Apple and Podcasts
Yesterday Apple released a new iOS app simply called Podcasts. My initial reaction on Twitter was:
Just tried Apple’s podcast app. Don’t know what to say. I am kinda disappointed.
I got a lot of feedback saying that Instacast is the better app and that a lot of people are disappointed with the feature set and the performance. For me, my disappointment wasn't about the feature set or that Apple entered the marketplace for podcast apps. I was disappointed that with this app, Apple is not attempting to modernize its sight on Podcasts and adapt to recent trends in the podcast scene.
In 2005 with the release of iTunes 4.9 Apple introduced the world to podcasts and thus cemented the technology for automating delivery of audio- and video content using their proprietary iTunes Extension. During the last 2 years with the advent of new and popular podcasts apps, a renaissance has been started to rethink what a great podcast should and could deliver to the user. Podcasters started to create extensive show notes, started streaming their recording live, developed new ways of funding the show content and even started to rethink the technology itself.
I am disappointed that Apple is not recognizing any of this and not building the foundation of a Podcasting 2 technology. The status quo hasn't really changed with this app. Yes, the iOS built-in podcast implementation has now subscriptions, but that should have been there since at least iPhone OS 3. It is still up to us app developers and content providers to move the technology forward and to make sure that Podcasting as a cultural phenomena won't stand still and keep changing.
June 27th, 2012 • Permalink
More articles about Instacast Posts
05/04/2013 - Tips and Tricks Part Three (Sharing and Accounts)
05/03/2013 - Instacast for Mac - Tips and Tricks Part Two (System Functions)
05/02/2013 - Instacast for Mac - Tips and Tricks Part One (Playback)
05/01/2013 - Instacast for Mac - Public Beta Available
01/23/2013 - Poodle Search Engine - Update
01/18/2013 - Poodle - An Experimental Search Engine for Podcasts
12/15/2012 - Integrate with Instacast
12/12/2012 - Instacast's Automatic Download Management
12/09/2012 - More about our Cloud Sync
12/06/2012 - Instacast 3.0 Available
09/13/2012 - Instacast Memberships