Podcast player

September 16, 2005 2:21 AM

What is the coolest podcast player in terms of usability, efficiency and graphical user interface ?

I'v tried ipodder but I was confused by the messy User interface. Any suggestions ?

posted by vincentm to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Any reason you're not using iTunes?
posted by toddshot at 2:39 AM on September 16, 2005

Response by poster: Ok, I'll try Itunes lately...
posted by vincentm at 4:14 AM on September 16, 2005

I'm really digging iPodder.
It's good for Windows, OSX and Linux.
posted by horseblind at 5:54 AM on September 16, 2005

You may want to check out Odeo.
posted by marc1919 at 6:41 AM on September 16, 2005

The bad thing about iTunes is that it doesn't support bittorrent feeds. Some of teh more interesting, small-time podcasts rely on BT to keep costs of casting down. I use iPodderX for Mac OSX. It's a bit buggy, but so is iTunes's podcast feature. iPodderX allows for torrent feeds and also lets you convert podcasts into bookmarkable AACs, which comes in handy when you're listening to an hour-long program and get interrupted.
posted by mds35 at 6:46 AM on September 16, 2005

I love the simplicity of the iTunes podcast implementation, and use it for 95% of my podcast needs. But iTunes is still MASSIVELY flawed, in that it doesn't allow you to either import or export an OPML file of your subscriptions. Basically in true Apple fashion, you either do things in their (closed) way, or no way at all. You can't even edit the RSS feed location once you subscribe to a feed.

And not to mention that it uses 100% of your CPU when it updates your podcast feeds. Completely asinine.

Hopefully Apple fixes these problems in the next iTunes, because otherwise, it's a pretty awesome podcast client.
posted by melorama at 7:51 AM on September 16, 2005

I really like iTunes's simplicity and iPod integration, but the biggest problem for me is that I can't set preferences on a per-podcast basis. I keep mine at "keep the last 2" to prevent sprawl, but podcasts that update daily keep falling off before I can get to them.

Does iPodder do this, and does it handle moving the files in and out of iTunes?
posted by mkultra at 8:59 AM on September 16, 2005

But iTunes is still MASSIVELY flawed, in that it doesn't allow you to either import or export an OPML file of your subscriptions.
That's a pretty low threshhold for a definition of "MASSIVELY".
posted by Thorzdad at 9:26 AM on September 16, 2005

I dunno, I often consider an application that takes the data you input, but does not allow you to easily output that data "MASSIVELY flawed"

I mean, it's definitely a bug and not a feature...
posted by raster at 10:22 AM on September 16, 2005

BTW, my copy of iTunes 5 imports and exports podcast OPML files, so there ya go...
posted by mkultra at 11:12 AM on September 16, 2005

BTW, my copy of iTunes 5 imports and exports podcast OPML files, so there ya go...

That's great news, but I ain't going anywhere near iTunes 5 until an update gets released. More people than not seem to be having problems with iTunes 5 nuking thier podcast subscriptions and Music Libraries.
posted by melorama at 12:50 PM on September 16, 2005