
Apple Releases Dedicated iOS Podcasts App - siglesias
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/podcasts/id525463029?mt=8
======
Lewisham
Apple's highly questionable and deeply unfortunate skeuomorphism kick
continues unabated. Now we're treated to a radio dial which died out in 1995,
and playing podcasts presents a reel-to-reel, which died out in god knows
when.

It's completely bizarre. I guess podcasts are a form of talk radio, but tying
them to some ancient radio technology that anyone under the age of 18 will
have never touched is mental. They're even called podcasts: they arose because
of the popularity of the iPod! Insane.

Apple really need to sort their designers out. I wish we could somehow have
Microsoft's new Metro design aesthetics on Mac OS X and iOS, then I could have
the best apps and OS design, and the best UI to use with them.

~~~
siglesias
I don't think it's as heavy-handed as you suggest. Most of the app's
navigation is handled by tableviews and collection views. The dial that you
reference is really a sideways scrollview (albeit with a material skin)--this
controls a non-skeuomorphic list in an intuitive way that isn't confined to
the limitations of a physical radio's interface.

I'll grant that the tape deck is outdated, but it's a largely hidden little
visual treat that suggests a hidden mechanism underneath AND provides visual
feedback on playback speed.

Skeuomorphism is bad when it restricts the UI to the properties of physical
objects, but in this case Apple hasn't done that.

~~~
davedelong
There's no way the Podcasts app could be using collection views, because it
runs on iOS 5.

~~~
siglesias
I'm using the term "collection view" in a generic way. Grid view-like
interfaces appear elsewhere pre-iOS 6, like in iBooks for example.

------
smackfu
I use Downcast every day, not even as an advanced user, but just because I
need to download podcasts on-the-go. This sucks in comparison.

* Catalog (aka Store) is very slow and clunky. Takes 5-10 seconds to flag episodes as "Downloaded" after I click on a podcast I have episodes for.

* Clicking download button takes 4-5 seconds to react. Progress of download is not shown in store, but only in Library.

* No connection between podcasts you downloaded and those in the store. So if you want to get more episodes, you need to search again. Why?

* No way to add podcasts by URL.

* Descriptions are cut-off after a line or so with [...], even if you press the "i" button.

* No position indicator. Oh wait, it's hidden behind the cover image and you need to tap to switch. And that's the default view every time.

* The position indicator has buttons at either end. They don't do anything. Or do they?? They're certainly really small.

* Some of the stuff hidden behind the cover image is a button. Some of it is just shiny bits of the reel-to-reel. Guess which is which from a foot away!

* Only fast speed is 2x which is too fast. Only slow speed is 1/2x which is too slow.

* The share buttons everywhere just link to the podcast in general, not the episode.

* Generally sluggish on an iPhone 4.

Honestly, this seems like the kind of stuff Apple is supposed to be better
than.

~~~
mcfunley
If you add podcasts by URL, you are probably an advanced user.

~~~
smackfu
I guess? It doesn't feel advanced, it's just that one podcast that I listen to
is a podcast Apple doesn't list. So I can't switch to this. Like "oh, you want
to listen to music that's not in the app store? That's an advanced feature."

And this is actually a lost feature relative to desktop iTunes:
<http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html>

"It's easy to subscribe to any podcast using iTunes, even ones that aren't
available in the iTunes Store. "

------
jaysonelliot
I understand why Apple felt the need to create this app. The current method of
managing and listening to podcasts is split between iTunes and the Music app,
and holds on to old models of syncing between the computer and the iPhone /
iPod. It's a mess, and that, of course, is why there are third-party apps that
have been doing a better job for podcast enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, this is bad news for the makers of the third-party apps. My
personal favorite is Pocket Casts. They put a lot of work into creating a
great user experience for podcast listeners, which seems to have been
replicated in some ways in Apple's "official" podcast app. (I'm not saying
Apple copied them, just that some of their UX conventions also exist in the
Podcasts app.)

As I say, Apple did need to fix the current way podcasts are handled in iOS.
Overall, it's probably going to be a good thing for podcasters, as it will
make it easier for the average consumer to subscribe and consume podcasts.

It just makes me feel bad for the app developers who have gone through so much
work to create excellent products, only to see their role shoved out of the
way as Apple integrates this new feature into iOS. It's an old story; Apple's
been doing this sort of thing on the Mac for ages (remember Coverflow?), but
it still gets to me a bit. I'll keep using and loving Pocket Casts, I just
hope they and others can compete now that Apple's got their own Podcasts app.

~~~
LVB
I think there is plenty of room for multiple podcast apps to do well, even
with Apple's version present. Podcasts really do make up an important part of
many people's day (not unlike an audiobook, or NPR, H. Stern, Rush, etc.), and
the way people want to consume and manage podcasts varies substantially and
that opens up possibilities for multiple apps.

I don't even see it as that far-fetched to imagine this addition _helping_ 3rd
party apps. Say Average Joe doesn't even know what a podcast is, but the Apple
app is interesting enough that he tries it/them out and suddenly "podcast" is
on his radar. He is now a new potential customer for a 3rd party app that has
a feature he'd like but is missing from the Apple app.

~~~
bookwormAT
On the other hand, it is possible that Apple simply removes competing 3rd
party apps from the appstore.

------
thought_alarm
About 80% of my walking around time is spent listening to podcasts, and I've
been waiting for this for a long, long time. Namely:

\- A podcast app that's separate from Music. They're really two entirely
different tasks, and I don't like losing place in a playlist just to listen to
a podcast, and vice versa.

\- Buttons for skipping forward and ahead within a track.

\- Never losing place in a podcast when switching tracks. This was a huge
problem with the popup playback controls, where it's far too easy to hit
rewind instead of pause.

\- The ability to download and update podcast subscriptions directly from the
device.

\- Syncing listened/unlistened and playback state between devices.

I think they've covered all of my issues with podcasts, and it's a beautifully
designed app (I have a particular fondness for reel-to-reel decks). Well done,
Apple.

~~~
tptacek
You didn't like Downcast, or Instacast, or Pocket Cast?

I use Downcast and like it a lot. I wasn't a major podcast person before ---
I'd grab the "podcast version" of the latest episodes of things I'd listen to
on NPR --- but having a client keep up with all that stuff for me is a bit of
a revelation.

------
glhaynes
Cool app in a lot of ways, but its conceptual hierarchy seems weird to me so
far — the main section that you're presented with upon launch (the "Library")
has a tab bar at the bottom split between "Podcasts", showing podcasts you've
subscribed to and/or downloaded episodes from, and "Top Stations", showing
popular podcasts on the iTunes Store. So far so good.

But then there's also a "Catalog" button at the top-left that "flips the app
over" (a la iBooks) and shows you a general store-browsing interface. The
corresponding button to get back—which, I'll note, is on the opposite side in
that view!—is labeled "Library".

tl;dr: There are Store interfaces in both the Library and the Catalog, seeming
to break the conceptual hierarchy, and thus annoying me.

------
theguycalledtom
So,in the future, iOS will no longer have built in podcast support? iPhone
users will now always have to download a separate app to get podcasts?

This is a huge set-back for the podcast medium. There is so much friction
convincing potential blue water podcast listeners to subscribe to podcasts.

Haters are going to automatically say "podcasts are a niche, they have a small
audience" so who cares? Well, before Apple put in built in support for smart
phone apps in iOS with an app store on the home screen. The smartphone app
audience was one of the smallest around. Now look at where we are.

~~~
ajanuary
Personally I hope they do more apps as app store downloads. I don't want a
stock app and I want a different calculator app. They can come pre-installed,
but I want to be able to delete them and redownload them as necessary.

Podcasts weren't particularly visible before. I may be remembering wrong (I've
changed the tab order in my own app) but Podcasts were hidden under the
"More..." tab.

~~~
theguycalledtom
Ok, if someone tweets to you "Check out this cool podcast" and provides a
direct link, how many steps does it take for you to subscribe?

~~~
jonny_eh
The podcast app is an improvement to the old way, requiring a person to go to
their computer and load up iTunes, then to sync.

~~~
theguycalledtom
But a much better way would have just been to add a "subscribe" button to
podcasts in the itunes store, even if they were still in the music app, (which
was once called the "iPod" app). Just as magazines in Newstand are allowed to
let users subscribe and download new issues in the background.

Being in the music app also allowed them to be searchable by spotlight, which
even gave you a blue indicator of what episode was un-listened.

------
pwelch
I found the Music app painful to use for my podcasts. Not sure how much better
this will make it. On the other hand I purchased Instacast and it is one of
the most used apps on my phone.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Same here. I downloaded the Podcasts app, but it's so limited that I'll
continue using Instacast. Same deal when Reading List came out; I'm still a
happy Instapaper user. I think it will actually have advantageous effects for
third party podcast apps: more people will get acquianted with podcasts and
when they need something more powerful, they know where to look for it.

------
robomartin
Lately I have been having this thought that Apple ought to do the right thing
and compensate app publishers when it chooses to, effectively, take them out
with their own version of their apps. From an ethical standpoint I really
don't like the idea of them watching, learning, observing and then damaging
those who put lots of time and effort into understanding a problem and
developing solutions for them. They've done this with e-books and other areas
and now podcasts.

I am not saying that they should not publish their own versions of these apps.
All I am suggesting is that the right thing for them to do is to financially
recognize those who paved the road ahead of them.

To be clear, I am not and have not been affected by any of these Apple-
released apps. I do fear the potential to come-up with something popular only
to be taken out by the mother-ship.

~~~
chadv
This is a nice thought, but I don't think it's realistic. Most of Apple's
value comes from refining the work of others. They didn't invent the computer,
the music player, or the phone, they just made great versions of each of these
things. I'd argue that Apple couldn't exist at all if they paid everyone who's
work influenced them. They'd have to give away everything.

I'm being easy on Apple by talking about hardware items, I know. Apple's worst
sins are when they rip off software. And it's frustrating how sometimes
they'll buy it (Coverflow) and sometimes they won't (Watson). The way they go
about it feels mean. But it just shows how competitive they are. Ruthless
even. They'd rather play dirty and win than lose with honor. It's hard to stay
mad at them though because they do it all with such good taste.

------
pavel_lishin
I assume that Music will still support podcasts?

I'm miffed that videos were moved to an entirely different app; I'm subscribed
to the TED talks video podcasts, but have to launch an entirely different
application to listen to them (and yup, I listen to 99% of them as I'm walking
around instead of watching them.)

~~~
siglesias
It won't. Podcasts are removed from Music in iOS 6.

~~~
towelrod
Are you kidding me? Currently my car radio can control the music app and let
me listen to podcasts. Why would they take that functionality away?

~~~
coob
Your car radio can control any app that supports the remote control API, which
podcasts does.

~~~
towelrod
Interesting -- what other apps use the remote control API? I have never been
able to control anything other than "Music" with either of my cars.

Aside from using the phone to make calls, of course.

------
ajanuary
Does the Unplayed Episodes list seem the wrong way round to anyone else? I
generally want to start listening oldest first because newer things refer to
older things.

------
kylec
Breaking the podcast functionality out into its own app is interesting, but
the 50MB limit for cellular downloads means that it's still completely useless
for me.

~~~
smackfu
Yeah, the average podcast I listen to is around an hour to 90 minutes, and
that ends up being 45-70 MB.

------
stevejohnson
Relevant to the "Apple changes App Store search" story from the last couple of
days: I am so far completely unable to find this app by searching for
"podcasts", or even "podcasts apple".

A quick Google search, on the other hand, worked instantly.

~~~
k-mcgrady
When new apps are released they are usually available via direct link before
they start appearing in search results. The roll out is gradual on a per
country basis. With my apps it can take 1-3 hours before they appear in search
on all stores.

------
ghshephard
Hopefully, Apple will _finally_ let me pay for a subscription to my beloved
HyperCritical PodCast. I already Pay $5/month to 5by5 - and was considering
increasing that - but I would happily pay $2-$3/month for a subscription to
Hypercritical. John Siracusa puts an insane amount of effort into preparation,
and even when I vehemently disagree with him (he's opposed to patents) - I
still find his perspectives and intellectual rigor intriguing.

------
ajanuary
So happy there's an official way to do subscription. The app's a little
underwealming though.

The fact they seem to have forgotten to stop the Subscription and Auto-
Download cells from highlighting when you tap them is an indication of the
lack of polish.

It's generally pretty laggy, especially trying to do things like scrub through
a track and I've had it crash several times already just trying to select
podcasts.

------
rince
I like the radio dial, seems like a nice way to browse the different
categories.

But this Podcasts app is missing 1 crucial feature it looks like - no ability
to let you know the podcasts you are subscribed to have new episodes. I'm
hoping that is expanded upon in iOS 6. Otherwise you still have to rely on
syncing with iTunes.

~~~
glhaynes
Have you switched the "Subscription" toggle on for any of the podcasts you
have? (Note this also reveals an "Auto-Download" toggle.) From the Episodes
view, tap on the podcast itself at the top.

I haven't had any podcasts update in the last few minutes, I don't think, so I
haven't been able to test it.

~~~
MBCook
It's really odd that doesn't transfer over. I also find the way to get to the
per-podcast settings was very unintuitive, it took me a couple of tries to
find it.

The thing I find _really_ odd is the recommended podcasts in the catalog.

So many of them don't have pictures, and many that do have pictures that
aren't descriptive at all (just a person's face, no way to know it's a
knitting podcast). And the picture is all you have to go by, there is no text
unless you press the little info button.

I'd expect podcasts will start adding pictures now that they have another
reason to, but I'm surprised Apple didn't filter out such podcasts from the
top lists. It seemed very un-Apple-ly to go to a category and see up to 50% of
the entries in some categories are just placeholder images. There is also no
way to tell which don't have images and which are currently pulling the image
over the network.

------
runjake
It currently isn't showing up if you search for "podcasts" but does if you
search for "podcasts apple" although it won't be obvious it's from Apple until
after you tap the result.

~~~
dmix
Thanks I thought it was another app not supported in Canada once again. Not
the case.

------
pooriaazimi
Come on Apple. Release a decent Audiobook app for iPad and I swear I won't
speak ill about you again (I've submitted quite a few foul-mouthed bug reports
and feature requests about iPad's Music.app in iOS 5, 6 and continue to do so
every month).

That lousy, disgusting 'new' Music.app on iOS 5.0 (on iPad) was the reason I
bought an iPhone. I just couldn't stand that app (I listen to audiobooks quite
often).

------
k-mcgrady
I thought this was going to happen when it was left out of the iOS 6 beta but
I didn't think we'd see it until the new iPhone/iOS launch. Glad they are
putting it out now.

I'm curious to see what, if any, impact this has on podcast creators. If Apple
pushes it the way they do iBooks and other Apple iOS apps it could be huge for
them.

------
ZanderEarth32
Just gave it a shot, and I wasn't impressed in the least. These types of apps
are where Apple really fails. It's like they don't use the same designers they
do for any of their other products on these small apps.

The interface is lousy, and very similar to the Music app. Discovery doesn't
seem very useful either.

This might be useful for a 'light-weight' user and listener of podcasts but
this doesn't even come close to apps like Downcast in terms of features.

~~~
k-mcgrady
I think Apple is probably targeting the light-weight users and trying to
attract new users. Advanced podcasts features are something relatively few
people care about. I listen to several podcasts daily and 99% of the time I
just press play. I don't care about setting speed, bookmarks, or any of the
other featured apps like Instacast (which I use) offer. It's great that these
apps are still available on the store and good for the developers that Apple
hasn't just killed their business with a free alternative.

~~~
ZanderEarth32
I am actually happy that this app is not what I want because I hope that this
is the same sentiment for others. This will allow apps like Downcast and
Instacast to further survive.

My other gripe is the navigation is too stylized for my taste. I am not
looking for my podcasting app to be an experience, just function as a tool.

------
xam
YES! This means Apple will finally let us sync podcasts between computers
wirelessly!

------
mshafrir
FYI, requires iOS 5.1

------
dmishe
It's broken, probably an accident release.

~~~
k-mcgrady
In what way is it broken?

Edit: I've noticed one bug so far with the search UI (search bar moves over
the navigation bar after a search) but apart from that it's working fine.

~~~
dmishe
Search doesn't work, UISearcBar X button is misaligned, when you focus out
from search the cancel button goes inside uisearchbar

------
Karunamon
Phooey. Requires iOS 5.1.. guess it's time to upgrade and see if my jailbreak
will hold.

------
moron
I'm glad. The Music app is pretty bad at podcasts.

~~~
Splines
I don't know, this one isn't that great and I prefer the music app after using
this one casually this afternoon on the way home.

The download model doesn't seem as neat as the itunes separation. I keep
current on my podcasts on my desktop, and I "catch up" on my iPhone. There's
no way to trail behind a podcast (I use "sync 5 oldest unplayed").

Also, it didn't resume playing after receiving a phone call. Not a big deal,
but it's another annoyance.

For the time being I put the Podcast app in a folder and switched back to the
Music app. I personally find nothing wrong with the Music app and will
continue to use it - whenever I upgrade to iOS 6 I'll probably take a look at
3rd party podcast apps.

