Best podcatcher (podcast) app?

[Polymira]

Yes, I do realize there are posts on this previous, but none of them had the info that I'm really after here .. and i don't want to resurrect an old post.

I've been using Google Listen since october (started on htc hero, now on moto droid), what it lacked in features I figured updates would soon bring.. but what I've received is frustration after frustration.

*I need a podcasting app that will be able to automatically download new episodes (when plugged in and/or only on wifi)

*Automatically add the latest download episodes and add to some sort of a queue/playlist .... and automatically remove them once listened in full.

*Have a UI that works well from a couple feet away, I dock my phone in the car and use daily on my commute, so I need to be able to reach over and tap pause/play/next/ffw/etc

*AND THE BIG ONE - When updating podcasts, actually pings the RSS feed direct (unlike Google Listen) instead of a single server. I can't stand being 12-24 hours behind on most of my podcast feeds, especially when I want to listen to a daily podcast that comes out in the morning at 4:30pm on my way home from work and can't without browsing to their website ...


I'm willing to pay, realllly don't want to pay the $7 I see some clients go for.. but will pay up to $7 if it works well enough.. I do not need a full on RSS news reader, i'd prefer a dedicated podcatching client.

I know I'm not the only one looking, I look forward to your replies. Thanks guys!

 

[shystering]

I tried virtually every podcast software in the Android market.

I prefer Acast2 and it only costs a couple of dollars (it's been a while so I don't remember the exact amount).

There is a free Acast as well that you may want to try.

I used the free one a couple of times and then quickly switched to the paid version. (I hate ads). It is very impressive software and the player has large buttons that can easily be pressed.

Acast2 should meet all of your requirements. One additional need I had was to be able download a podcast for which I actually pay money. Acast2 could easily do it. I wasn't able to locate any other android software that could handle the same paid podcast.

The software is phenomenal and ranks with google sky map and Celeste as my favorite programs.

Google's Listen podcast program was quickly deleted off my phone.

Finally, the developer has a blog at ACast's Blog

 

[lekky]

Sounds like doggcatcher is what you want. I moved to it from Listen.

Doggcatcher does everything you listen you want, plus more (such as video). I recommend.

 

[Polymira]

I've stayed away from both of these up until now, but i will go ahead and install both on my phone today and try them out...

One of my favorite things about android - you can get a refund within 24 hours =)

 

[eggs]

I have the same problem as you, so please let me know what you think.
I have also looked at Beyondpod, seems prettty good too.

 

[Polymira]

Acast3 (3 just came out i suppose) didn't really work out for me .. lasted on my phone for about 3 minutes.

Beyondpod's user interface killed me, and I had issues finding actual podcast feeds vs news feeds (for shownotes and the like) .. lasted about 8 minutes on my phone.

Doggcatched (most expensive) is currently chugging along, looks like it might last. As soon as I get this whole auto downloading month old episode bug worked out.

 

[eggs]

Thanks, please let me know after a few days of use. I agre about Beyondpod`s IU, but after some time you get used to it.

 

[eric.doggcatcher]

Polymira, what's the auto downloading problem you are having? I may be able to help you out.

 

[andysensible]

I prefer BeyondPod, It does a great job of finding my podcasts that I listen to in Itunes. I can download over the air with ease.

 

[greg72]

I've been using Listen. I wanted to be able to auto download my podcasts so after I read this post I tried Acast3 and found it REALLY buggy and not very intuitive. I just downloaded doggcatcher and found it easier to add the feeds I wanted to add, liked the suggested feeds it suggested (that doesn't happen often) and just found it much more intuitive. If I wake up tomorrow and all the podcasts I want are downloaded I'm hooked. Only issue I've noticed (both with Acast and doggcatcher) is it takes a long while to load a stream, listen loaded the stream within a few seconds (which it needed to do because it wouldn't automatically download overnight).

Edit: I take back what I said about streaming with DC. Can't stream at all. It says buffering, the pause icon pops up next to the podcast and every time I click play it just buffers and stays on pause. Gave it the benefit of a doubt and figured maybe it was the network. Popped up listen and hit play now on a podcast not downloaded and it started within 5 seconds. We have good 3G speeds here, maybe I'll just stick with Listen even know I like the interface on DC much more.

 

[CobaltDragon]

I really am liking mypod, so much so that it's the only app I've paid for. A little learning curve, but great app once you get to know using it.

 

[MB200]

Hey Polymira. It's been five days since you said you were trying Doggcatcher. What do you think now? People want to know.

I've never used a podcast app before (on the PC or on a phone) -- I never have the time to listen to podcasts regularly when I'm at my PC -- so I catch only a few and manual downloads haven't been too bad for that.

I did download DoggCatcher this morning, and am therefore in the 24 hour trial period.

Would really appreciate your input.

 

[gandhimaster]

can any beyondpod expert inform me as to why it says some news feeds are listed as podcasts when they appear to be pictures?

its not a major thing but apparently i can "stream" or "download" said items even tho they are just header pics?

cheers!

 

[Polymira]

Sorry for the delayed posting, I don't check the forums all too often.

The "bug" I was experiencing is really a feature, and something I "fixed" very easily. Basically the way doggcatcher handled downloads/queue's is it downloads/queues the oldest episode of a podcast that you haven't listened to (sounds great right?). Only problem is when you first add all of your feeds, none of them are listened to .. including the ones that are a month old. So I just had to (one time) go through and mark everything listened to manually, then from that point on it's been working out fantastically.

After using doggcatcher for about a week, I've found that in my opinion it's the best podcatcher in the market. Ease of use, UI, reliability, features. It's exactly what I wanted. And with CES going on currently and a ton of podcasts releasing daily / more often then daily, it's fantastic having a podcatcher on my phone that isn't always a day+ behind on feeds!

I do recommend doggcatcher over any of the others, i tried every podcatcher with 3 or more stars in the market. All of the others were either un-reliable, or had some bug/feature/issue that just killed it for me. I use this every day back and forth from work, and when cleaning/etc. It's great.

The ONLY issue I have with doggcatcher, is that when you have it setup to only download over WiFi or while charging, you can't manually download a podcast if you aren't meeting those rules (on wifi/charging). In Listen you could still manually download a podcast even if you weren't... maybe something that will be fixed/added later

 

[MB200]

I decided to keep (and therefore pay $6 for) the download of DoggCatcher I put on yesterday. It is catching pods rather rather nicely.

 

[eggs]

I bought Doggcatcher a few days ago and like it a lot.

 

[eric.doggcatcher]

Polymira, what you described about all items being new when you create a new feed actually is a bug. What should be happening is that after creating a new feed, all items except the most recent are flagged as done. I'll be releasing a version to the market this weekend that fixes this.

Also, about the wifi downloads...I do have this on the todo list. A few people have asked for the same thing.

Thanks for supporting the app.

Eric.

 

[mattkranzler5]

I have purchased both Doggcatcher and BeyondPod, and I like the user interface of Doggcatcher better but there is one thing that is killing me. The bluetooth headset functionality seems to be hit or miss. With the music app and BeyondPod, my stereo headset (Both an Insignia brand and the Jabra Halo) work fine (play/pause button plays and pauses, etc.) however with Doggcatcher the buttons are wrong. If I press play/pause nothing happens but if I press the next/previous buttons it will pause and play. So it just seems like the buttons are setup wrong. If the stereo bluetooth headset buttons worked fully I would use Doggcatcher fully but for now its back to BeyondPod!

 

[Rjohnjr]

I have purchased both Doggcatcher and BeyondPod, and I like the user interface of Doggcatcher better but there is one thing that is killing me. The bluetooth headset functionality seems to be hit or miss. With the music app and BeyondPod, my stereo headset (Both an Insignia brand and the Jabra Halo) work fine (play/pause button plays and pauses, etc.) however with Doggcatcher the buttons are wrong. If I press play/pause nothing happens but if I press the next/previous buttons it will pause and play. So it just seems like the buttons are setup wrong. If the stereo bluetooth headset buttons worked fully I would use Doggcatcher fully but for now its back to BeyondPod!

This problem seems exceedingly odd.

I am using an Altec-Lansing/Plantronics BackBeat 903 with a Sprint Samsung Moment and am definitely not experiencing this sort of problem. The buttons on the headset work as expected, and seem to do so across all applications I have used them with.

I HAVE encountered an problem where, on occasion, use of the play/pause button will trigger a second audio application (such as the built in music app) to start playing right on top of a podcast. The fix for this seems to be to go in and use TaskKiller to kill the music app. I don't think the problem is with DoggCatcher -- the problem has happened to me several times with several different podcast programs.

FWIW, I cast another vote for DoggCatcher. I have been using Listen for quite some time but had become extremely frustrated with the long delays in getting updates to podcasts -- they often would not be available in Listen for 24 hours or longer after they had been released. DoggCatcher seems to pick them up right away. I have only had it for about a day, but at this point is a keeper, definitely worth paying for.

 

[mattkranzler5]

I know it is odd. I have had it happen where it will start another app too but I just kill that app. What's weird is it is only Doggcatcher that does this though (buttons seem to be mapped wrong). I really love Doggcatcher but I use stereo bluetooth headphones to listen to podcasts at work and I can't use it with the buttons not working.

This problem seems exceedingly odd.

I am using an Altec-Lansing/Plantronics BackBeat 903 with a Sprint Samsung Moment and am definitely not experiencing this sort of problem. The buttons on the headset work as expected, and seem to do so across all applications I have used them with.

I HAVE encountered an problem where, on occasion, use of the play/pause button will trigger a second audio application (such as the built in music app) to start playing right on top of a podcast. The fix for this seems to be to go in and use TaskKiller to kill the music app. I don't think the problem is with DoggCatcher -- the problem has happened to me several times with several different podcast programs.

FWIW, I cast another vote for DoggCatcher. I have been using Listen for quite some time but had become extremely frustrated with the long delays in getting updates to podcasts -- they often would not be available in Listen for 24 hours or longer after they had been released. DoggCatcher seems to pick them up right away. I have only had it for about a day, but at this point is a keeper, definitely worth paying for.

 

[eric.doggcatcher]

I don't have any special handling in the app for bluetooth, but I just ordered a couple headsets. Once they arrive, I'll get DC setup for bluetooth. I should be able to get this in the next release or the one after.

I have purchased both Doggcatcher and BeyondPod, and I like the user interface of Doggcatcher better but there is one thing that is killing me. The bluetooth headset functionality seems to be hit or miss. With the music app and BeyondPod, my stereo headset (Both an Insignia brand and the Jabra Halo) work fine (play/pause button plays and pauses, etc.) however with Doggcatcher the buttons are wrong. If I press play/pause nothing happens but if I press the next/previous buttons it will pause and play. So it just seems like the buttons are setup wrong. If the stereo bluetooth headset buttons worked fully I would use Doggcatcher fully but for now its back to BeyondPod!

 

[schelfho]

I don't have any special handling in the app for bluetooth, but I just ordered a couple headsets. Once they arrive, I'll get DC setup for bluetooth. I should be able to get this in the next release or the one after.

Cheers to developers who actually care enough to check forums. Was looking for a good catcher and ill give doggy a try first.

 

[TheBrit]

Cheers to developers who actually care enough to check forums. Was looking for a good catcher and ill give doggy a try first.

+1

 

[eric.doggcatcher]

I just finished up the work to get bluetooth play/pause/ff/rew working. I was able to test it on a Cliq and a G1. My beta testers should be able to give some results on other devices soon.

It will be available in the release after the next one.

 

[Alyianna]

I have never listened to a podcast other than from iTunes on my PC. I wanted to see if I could get Howard Stern's show to listen to at work... so after looking at reviews and reading the forums, I took a chance and downloaded Doggcatcher.

It is amazing. I am a total podcast noob and I figured out how to get the podcasts I wanted in just a matter of minutes. Hopefully the updates will come as smoothly!

Looking forward to exploring more podcasts!