The Podcaster IOS App Reviewed

Podcasting has been a famous medium for taking note of radio, and net publicizes for years now. The idea is simple: each time you plug your MP3 player into a computer, load it with the modern-day episodes of your favored podcasts and listen to them later, whilst you’re out and approximately. However, many telephones now act as MP3 players, and many MP3 players are actually net-enabled. Shouldn’t or not it’s possible to load the brand new podcasts without a connection to a computer? That’s in which Podcaster is available. Podcaster turned into the first function-rich podcast download consumer to appear for the iOS platform, first as a jailbroken app, then decreased capability within the App Store as RSS Player, then sooner or later entire-fledged valid Podcaster iOS app. Read on to discover simply how properly it works.

I will stray from the usual overview here to get into Podcaster’s tumultuous history as I recognize it. Podcaster was written in the early days of the App Store but turned into summarily rejected by way of Apple. Apple’s excuse for this changed into that Podcaster violated App Store policies by duplicating functions protected with Apple’s running machine. While it’s proper that the iTunes app then (as it does now) had the ability to download podcasts at once to the tool, it changed into a totally cumbersome method that worried searching up and downloading podcast episodes separately, every time you desired to grab new ones. This changed into a terrible solution. Believe me; I tried it for a while. I, in the end, were given bored stiff, and this become one of the things that led me to jailbreak my own device, but I digress. After failure within the app shop, Podcaster’s writer released it as a jailbroken app, and there it remained for a long time. Eventually, the writer advanced any other app known as RSS Player.

RSS Player became an app designed for song net RSS feeds and permits audio content material in those feeds to be performed on the tool. It is vital to be aware right here that a podcast is described (in technical terms) a listing of audio files encoded into an RSS feed; the author had discovered a sneaky way to get a podcast player into the app keep by way of redefining what the app was intended to do. However, RSS Player changed into no longer quiet. It turned into this sort of stripped-down version of Podcaster that frequently barely functioned in any respect. It went thru several replacement cycles, however even as the one’s updates fixed a number of its troubles, they always introduced more. I would not have endorsed RSS Player for everyone but the maximum die-hard podcast lovers.

Then after what appeared like forever, the day finally got here that Podcaster was allowed into the App Store. The writer had to make some compromises (one of which I’ll explain later), and the app got rejected a pair extra times before it turned into eventually normal, but things were a good deal better ever due to the fact.

Operation and Ease-of-Use

Some of Podcaster’s interface has a piece of a mastering curve to it, but when you discern out the basics, it may be straightforward to apply. The first factor you’ll probably want to do is add your favorite podcasts to the feed. To try this, tap the directory icon on the lowest of the app. There, you’ve got numerous alternatives to locate your podcasts. However, the most useful are ‘Search via Title’ and ‘Import.’ Search to identify searches a directory of podcasts. This listing is incomplete and occasionally carries unreliable data. This is not the fault of Podcaster’s author; the podcast directory needed to be an installation in a manner that doesn’t violate Apple’s App Store guidelines, and a directory maintained by way of Podcaster’s author is one among Podcaster’s few final intended capabilities of which Apple does now not approve. Therefore, Podcaster attracts upon a directory generated with the aid of the app’s users. As a result, the mistaken statistics. If you locate yourself unable to find a podcast there or need to get right of entry to a password-blanketed feed, use the ‘Import’ segment. There, you may load feeds from a web deal with or import them from an OPML record.

Reliability

Reliability has been historically sketchy with Podcaster. At the same time, as it’s miles worlds of improvement over its predecessor RSS Player, there are still masses of bugs and hiccups available. While the app attempts to store the region you have been in your podcast when you near it or get a smartphone call, it does not usually prevail. The download mistakes from previous variations appear to be long-long gone, but there are nevertheless a few chronic corruption bugs that you may get. I’ve gotten caught right into a mode in which Podcaster would play every audio record truly fast, making anybody sound like chipmunks. I had to reset the settings to default to restore that. I’ve gotten caught in a model that would not strengthen to the next episode after one was completed until I did it manually. I could not repair that without reinstalling the app. Updates usually seem to restoration a few bugs but introduce extra. And every as soon as in an extended at the same time as, something will move incorrectly with my podcast list, which again requires me to wipe the whole lot and start from scratch. The lesson: Podcaster is an exquisite device; however, if you use it, returned up your podcast listing regularly using the Backup icon (in the ‘More’ phase).