TUAW Review: Podcaster

Microsoft is really losing it in the evil stakes these days. They used to be really good at evil. Now Apple is kicking their backsides for evil. When Steve Jobs goes "MuWAAAhahahaha!", the brainwashed minions listen. His henchmen are really loyal, not just getting paid to be. Poor Ballmer.

"-3G downloading: You can dl over 3G, but it just DRAINS the power. I
loaded up ~200MB of podcasts to test drive the thing, and it drained
almost the entire battery. So be sure do dl judicously or while
plugged in."

i'd be quite ticked off to find out my iphone battery was drained by
using this app to download over 3G.

bet this is the real reason it was pulled (to keep
user complaints about battery life down!!)

The point about the iTunes backup slowing down as more podcasts are DL'd is a valid one, since all "data"files of an application are backed up.

On the 1.1.x platform there is MobileCast (for jailbroken devices only of course), which does allow deletion of episodes. The episode reference is kept, but the downloaded mediafile can be deleted to make space for new stuff. Since MC is using the mediaplayer in the background, you could leave the MC application while listening to an audio-podcast (this is not possible for videopodcasts). With the current limitations in the SDK we will not be able to fully reproduce the MobileCast functionality on rel 2.x platforms, which is a real shame. However we are working on a rel 2.x platform version.

If the built in iTunes Store app allows subscription of podcasts at some point in the future, ony then will the Podcaster and MobileCast applications become redundant. This should still not be a reason for rejection on the App Store though.

Seems to me that it can't play podcasts in the background, which iTunes can do, which isn't as useful.

But, the reason I can see for not allowing this app, is that it could be a bandwidth hog over 3G. I get some huge video podcasts from the Washington Post, and TedTalks. If the 3G network is overtaxed now, imagine those people with NetShare or Podcaster using the same bandwidth.

And, can someone tell me is this a security breach? I mean couldn't malware be distributed by RSS? If there's no central access point like iTunes, wouldn't you be more vulnerable to a 3rd-party breach?

If that's the case, I can easily see why bandwidth and security would be cause for concern for Apple.

Been using it for a couple days and it's great; highly recommended. Yes, there are other ways to listen to podcasts on the iPhone, but none of them are as straightforward as this -- even if it doesn't work in the background.

no, it does not work in the background, which is a huge drawback for me. also, it downloads all the podcasts and there's no way to delete the one's you either already listened to, or don't want to listen to. I'm sort of glad I have it, but I am sure Apple will get around to adding this functionality, and sadly, it will be better than this app. Also, it plays podcasts as if they are quicktime movies. I wish the reviewers would be a little more thorough with their reviews. I would rate this app a 3 out of 5.

It sounds like a great app, except when you think of its drawbacks. Yes, you can DL on the fly, but you think 3G service is bad now? Wait until people are DLing all their podcasts this way. Your DLed podcasts do not, then, sync with iTunes. So you've DLed these 50 MB worth of podcasts, and your app will grow huge and prompt massive backups, and probably slow down your phone and possibly Springboard itself. This will then trickle up to Apple, whom people will blame for making a crappy phone. People don't notice the name on the App as not being Apple, they'll just make noise for poor performance that's not Apple's fault.

There are a lot of technical drawbacks people should be focused on instead of denouncing Apple as the evil empire. If, Apple had an API for linking to the podcasts manager, this would be easier. Since it does not, this app is not useful for the vast majority of the populace

He needs to sue.

I just added a bunch of podcasts to NetNewsWire on newsgator.com. It works *great* on the iphone. The only problem is right now, netnewswire only keeps around read entries for at most 3 days (as set in the settings), and there is no way to take a feed that is read and mark it as unread. So you can only keep the entries around for 3 days. But is works great when it is playing. I hope that they allow that number to selectively increase for certain feeds in a future version of netnewswire.

A couple of comments:

-20MB limit: Definitely not. I have dl'ed a 66MB podcast and it works fine.
-Using Simplify Media, Air Sharing, etc to listen to podcasts: This assumes you have a constant quality connection to the net. For example I am going to Wyoming this week and want to listen to podcasts on long drives. There will be WiFi at the hotel, so if I can dl there I can listen while driving in the middle of nowhere. Also, my employer has 802.1x wireless(and I am not alone), and Air Sharing doesn't work with that.
-3G downloading: You can dl over 3G, but it just DRAINS the power. I loaded up ~200MB of podcasts to test drive the thing, and it drained almost the entire battery. So be sure do dl judicously or while plugged in.
-Background listening: Nope, you need to have the app running to listen.

I bought the app and I am happy with my purchase. I'm still going to use iTunes and my laptop to do most of my podcast downloading, but Podcaster is a good backup for times when you don't have access to iTunes(traveling, on a network where it is blocked, etc).

I also think it is irritating that Apple has prevented sale of it. You look at the pile of garbage on the App store with a small handful of gems amidst the junk, and they pick THIS to stop - something that actually is USEFUL and EXTENDS FUNCTION.

-If they are going to add this functionality to iTunes, fine - as soon as they do, the vast majority of people will go over to using iTunes. In the meantime, either DELIVER THIS NOW, or let someone else do it.
-If they are worried about bandwith, don't. For starters the dl'ing will be limited by how battery intensive it is. Also, right now you can play most podcasts from their respective websites, which means you download the whole thing in to a buffer. Which takes up just as much bandwith as downloading to a more permanent file.

It's just dumb control freak stuff. Lighten up Apple - try banning some flashlight programs if you need to ban something.