Podcast ordering still broken

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Level 1

8 points

Podcast ordering still broken

I've already looked and I know this problem has come up a lot but I'd just like to throw one more voice behind the complaint: Podcast ordering on the iPod Classic is broken. Please fix it.

I know there's a hidden trick that lets me play every single episode in chronological order. But this is worse than tracking around by hand. Why? Because I listen to multiple podcasts that have around or well over 300 hour long episodes. Imagine if I wanted to listen to the two most recent epidodes starting with the second most recent. I'd probably spend 10 minutes hitting the skip button. (Of course, if I only had to skip over one podcast it would still be too many because there's simply no good reason that I should have to do that.)

More importantly, it doesn't matter why I want this. Playing in chronological order should be default behavior and in any sane world it would at least be an option. And at the very least you could honor the setting that I've selected in iTunes saying to play starting with the oldest first.

I may be slightly removed from the mainstream in that I archive and relisten to old episodes but I'm hardly unique. If this were a strange request or hard to implement I'd have some sympathy for your failure to support the feature. As I already said, the solution you've provided is less than worthless in terms of usability but it does by happy accident show that you are aware of and willing to service in your own obscure way the natural human inclination to hear things in the order they were made. And it also clearly shows that there are no technical challenges stopping you from letting us do that.

(So the feature is there, it's just overly complicated and underpowered. Why? Maybe by making it so inconvenient to listen to podcasts that were archived by hand you hope to drive sales of podcasts repackaged in the form of audiobooks. It's kind of a cynical theory but it's easier to believe that than to believe that anybody reponsible for this mess thinks they're doing the right thing.)

As a longtime fan of podcasts I feel insulted. As a lifelong user of Apple computers I feel betrayed. But frankly I'm starting to get used to that.

Fix your product.

iPod classic 160GB (Late 2009)

Posted on Mar 7, 2014 3:04 PM

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Answer 1

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the fiend

Level 7

22,506 points

Mar 8, 2014 3:18 AM in response to cmpashayan

You're not talking to Apple here. Although there are Apple Community Specialists on the forum, in reality, they have no real impact on what happens (sorry Specialists, but it's true!), so you're best bet is to send feedback, here; http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html about this.

Be aware that Apple do not reply to feedback, but they do read it. However, I suggest you don't get your hopes up. I've sent feedback myself on this subject some time ago, and nothing has improved. In fact, Apple appear to have bodged up the Podcast feature on the iPod Touch with their "Podcast App", which suggests to me that no one at Apple ever listens to Podcasts. If they did, these issues would have been fixed.

It will be no consulation to you when I tell you that I've been using a 2nd generation Touch for my Podcast listening as the Classic is so poor at it. Unfortunately, the current iPod Touch appears to force users into using the "Podcast App", which has no facility to create a Playlist of Podcasts! Not only that, but the app requires iOS 7, but older (although recent) models of the Touch which do not play Podcasts in the music app cannot install iOS 7 either. (I believe it may be possible to install an older version of the Podcast app, but what a faff!)

So bad news all round for us Podcast fans, which is a shame as Apple's original Podcast feature knocked spots of everyone else! Even in iTunes, Apple has wrecked the feature!

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Answer 2

cmpashayan Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 9, 2014 8:51 AM in response to the fiend

Ha, to be honest I was sort of just blowing off steam. Thanks for reading and responding--I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one! I think you're right about no one at Apple listening to podcasts. Kind of a shame because it's a medium named after their product (and from what I hear they'd be out of a job by now if that very product hadn't saved their business at the beginning of the last decade).

I had a little experience with that Podcast App. Absolute garbage. The only time I've been moved to review a piece of software in the app store. So frustrating! I love Apple's products but I hate the way they treat us sometimes.

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