the feeds just fine, but the app on my iPhone won't even offer to let me subscribe when I search on the URL.
Unfortunately I don't like any of the other podcast apps I've tried - they try to do too much and are way too busy interface wise. I had hopes for this, but I'm stuck with wi-fi synching with iTunes for now.
iTunes handles the feeds just fine, but the app on my iPhone won't even offer to let me subscribe when I search on the URL.
Unfortunately I don't like any of the other podcast apps I've tried - they try to do too much and are way too busy interface wise. I had hopes for this, but I'm stuck with wi-fi synching with iTunes for now.
I really like the app, working great on my 4S and iPad2. Much better than dealing with the awful Music app on iPad.
----------
I have this working seamlessly between my Mac and iPad/iPhone using WiFi sync. My Mac handles downloading the new podcasts from my subscriptions then both iOS devices are set to sync via WiFi. I listen at work often on my iPhone, so when I get home I just run a quick sync and its marked as played on my Mac. Whenever I go to my iPad and run a sync its updated as well.
I do hope it gains the iCloud inclusion to make things even easier but so far this is working great. Only drawback for me is by doing the sync, when you tap on the podcast it only shows the synced file - doesn't give you the listing of previous podcasts to download on iOS device. Maybe they can change that.
----------
I have this working seamlessly between my Mac and iPad/iPhone using WiFi sync. My Mac handles downloading the new podcasts from my subscriptions then both iOS devices are set to sync via WiFi. I listen at work often on my iPhone, so when I get home I just run a quick sync and its marked as played on my Mac. Whenever I go to my iPad and run a sync its updated as well.
I do hope it gains the iCloud inclusion to make things even easier but so far this is working great. Only drawback for me is by doing the sync, when you tap on the podcast it only shows the synced file - doesn't give you the listing of previous podcasts to download on iOS device. Maybe they can change that.
About time for the update, the Podcast app was awful, loading up and then it wouldn't response for 20 seconds or so, crashing. Hopefully with the update these will be fixed.
On the surface of it/feature wise I liked the Podcast app, but the problems I've mentioned made me hate it. Hopefully now it should work like it should.
I've tried loading the Podcast app a fair few times today, and every time it's loaded up fine, no lagging, freezing etc. This is what the first version should have been like!
On the surface of it/feature wise I liked the Podcast app, but the problems I've mentioned made me hate it. Hopefully now it should work like it should.
I've tried loading the Podcast app a fair few times today, and every time it's loaded up fine, no lagging, freezing etc. This is what the first version should have been like!
Last edited:
FINALLY!! The first version was nothing less then rubbish and way to buggy to use consistently on my device.
----------
At least I'm not the only one. Apple really shouldn't of released it in the state it was, they probably rushed it and it may have only really been meant for developers on iOS6.
----------
At least I'm not the only one. Apple really shouldn't of released it in the state it was, they probably rushed it and it may have only really been meant for developers on iOS6.
What are you settings? I cannot get itunes and the app to sync like you described? I too use iTunes as the master control for music and podcasts allowing me to go between ios devices, Apple TV, itunes and air play speakers.
For podcasts in the app my settings are as follows:
Subscriptions: On
Auto-Download: On
Eps to Keep: All Unplayed Eps
Sort: Newest First
Will turning subscriptions to off allow itunes to be the master control?
For those devs with iOS 6, are podcasts still in the Music app?
Is it still laggy on all iOS versions or just on beta 6? If yes there is some incompatibility. The app itself is basic and I hope apple do more and use some innovation on this as it's worthwhile. On my iPhone 4S it still freezes on iPad 3 works much better.
The app is still not running great an needs a lot of work but I do like it as an app.
The only think i'd like to see would be a App badge to show if there are any un played podcasts.
I think people are being a little unfair on the app just because its got a few bugs
The only think i'd like to see would be a App badge to show if there are any un played podcasts.
I think people are being a little unfair on the app just because its got a few bugs
I also have my podcasts syncing properly with iTunes now as far as playback position. I do this over the dock connector rather than WiFi though. It does not sync subscription settings, but this may be something coming in the next iTunes. iTunes is likely not programmed to sync this information since no portable Apple product has ever allowed subscriptions on the device. If the next iTunes comes and this doesn't work THEN we would have reason to complain. For the time being, it seems like the best way to do things is to allow the device or your computer to perform automatic downloads but not both. I have my Podcasts subscribed so i see new eps, but my PC downloads automatically. The subscription lets me use Podcasts to see new eps and download if I cant get to my computer. Frankly, it seems more like we are being used to beta test the app so that it works perfectly when iOS6 rolls out. It would be great if they would just admit that from the start. The new version is way better but it still has bugs in the Catalog section (might just be iOS6 beta related). Id also like to see it stop playing when all downloaded episodes are done. If you have a subscription set, the app automatically streams the next, likely already listened to, episode rather that just stopping. To get around this I need to manually delete the entries for past episodes. In this respect, i end up deleting 100+ entries ONE AT A TIME for each of my 10 or so podcasts. TEDIUOUS as hell. So either fix that or add a button to delete all played episodes from the episode list.
I can also confirm that in iOS 6, the Music app recognizes the podcasts app and removes the category from Music. My car head unit can still see the podcasts regardless of what app controls them. If you have Audible audiobooks or podcasts, the Podcasts app now ignores them (previously it tried to download them but crashed the app since the app cant authenticate with Audible) and it can be found under the audiobooks category in Music.
The update didn't fix much. It still runs like crap on my iPhone 3GS. Slow, buggy and worthless. It doesn't help that the GUI itself was awful to begin with.
Anyway, I just ran out of patience. I've deleted the app and will stick to listening to podcasts through the Music app.
Anyway, I just ran out of patience. I've deleted the app and will stick to listening to podcasts through the Music app.
Okay, I stand slightly corrected. If you go into iTunes and select podcasts to sync with your iOS device then it will move those podcasts into the podcast app. My problem is that I mostly stream podcasts from iTunes as I listen to them at home and not on the go so there's no reason for me to use precious storage (especially video podcasts).