Prepod
August 8th, 2009, 11:32am by Kelvin
The default podcast feeds in PrePod, a homebrewed podcatcher on the Pre, already has some of my favorite podcasts. It’s as if my phone can read my mind.
The default podcast feeds in PrePod, a homebrewed podcatcher on the Pre, already has some of my favorite podcasts. It’s as if my phone can read my mind.
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August 8th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Yeah, I listen to 4 of the first 5 podcasts as well.
August 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I occasionally listen to two of those, but not the others. Do you guys like Leo Laporte (isn’t he the host of TWiT?)? I have a hard time listening to him because he sounds like a smarmy radio personality, not a tech guy. It’s as if Kasey Kasem decided to start talking about phones and computers.
August 9th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Oh I like Leo Laporte. Used to watch him on TechTV back in the day. He definitely does have a very professional radio voice, but I think it suits the production value of the podcasts on his network.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
BTW, Jake, this is a really nice app. It does exactly what I wanted– auto-downloads podcasts if you so specify; otherwise, allows you to stream. The built in player is better than the default music player in a number of ways. It bookmarks your place and it has a slider for scrubbing. Even streams get bookmarked and can be resumed. It doesn’t have a dashboard component (that’s what Palm calls the notification widgets), and I haven’t tested whether it does auto downloads when not running, but these are minor. Sadly, no video podcast support yet.
August 10th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
There was a Prepod update today! Upon further experimentation, I was wrong about the auto-downloading– the app only downloads with the push of a button rather than in the background. But video podcasts are supported. This is essentially like using Google reader to maintain a list of podcasts, with the option to manually download for local listening. Still, very slick package and the bookmarking is a welcome improvement over the native music player, for podcasts, anyway.
It certainly makes iTunes less important for my Pre.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Yeah, there’s really no reason to use iTunes for podcasts if you can get them straight to your portable device, unless you happen to listen to podcasts from your computer. I haven’t really looked into how you might be able to download podcasts to the iPhone, but there are numerous programs to stream them, and that has really reduced the amount of syncing that I do.
I guess downloading would be good for airplanes and such, right? Otherwise, do you think it’s any better than streaming?
August 10th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
So I’m still using iTunes for the iPod which sits in my car, so I won’t cut the cord completely yet. As for the download vs streaming issue, I guess the main advantage of the local copy is the playback performance– with streaming, you probably take a hit on battery, processor performance, heat, and although not in this case, sometimes the ability to bookmark where you are or to play in the background while doing other things. My thought is that if I’m on wifi and on a charger when I grab the podcasts, I can stetch my battery life more for my commute. ‘Course, in the car, that’s not an issue as long as I have a cig lighter adapter.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
BTW, I believe the only way to download podcasts to the iPhone is via the official iTunes app. If I remember correctly, competition with an official iPhone feature was the reason the Podcatcher app was rejected by Apple.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Yeah, I used the ability to download Podcasts over WiFi to get up-to-date with stuff while traveling. I’ll have to download PrePod (and the homebrew apps that are tacitly supported by Apple) and give it a try— makes life much simpler.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:47 am
How could you download podcasts over wifi before PrePod? Or are you referring to your iPod?
Anyway, Mike, I’ll flip the question around– what do you see as the advantage of streaming over downloading? Everytime you stream, you essentially download the file in the background. Why not have the program explicitly keep the file locally whenever you start streaming (and autodelete when you are done with it)? Seems like the best of both worlds (spontaneity of streaming, performance of a local copy re: resuming, scrubbing etc).
January 31st, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Just picked up a refurbished Pre due to some battery wonkiness. Will be glad to say “so long” to the slider looseness and the light leaks, too. Plus, I got a new screen protector which will be installed correctly this time.
But that’s beside the point. Lost Dr. Podder in the transition, and now I’m thinking about waiting until it’s available via direct download to install it. There was a little funkiness associated with the old install method, and I’m taking this opportunity for a fresh start.
But in the meantime, are there any other usable podcatcher apps for webOS?
January 31st, 2010 at 11:44 pm
I dunno– mediafly?