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Podcast App iOS9 -- Good and Bad discussion

Curious to get a dialogue started. I personally feel that Apple really doesn't work on their App (or take it seriously) or they would have long ago integrated features from other apps (Downcast, Overcast, etc.). I feel each update is pretty incomplete and if they would work a bit harder, they could make a good product.


The worst issue, for me, is the Episode List spacing. It's bloated now, with worthless descriptions, making it so much more tedious to scroll through and look at episodes. (This is my main complaint with the Unplayed Tab). This app needs a compact view badly.


Good

1. Music App style play window -- this feature isn't critical, but adds a nice option of controls while looking through your list It's not user friendly (it's so small and cumbersome that someone like my dad couldn't use it well), but the idea is nice.


2. Unplayed tab idea -- notice i said idea. I like the thought that you can go to one screen and play all your new podcasts in a row. (my problem will be listed later)


3. My Podcasts -- seems cleaner to me, though i think the change is small


4. Podcast playing screen -- the added space is cleaner and makes it easier for my fat fingers to use


Bad

1. Oversized Episode List -- (makes it much harder to scroll through and see your episodes). It includes an unnecessary clip of the "description" of the episode...which is never informative and a waste of space. In the 20+ podcasts I have, not one has any useful information there that I will ever look at. Such a waste of space. They need to offer a compact size.

I think that this is really bad design....I like the "more" button to press for additional info, but why crowd the visible space? Terrible idea.


2. On the Go -- it's gone and you can't get it back. Stations do not work because it includes an entire Podcast. Creating a playlist can't be done. You can only add to "Up Next", which is a terrible/poor substitute.


3. Unplayed Tab -- the spacing is bad (needs a more compact design), and the fact that this is the startup screen is annoying. You should be able to change it to go to "My Podcasts" or rearrange them. Annoying.


4. Fullscreen -- i didn't use this feature very often, but I notice many people commenting on this.



Overall I feel that they didn't make the app better, it's a push at best for me. They took features away, and added one/two (Music App style player, Unplayed Tab). The Oversized lists will make me not use this app. I will go back to Downcast (which I still use for several podcasts) or Overcast.


I'm always confused by Apple's updated. They push things that aren't better, (the podcast app has sucked for so long)....and their approach to their apps (and app design) is opposite from what they do with their Hardware. The hardware is fantastic...but the apps are just poorly thought out and executed. Maybe its a software thing the don't get. iTunes is a design trainwreck. White on light gray color scene....it's the worst thing I have ever used. So impossible to distinguish between things....it's a giant leap backwards.

Posted on Sep 18, 2015 11:26 AM

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Posted on Sep 18, 2015 1:08 PM

I'm having a hard time believing how bad this update is:

1. No on-the-go, or custom playlists of individual episodes

2. No fullscreen option for video

3. INCREDIBLY laggy on my (admittedly ancient) 4S, to the point where it took so long to play I thought the phone had crashed. I was going crazy searching for the play button, before realizing that holding down on the podcast description was 'meant' to play it.

4. Using the Play Next feature, I left the app, and after playing audio from a different source, went back and found that it had forgotten the podcast I was in the middle of. Had to go back and find it again.


I'm a huge fan of Apple generally, and the last version of Podcasts was fine for me, used it daily, but, between this update, and what they did with iBooks, I'm having serious doubts about Apple going forward.

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Sep 18, 2015 1:08 PM in response to ajrunner

I'm having a hard time believing how bad this update is:

1. No on-the-go, or custom playlists of individual episodes

2. No fullscreen option for video

3. INCREDIBLY laggy on my (admittedly ancient) 4S, to the point where it took so long to play I thought the phone had crashed. I was going crazy searching for the play button, before realizing that holding down on the podcast description was 'meant' to play it.

4. Using the Play Next feature, I left the app, and after playing audio from a different source, went back and found that it had forgotten the podcast I was in the middle of. Had to go back and find it again.


I'm a huge fan of Apple generally, and the last version of Podcasts was fine for me, used it daily, but, between this update, and what they did with iBooks, I'm having serious doubts about Apple going forward.

Sep 19, 2015 12:45 PM in response to ajrunner

Why cant Apple go back to original podcast and music playlists?Originally one could mix music with podcasts in playlists.I liked to take walks at night and I could put the podcasts in playlist followed by music without having to stop and switch apps.Now you can't view or edit the up next list unless you are in it and then you can only delete items.Ideally I would like to have a dedicated playlist that updated each day with the core news podcasts I lisen to and add music and other podcasts to that list via Siri.

Also if your in up next you can't forward to the next podcast with a next button;need to open the list and then choose..Did they forget to take that function out of the ear bud controls because that still works.

Sep 19, 2015 1:22 PM in response to ajrunner

Believe it or not, I switched back to 8.4.1 solely because of how much I hated the ios9 Podcasts app.


Agree 100% on the bloated feel and the way too much space devoted to descriptions. I also use On-The-Go when literally on-the-go (ie. running). And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the ios9 Podcasts app quickly shows you when the last episode for each podcast was posted when viewing your list of saved podcasts. I like that feature.

Sep 19, 2015 2:04 PM in response to munnlete

munnlete -- I think you are correct, the main list does not show you when the last episode was posted. I think they pulled it in favor of the "Unplayed" tab.

It's definitely not the same.


And I don't think I'd mind the "Unplayed" tab, but it such a waste of space. No way to quickly view a lot of info, just a garbled mess of wasted space.

Three giant/bolded lines for the title (which is more than sufficient for you to get data on the episode), followed by 3 tiny lines where the only pertinent info is the date and time. If they cut if off after the first line, and then had the "more...." it would be much better.


Ugh. We are now at a design level (everywhere) that white colors, with gray text and tons of white space, seems like a brilliant idea. I think it is so backwards and poorly done that i want to switch to a Vax machine. 🙂

Sep 19, 2015 5:21 PM in response to ajrunner

What seems bad: is there a way to make episodes automatically download? They don't seem to be doing that on my iPhone 5, but I want to automatically download podcasts when I'm on wifi, rather than use up data by streaming when I'm out and about (or discover that I don't actually have an episode when I switch to Airplane Mode, as I often do to save power).


What seems to happen for me: new podcasts do appear in the list, but they don't download; I need to dig deeper in to even see if there's a cloud icon or not with them. If I go to the bottom of a station, there's the option to "Download All", and that'll download them, but for now that seems to be the only way to make them download.


So what used to be automatic has now become two steps: first, pull down to see if there are new episodes; then, go to the bottom to tell the app to download them. Am I missing something? How can I make downloads automatic?

Sep 19, 2015 9:38 PM in response to ajrunner

The podcast took a step back in my issue - just when they had almost worked out the issue in 8. Here is my issues:


1. Grid View is gone. Now we have all the podcast in order with lengthy text description taking up the screen. Generally you know what each podcast is by it icon. At the very least it should be configurable.


2. The number representing podcast new and have not been listened to is missing. I have seen numbers occasionally, but not every time. When they were there, they went away and soon as you visit that podcast.


3. When looking at new podcast (before subscribing) - there are no longer dates. This helps you see if the podcast is still active.

Sep 20, 2015 7:16 PM in response to ajrunner

I'm finding it quite buggy. I'll pause a podcast, and come back half an hour later - and I can't get it to play. I'll press play and pause and play again; nothing happens. I'll completely close the app (i.e. swipe it up), reopen. Still no playback. Open up the next played list, pick a few other ones, nothing will happen. Then suddenly it'll jump through all the instructions I've just given it before starting to play.


I'm still confused about when episodes download and when they don't. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. No idea why. Annoying that I have to check to see the episodes have downloaded before I leave home (and wifi).


I'm also confused about why sometimes it opens to the (default?) "Unplayed" tab, and sometimes it opens to the (last used) "My Podcasts" tab. But that was a problem with the previous version too.


I can understand why people are missing the on-the-go playlist, but I never really used that before, so I'm not missing it. I'm sort of coming around to the "Unplayed" tab, because it's kind of neat to see details on what's recently download, but it's still not what I want as the default window.

Sep 21, 2015 5:52 PM in response to ajrunner

This iteration of the podcast app has the worst UI I have encountered in an Apple product in 25 years, it makes me long for CyberDog. Where is the grid view? Where is the ability to see the chapters in a podcast? The new UI is unbelievably cluttered and very difficult to use in the car (which is where, up until now, I have listened to podcasts), If it was not such a pain in the backside to downgrade I would do it right now. As it stands I will probably quit listening to podcasts rather than torture myself with this poorly thought out UI.

Podcast App iOS9 -- Good and Bad discussion

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