I know I just wrote a post about the Podcasts App from Apple. I'm back on board after a while away. I like it.
This post is different though. See, I tried and tried in Podcasts version 1.1.1 to get my podcast Playlists from iTunes to work in the Podcasts app. When I finally couldn't figure it out, I gave up and found Downcast. With the help of the Internet I found a few reviews of Podcasts version 1.2 and learned that Playlists are back and Apple has worked out this new feature called My Channels. I've played with it again. It took some time, some getting used to, and more than one sync between iTunes and between iCloud. Now it is running smoothly.
I went back and updated my less favorable review of the app on iTunes hoping it would help turn the ratings around, even just a little. I started reading reviews about the app freezing, not being able to sync playlists, and not being able to play programs in anything except reverse chronology. Well, they are just flat out false.
The App freezing is because you have a ton of subscriptions and it takes time to sync all of that between iCloud and the host website for all of your subscriptions. Get one started and let the app do its thing in the background.
Playlists are there. What you need to do is sync your playlists with iTunes, the same way you have done it hundreds of times before. Then open the Podcasts app and switch to My Channels. There are two default channels to help you figure out how to make your own custom channels. You'll also see an entry for iTunes Playlists. This works like iPods of old worked. They are still organized in the Playlist Folders that you created in iTunes. They are also in the same sort order that you created for them in iTunes. Sort on whatever you want and these playlists will be set correctly.
Playback order is something that Podcasts version 1.2 has given more choices for than ever before and definitely better than Downcast offers. First you can do a newest episode first order. You can also do a manual order of the My Podcasts listing. We already mentioned that iTunes Playlists can do any number of sorts and they stay in order in Podcasts version 1.2 Now under My Channels, episodes are grouped with the program that they came from and are included in this particular channel The order of the podcasts can be newest first or match the order you've selected in My Podcasts. (Yeah, you may have to play around with this one to really understand what that means. It is pretty cool and what I use for most of my channels. The other great thing is that the order of episodes within any given channel can be specified.
With all of this ordering stuff and podcasts in or out of a channel, I was curious and concerned. I've got some podcasts that I'm behind on. I've had a couple times where iTunes stopped downloading episodes because I hadn't been listening to it. Then I listen to one and they resume with a flood of downloads, so that naturally means they are all together and I've got a clump of episodes for a particular show. Have you ever had a cupcake where the mix hadn't been completely mixed before baking? Then you bite in and there is a clump of something. It isn't good, just like it isn't good to get a marathon of episodes that you have a medium interest in. (Admit it. That is why you got behind on listening to episodes in the first place.) Well Apple has figured this out too. You can specify in My Channels that for a particular program you want the most recent 2 or one or all episodes. That way if you are behind, you can listen to a few episodes and then the channel moves on to the next program. The next time you open the channel, it will sync with your subscriptions and a few more will be waiting for you. You can work off a backlog without having to listen to 15 straight episodes of a particular program. I'm going to use this feature a bunch.
As I was reading the reviews in iTunes, I thought they were for previous versions. Many of the complaints were for the very things that I couldn't get to work in the previous versions of Podcasts. I switched to all versions and back and still these reviews exist. Many of them even call out iOS 7 in the text of the review. It is clear that people have updated the app with iOS 7 and still don't know how to use it. Instead of spending some time with it or doing some research, they are running back to iTunes complaining because it doesn't do something that it most certainly does do.
In the end I'll never fix this. I just hope everyone reading this post takes some time to find things they like about a product before they submit a customer review. The good news is that Apple allows you to update your review, as I did, after the product has improved or you learn something new that you didn't know before.
I've seen some of the different articles written about iOS 7. One of the points I read is to remember that with any upgrade that changes the look and feel of a product, often the features you loved before are still there. They are probably just moved to some other place. Take a little time to search in unexpected corners or do a few Internet searches. If the feature was that good, like podcast playlists, others are using it too. Maybe one of them has already found where it moved to and they can show you how to get back your gem of a feature.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Welcome to my Blog
Thanks for finding me. I'm happy to have you as a reader of my blog.
This is more of a warning. I've found that for years I've had things to say and no one to say them to. Most of my friends and family aren't interested in the sorts of things that I want to get off my chest. So I've decided to unload them here in my blog. With that sort of introduction, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last post you read. I'm happy you made it this far.
I'm thinking that maybe my ideas are just so eccentric that there are only a few people out there interested in hearing them. The Internet is the perfect place for a handful of people stretched across the entire planet to meet and share ideas. If you find the sorts of things I'm posting here interesting, well hang on and I'll try to make it interesting.
One of the biggest questions in starting a blog or a podcast is, "Will it last?" There are thousands of blogs and podcasts that just faded over time. It may happen here. I think that is unlikely. That is what has prevented me from starting this blog earlier. Now I've got a bow wave of things to talk about and think I can make a go of this for a long while. I hope you stick around to see what happens next.
My interests and ideas are all over the map of different subjects. Right now I don't think I have enough on any one topic to split it out as its own blog. You can expect random thoughts from random places to pepper this blog with their own unique perspectives. I expect that some of you will like some of the posts. I don't expect any of you to like or agree with all of them. Feel free to post your comments here and start a conversation around those posts. You're feedback is one of the things that makes a blog different from a newspaper or magazine article.
I hope you enjoy the variety of thoughts and rants I post here. Thank you for stopping by.
This is more of a warning. I've found that for years I've had things to say and no one to say them to. Most of my friends and family aren't interested in the sorts of things that I want to get off my chest. So I've decided to unload them here in my blog. With that sort of introduction, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last post you read. I'm happy you made it this far.
I'm thinking that maybe my ideas are just so eccentric that there are only a few people out there interested in hearing them. The Internet is the perfect place for a handful of people stretched across the entire planet to meet and share ideas. If you find the sorts of things I'm posting here interesting, well hang on and I'll try to make it interesting.
One of the biggest questions in starting a blog or a podcast is, "Will it last?" There are thousands of blogs and podcasts that just faded over time. It may happen here. I think that is unlikely. That is what has prevented me from starting this blog earlier. Now I've got a bow wave of things to talk about and think I can make a go of this for a long while. I hope you stick around to see what happens next.
My interests and ideas are all over the map of different subjects. Right now I don't think I have enough on any one topic to split it out as its own blog. You can expect random thoughts from random places to pepper this blog with their own unique perspectives. I expect that some of you will like some of the posts. I don't expect any of you to like or agree with all of them. Feel free to post your comments here and start a conversation around those posts. You're feedback is one of the things that makes a blog different from a newspaper or magazine article.
I hope you enjoy the variety of thoughts and rants I post here. Thank you for stopping by.
Return to Apple's Podcasts app
When I got my first iPod (a first generation iPod nano) in 2006, the greatest discovery was podcasts. So as the years have passed and I've bought new devices, podcasts have been a necessary feature for me. I was extremely disappointed when Apple split up the iPod app and then split out the Podcasts app. When it first released it just wasn't up to the task.
I'm happy to report that Apple has fixed my biggest complaints in Version 1.2 (and sad that it took until version 1.2.3 for me to discover it). I'm back and I'm once again recommending this app for the hundreds of thousands of podcast subscribers out there. The biggest change came with the addition of two features: My Stations and iTunes Playlists.
My Stations is a new way of organizing podcast subscriptions. It is like playlists and yet it is different. It is designed around interacting with your subscriptions on your mobile device (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch). You pick some of your podcasts, set the order, set the media type (Audio, Video, Both) and you're ready to listen. You can tweak and adjust other settings later. The basics make it easy to start new stations. I have created stations for Technology, Space, Snowboarding, Management, and History. This way I have a station ready for whatever mood I'm in.
iTunes Playlists returns a functionality that should have been there from the beginning. My first generation iPod nano still does a better job with letting me listen to podcasts than an iPhone with Podcasts version 1.1 did. This is because I could manage my podcast subscriptions in iTunes and create a large variety of Smart Playlists and then sync them to my iPod. They played on my iPod exactly the same way they played on iTunes. Well, with Podcasts Version 1.2, that is back. One of the keys is sorting a Smart Playlist by Release Date and this is working in the Podcasts app now.
Even with My Stations there is a place for iTunes Playlists. iTunes gives more control to the filtering and sorting of your podcast subscriptions. This fine tune control over podcasts in iTunes can be enjoyed on your mobile device when you sync them.
iCloud Synchronization let's you make changes to My Stations and synchronizes Played and Unplayed data. This means that you can listen to a station on your iPhone in the car. Then through iCloud, you can pick up where you left off on your Apple TV, iPad, or iTunes. It all happens in the background. (I thought it would go without saying that you must leave the app running in the background when you return to a WiFi connection to allow your first device to upload status. Then it will take a while for this status to download to the second device. Based on the way I've seen non-technical people interact with other aspects of iCloud, I guess I still need to say this out loud.)
We're not completely out of the woods though. There are plenty of little things for Apple to fix to help podcast subscribers enjoy their programs. For the time being, I'm using Apple's Podcasts app. If you're not happy with Apple's Podcasts app, while I was away from it, I was using Downcast. For $3 it is a great app for podcasts. Give it a try and compare them both to your podcast playing preferences.
I'm happy to report that Apple has fixed my biggest complaints in Version 1.2 (and sad that it took until version 1.2.3 for me to discover it). I'm back and I'm once again recommending this app for the hundreds of thousands of podcast subscribers out there. The biggest change came with the addition of two features: My Stations and iTunes Playlists.
My Stations is a new way of organizing podcast subscriptions. It is like playlists and yet it is different. It is designed around interacting with your subscriptions on your mobile device (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch). You pick some of your podcasts, set the order, set the media type (Audio, Video, Both) and you're ready to listen. You can tweak and adjust other settings later. The basics make it easy to start new stations. I have created stations for Technology, Space, Snowboarding, Management, and History. This way I have a station ready for whatever mood I'm in.
iTunes Playlists returns a functionality that should have been there from the beginning. My first generation iPod nano still does a better job with letting me listen to podcasts than an iPhone with Podcasts version 1.1 did. This is because I could manage my podcast subscriptions in iTunes and create a large variety of Smart Playlists and then sync them to my iPod. They played on my iPod exactly the same way they played on iTunes. Well, with Podcasts Version 1.2, that is back. One of the keys is sorting a Smart Playlist by Release Date and this is working in the Podcasts app now.
Even with My Stations there is a place for iTunes Playlists. iTunes gives more control to the filtering and sorting of your podcast subscriptions. This fine tune control over podcasts in iTunes can be enjoyed on your mobile device when you sync them.
iCloud Synchronization let's you make changes to My Stations and synchronizes Played and Unplayed data. This means that you can listen to a station on your iPhone in the car. Then through iCloud, you can pick up where you left off on your Apple TV, iPad, or iTunes. It all happens in the background. (I thought it would go without saying that you must leave the app running in the background when you return to a WiFi connection to allow your first device to upload status. Then it will take a while for this status to download to the second device. Based on the way I've seen non-technical people interact with other aspects of iCloud, I guess I still need to say this out loud.)
We're not completely out of the woods though. There are plenty of little things for Apple to fix to help podcast subscribers enjoy their programs. For the time being, I'm using Apple's Podcasts app. If you're not happy with Apple's Podcasts app, while I was away from it, I was using Downcast. For $3 it is a great app for podcasts. Give it a try and compare them both to your podcast playing preferences.
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