Podcast or audiobook app for iphone

May 25, 2012 2:02 AM

Is there a good iPhone app for listening to my own downloaded podcasts/audiobooks that I have as mp3's? I would love an app that I can upload the mp3's to over wifi, and that has tempo control so that I can speed it up a bit. The app should remember the position I am in on each file I listen to, not just the last file.
posted by davar to computers & internet (6 answers total)

At the risk of stating the obvious, the built-in Music app will do this, although you'll need to sync through iTunes (which you can do wirelessly now, I believe).
posted by Happy Dave at 3:13 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

For podcasts, you might find Downcast suitable. I like it because I can point it at a podcast feed and it downloads new episodes directly to my phone. (No need to go through the download/sync thing with iTunes.) It also keeps track of where you're at in each episode, lets you adjust the speed, and has a ton of options so you can make it work exactly how you want it to.

It has a function to Import already downloaded podcasts (and which you could probably use for audiobooks), but I've never tried it so you'd want to check how that works first.
posted by Georgina at 4:24 AM on May 25, 2012

ITunes does everything you want to do. Why reinvent the wheel? A podcast is the same as a song or any other audio file.
posted by spitbull at 4:55 AM on May 25, 2012

I just tested it, and Downcast will let you import using Itunes File sharing.

It also supports IOS's OPEN WITH feature if it's a supported audio/video file - so you could put the files in Dropbox, and open them in Downcast that way (although I find dropbox a bit slow for initial uploads). There are probably lots of wifi transfer apps that will let you grab the files from your computer, and then OPEN WITH Downcast.

Untested, but the Help says you can also extract from your IOS media library, so you could move your files over to the regular music player, and then import.

You might want to look into Huffduffer too. Brief write up here. You could create a list of podcasts you like, and import that feed in Downcast.

Anyway, it's a really great app for listening to podcasts. Makes it a treat - although I may need to quit my job and become a fulltime podcast listener, as it makes it very easy to add new podcasts.
posted by backwards guitar at 4:56 AM on May 25, 2012

Thanks! I'll check out Downcast immediately. It's great to know that it support's the "open with" feature. Sometimes I am unable to sync with my computer with iTunes.
posted by davar at 6:19 AM on May 25, 2012

I tried out Downcast over the (long) weekend and it worked great and did what I want. I do wish I could push mp3's to it directly though, instead of through a file manager, and that the naming of imported podcast was based on filename, instead of imported date. If anyone who stumbles upon this thread has a recommendation for an app that is really great with imported mp3's and preferably even supports syncing of an FTP/WebDAV folder (something like a Goodreader or Readdledocs for audio files) I would still love to hear it. In the meantime though, I am happy with Downcast.
posted by davar at 1:37 AM on May 30, 2012