[akosnitzky]

Official BlackBerry Podcasts App Available As A Free Download In The App World | BlackBerryRocks.com

[akosnitzky]

i was able to download a video rather easily

[MrKyoo]

I'll give it a whirl.

[akosnitzky]

I just added two of my own channels that were not part of the items provided

[SteveO86]

The pod cast app has been downloading since last night

I'm going to try and find a link off blackberry.com..

Got it had to cancel the download, then delete the podcasts folder off my Media Card in the App_World directory.



I wonder if it will be downloading the podcasts via RIM's network if so my Data usage is going to go through the roof now.. (Even more then usual)

[akosnitzky]

I have the app working with no issues. I also like the feature of having only download podcasts while charging.

[aiharkness]

Downloaded it this morning using app world and have been playing with it. Bottom line is I like it very much.

To SteveO, you can configure it to only use wifi, only download podcasts when charging, not download when roaming, etc. Or, you can allow it to download over the mobile network if you want.

One thing I wonder: If I set it to download all when a new podcast is posted, will it just download all new, or will it download all, even including previously downloaded podcasts. I know if I set it to download just the newest, it will only download the last posted new podcast. Podcatchters I've used on the computer will download all new when set to download all. We'll see what this one does.

EDIT: I did notice that the blackberry will encrypt the media files in the podcast folder on the media card even if you have your encryption options set to not encrypt media files. It's probably not going to effect performance playing audio files. I don't know about video files. Some might lag, depending on the video and the device's horsepower.

[akosnitzky]

My devices started to lag. I removed the app and it seemed to be the culprit

[aiharkness]

Good for me so far. Running automatic downloading now via wifi as I post this.
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[akosnitzky]

My phone issue may not have been app related. I still have the rotating clock. I am changing my OS to see if that helps

[SteveO86]

Like Aiharkness, I haven't had any problems with the application, and so far I've had a pod cast paused in the background for hours now and haven't noticed any hindrance on performance.

Do you notice any pattern to the clock? Maybe an application is updating at that particular time?
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[aiharkness]

The clock? Do you mean the clock icon that replaced the hour glass? If so, I hardly get that at all.

A couple other things I've noticed: If you do have media card encryption enabled but with the option set to not encrypt media files, but your podcasts are still being encrypted, copying or moving the encrypted file from the podcast folder to music or video will remove the encryption. That's doing it from the BlackBerry; don't know what will happen if it is done from the computer with the BlackBerry in mass storage mode.

Also, the podcast app does not show all the availabe files that you would see if you looked at the feed with a browser. I haven't figured out why, but I also don't see an option for this.

I did notice on one feed that if I scrolled to the bottom I would have a "more" button. Clicking on more did load another bunch of headers, and I continued to click more untill I reached the end; but after I clicked "refresh", it only showed those first ten or twelve or whatever as pending, instead of the entire list. And I don't have the "more" button at the bottom of the list of headers.

Something I'm wondering is whether the app still grabs new podcasts when "closed". Don't know yet.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[SteveO86]

Few things I've noticed.

The mute key on the top of my 9650 turns off/on the audio from the podcast.

My podcast has somehow reset like I stopped it, and when I tried to fast forward further ahead it would reset back the beginning like I it doesn't buffer properly.
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[akosnitzky]

Another factor is the availability of podcasts that I really want to utilize. I am not sure Blackberry is a bit late on this technology. I dont know

[aiharkness]

I read earlier on one of the blogs that podcast producers have to request to be added to the directory. Apparently they can't just add themselves, and the app doesn't scan and add automatically.

I manually added all the podcast feeds I use.

Regarding the mute button function, I see it also pauses and un-pauses the media player.

And the menu that opens from any app or screen has a "podcast playing..." command near the top, under help, which opens the media player with the podcast that is playing.

Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[akosnitzky]

True,
All my RSS feeds I manually copied and pasted from e-mails

[aiharkness]

Perhaps one day users will be able to search for podcasts and search will look on the internet and not just in the catalog. Or, add podcast url's to the podcast app from the browser.

Right now if you are displaying a podcast feed with the blackberry browser, you can copy the page address to the clipboard and then paste into the podcast app.

If you are on a webpage for a site that does podcasts, but you aren't pointed to the podcast feed, select 'add web feed' from the browser menu, bookmark the feed, copy the bookmark, and paste into the podcast app. (You will see more than one feed if the webpage lists more than one syndication feed. Pick one, or bookmark all of them in case you have to try them all.). Afterward, delete the bookmark.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[akosnitzky]

Originally Posted by aiharkness

Perhaps one day users will be able to search for podcasts and search will look on the internet and not just in the catalog. Or, add podcast url's to the podcast app from the browser.

Right now if you are displaying a podcast feed with the blackberry browser, you can copy the page address to the clipboard and then paste into the podcast app.

If you are on a webpage for a site that does podcasts, but you aren't pointed to the podcast feed, select 'add web feed' from the browser menu, bookmark the feed, copy the bookmark, and paste into the podcast app. (You will see more than one feed if the webpage lists more than one syndication feed. Pick one, or bookmark all of them in case you have to try them all.). Afterward, delete the bookmark.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

How is your device reacting to the app? I had the pause, rotating clocks issue which rid itself.

[aiharkness]

I've had no performance hit that I can detect as far as running the app while doing other stuff. No "please wait" spinning stopwatch icon.

I did leave it to download podcasts over the mobile network while on battery, and it does hit the battery. But no surprise there. If you need to conserve power for a long day between opportunities to re-charge, better to set the app to only download when charging.

[aiharkness]

Originally Posted by aiharkness

. . . Something I'm wondering is whether the app still grabs new podcasts when "closed". Don't know yet.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

It does grab podcasts when the app is closed.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile