The best thing about having a smartphone is having a myriad of entertainment options in the palm of your hand. You can chat, watch movies or TV shows, read, play games, listen to music, talk to friends, and plenty of other distractions. For me, it’s podcasts. When traveling or even trying to fall asleep, a good podcast is usually my companion to pass the time or get informed between those mundane moments in life. The Zune software is highly geared towards podcast consumption, and it does it magnificently. Yet, there are a few drawbacks that leave it a few notches from perfect. While the selection and organization of podcasts in phenomenal, the lack of a download feature straight from the device is sorely missing. Mango addresses that, but alas, Mango isn’t here, yet. So as the old adage goes, luckily, there’s an app for that.
In comes PODCASTS! Created by Melting Bot Software, PODCASTS! is a nifty app that has just recently gone 2.0. With that recent update, the app has bridged the gap between that lack of a download function and Mango. With PODCASTS! the option to download any podcast through a wi-fi connection is simple and straightforward. Just click and hold, and an option to download the podcast is made available. The podcast is held within the app’s download folder, where you can easily access the episode for quick listening.
The app does more than that, as it contains a pretty good selection of podcasts, audio and video. It isn’t as robust as the Zune Marketplace collection, but if you can’t find the podcast you want, you can always add the RSS feed and PODCASTS! will aggregate the episodes for you. If downloading isn’t your thing, then streaming episodes is available as well. Each available podcast, be it through the app’s own collection or your RSS-fed library, can be streamed anywhere, and anytime. It’s a convenient way to avoid overflowing your phone’s meek storage space full of podcasts, which tend to be on the heavy side–especially if they’re video podcasts. The app also allows you to add any podcast to a favorites chategory, and keeps your most recent listened podcasts available for replay.
Overall, PODCASTS! does a great job of managing your podcasts on the go. It’s easy to use, and the small features that add value to this free app makes it a great addition to your collection. It doesn’t have a live tile feature to notify you when new episodes arrive, which would make it even better and useful, but the fact that the app does so much while being free (ad supported) makes it a no brainer to download. If you’re a podcast enthusiast then this is the app for you.
