Podcaster – Review – Awesome App Apple Doesn’t Want You To Have
By 
Last week Apple rejected yet another application from the App Store. The Podcaster app was refused a golden ticket to enter Apple’s Kingdom (aka the App Store) because in the words of the Apple Rep who “served“ the developer, “Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”
“That’s right folks,” as developer Alex Sokirynsky writes on his blog, “it duplicates the functionality of the desktop version of iTunes.“
Alex decided to go it on his own and is distributing the app via Ad Hoc App Distribution. In fact, Alex has set up a slick website for providing your device’s UDID, your email and a $10 Paypal ”donation“ so he can set you up with a Ad Hoc version. (Not quite sure how (if at all) he gets around the 100 person.)
I have used Ad Hoc App Distribution system to beta test a number of apps for developers but this was the first time I employed it in this way. Yup, I sent Alex $10, and a few minutes later I had Podcaster on my iPhone.
The app works amazingly well. It searched for podcasts with ease and accuracy. It quickly showed all the available podcasts (including video casts) including that keyword. The app showed a screen indicating that it could take 3 to 5 minutes to import the podcast. They lied, it never took more than a few seconds for me to be good to go.
From there you can see all the podcasts to which you are subscribed and all the episodes currently available. You can mark a podcast as ”Not New“ or choose to download rather than stream it with a single button.
Podcaster works fantastically well and since I often forget to sync the newest podcasts on my iPhone I love no having the possibility of OTA downloads.
You can check it out for yourself here. https://www.nextdayoff.com/
Quick Take
Value: High
Would I Buy Again: I would
Learning Curve: Low
Who is it for: People who consume lots and lots of podcasts
What I like: Works great
What I Don’t: Apple forcing this ind of backflip. Not being able to use it on both my iPhone and Touch due to a limitation with the Ad Hoc system.
Final Statement: This is a great app and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why it was rejected. It raises lots of possible issues.
