Apple's highly questionable and deeply unfortunate skeuomorphism kick continues unabated. Now we're treated to a radio dial which died out in 1995, and playing podcasts presents a reel-to-reel, which died out in god knows when.
It's completely bizarre. I guess podcasts are a form of talk radio, but tying them to some ancient radio technology that anyone under the age of 18 will have never touched is mental. They're even called podcasts: they arose because of the popularity of the iPod! Insane.
Apple really need to sort their designers out. I wish we could somehow have Microsoft's new Metro design aesthetics on Mac OS X and iOS, then I could have the best apps and OS design, and the best UI to use with them.
I don't think it's as heavy-handed as you suggest. Most of the app's navigation is handled by tableviews and collection views. The dial that you reference is really a sideways scrollview (albeit with a material skin)--this controls a non-skeuomorphic list in an intuitive way that isn't confined to the limitations of a physical radio's interface.
I'll grant that the tape deck is outdated, but it's a largely hidden little visual treat that suggests a hidden mechanism underneath AND provides visual feedback on playback speed.
Skeuomorphism is bad when it restricts the UI to the properties of physical objects, but in this case Apple hasn't done that.
The reel-to-reel heads got my hackles up for the same reasons Lewisham stated the moment I saw them in the screenshot, but once I realized they were only visible when you slid the cover art away, my opposition softened.
It's actually a nice touch in that it (subtly or not) reinforces the "under the hood" state of the UI when the additional controls are visible.
I dunno, I think it's kinda fun. The app has some personality. I can certainly appreciate that some people don't like this style of design, but there are a lot of people who do, too. (Perhaps part of why we don't hear as much from them is because most of them don't know the word "skeumorphism"?)
If skeuomorphism is helpful, it's not generally because it gives familiarity with specific controls—we've all dealt with frustrating virtual knobs. It's that it gives a "face" (or, if you'd prefer, a "brand") to an app, which for some makes it more approachable. Lack of user confidence is often a major usability issue.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, it can visually differentiate sections within the app, making it easier to navigate and feel comfortable with the app's modes of operation. Users often get lost within a maze of twisty dialog boxes all alike. The real world tends to have many visual cues and context indicators that help people mentally build and organize hierarchies — for me, at least, it’s hugely easier to remember people if I have an image to associate with that string, i.e. a face to put with that name.
I like it. What's wrong with having a little fun? This isn't a UI to control a nuclear weapons platform or something. It's more like a UI to a game. No one uses standard win32/cocoa UIs for games. It would set the wrong mood. Apple wants these apps to be casual, comfortable and friendly.
I think it's clear now that Apple likes skeuomorphism. They've been using it in the design of their products for the last few years. I presume it is helpful to less technical people (especially on device like the iPad which is attracting a lot of new and older computer users).
They use this same radio design on the iPod nano radio (the first nano with a video camera). On that it's actually inconvenient and hurts the design. In this case I don't thin it really impacts either way.
My biggest issue with this design, unlike say, the leather bound Address Book, is that it's tied to a technology that the generation Apple would like to appeal to have never used. It's akin to changing the App Store to having hand written floppy disks. All the teenagers that Apple would love to attract have no attachment, or perhaps not even an idea, about the object Podcasts is designed about.
I agree that it probably is helpful to less technical people, but only when those items they call back to are ones the user is familiar with. Choosing a reel-to-reel is a terrible decision. 11 year olds today will have never known a world without an iPod. The iPod is the music player. At least Apple didn't try an iPod within an iPod, I suppose.
IMHO I think that's exactly why they do it: to create a personality for an app. Because their target group never actually used it, it creates an illusion of attraction to them and make them interest in trying out. Skeuomorphic based on present day object is not as fun since the user is already used to it. Calculator app that looks like a calculator is not fun.
I think the people this app is aimed at are not young users. They have mostly grown up with podcasts. They know what they are. I think it for older people. The kind in their 60's/70's who's first computer is an iPad. They may have enjoyed talk radio, and might enjoy podcasts if they understood them. The radio dial section of the app seems like it would appeal to them and help with their understanding of it.
In general I don't like skeuomorphism but I think in this case it makes sense. Not to everyone but certainly to older people who don't understand the idea of podcasts.
The people who have never seen a reel-to-reel tape deck are already avidly using Apple technology. They may puzzle over this aspect of the UI, but they already know how to make it work with the more familiar controls (which are also available). Meanwhile older, perhaps less technically savvy users have a real-world analog to explain what's going on in the app. So, no harm for the savvy youths, some possible benefit for the older newbies.
First of all it provides a visual cue as to the rate at which a podcast is being played at, a constant cue rather than an indicator that has to be found and read. For that reason, on a purely practical level it is useful.
More importantly though you seem to be suggesting that an interface should never make reference to the technologies that preceded it, for fear that a teenager might be made aware of something they've never seen before?
What a terrible thought, that someone might be encouraged to investigate analog audio technology. Why can't an interface be a history lesson too?
I just noticed that the spool sizes are also accurate indicators of duration. The two spools, how long you've listened for & how long remaining are another elegant way of visualising duration. Sometimes you are interested in time listened and sometimes time remaining, this provides a visual cue for both.
Apple has been in love with skeuomorphism since the Apple Lisa, its first system that used an office metaphor. Apple's desktop OS uses 'files', 'folders', a 'trash bin', 'labels', 'tabs', and so forth.
I do agree that those don't belong in a next gen OS like iOS. They successfully got rid of the file cabinet, they have an opportunity to get rid of the other old world metaphors as well, alas they seem to prefer skeuomorphism for eye candy sake.
I use Downcast every day, not even as an advanced user, but just because I need to download podcasts on-the-go. This sucks in comparison.
* Catalog (aka Store) is very slow and clunky. Takes 5-10 seconds to flag episodes as "Downloaded" after I click on a podcast I have episodes for.
* Clicking download button takes 4-5 seconds to react. Progress of download is not shown in store, but only in Library.
* No connection between podcasts you downloaded and those in the store. So if you want to get more episodes, you need to search again. Why?
* No way to add podcasts by URL.
* Descriptions are cut-off after a line or so with [...], even if you press the "i" button.
* No position indicator. Oh wait, it's hidden behind the cover image and you need to tap to switch. And that's the default view every time.
* The position indicator has buttons at either end. They don't do anything. Or do they?? They're certainly really small.
* Some of the stuff hidden behind the cover image is a button. Some of it is just shiny bits of the reel-to-reel. Guess which is which from a foot away!
* Only fast speed is 2x which is too fast. Only slow speed is 1/2x which is too slow.
* The share buttons everywhere just link to the podcast in general, not the episode.
* Generally sluggish on an iPhone 4.
Honestly, this seems like the kind of stuff Apple is supposed to be better than.
I had a significant (and expensive) issue with Downcast where it would continue to download podcasts from wifi -> 3g.
I'd get in my car and my phone would be still connected via WiFi to the house, start Downcast to listen to something and then drive off - switching it to 3G and incurring mobile data overage charges.
I guess? It doesn't feel advanced, it's just that one podcast that I listen to is a podcast Apple doesn't list. So I can't switch to this. Like "oh, you want to listen to music that's not in the app store? That's an advanced feature."
Fellow Downcast user. Love it. Use it everyday. It's the only the only app I have paid for (I have not pirated/stolen any either) and it's nearly the only app I use on my iPhone besides NPR and Netflix on my iPad.
I understand why Apple felt the need to create this app. The current method of managing and listening to podcasts is split between iTunes and the Music app, and holds on to old models of syncing between the computer and the iPhone / iPod. It's a mess, and that, of course, is why there are third-party apps that have been doing a better job for podcast enthusiasts.
Unfortunately, this is bad news for the makers of the third-party apps. My personal favorite is Pocket Casts. They put a lot of work into creating a great user experience for podcast listeners, which seems to have been replicated in some ways in Apple's "official" podcast app. (I'm not saying Apple copied them, just that some of their UX conventions also exist in the Podcasts app.)
As I say, Apple did need to fix the current way podcasts are handled in iOS. Overall, it's probably going to be a good thing for podcasters, as it will make it easier for the average consumer to subscribe and consume podcasts.
It just makes me feel bad for the app developers who have gone through so much work to create excellent products, only to see their role shoved out of the way as Apple integrates this new feature into iOS. It's an old story; Apple's been doing this sort of thing on the Mac for ages (remember Coverflow?), but it still gets to me a bit. I'll keep using and loving Pocket Casts, I just hope they and others can compete now that Apple's got their own Podcasts app.
I think there is plenty of room for multiple podcast apps to do well, even with Apple's version present. Podcasts really do make up an important part of many people's day (not unlike an audiobook, or NPR, H. Stern, Rush, etc.), and the way people want to consume and manage podcasts varies substantially and that opens up possibilities for multiple apps.
I don't even see it as that far-fetched to imagine this addition helping 3rd party apps. Say Average Joe doesn't even know what a podcast is, but the Apple app is interesting enough that he tries it/them out and suddenly "podcast" is on his radar. He is now a new potential customer for a 3rd party app that has a feature he'd like but is missing from the Apple app.
Considering the history Apple has of "absorbing" the features of popular third party apps, at this point developers should almost expect it to happen sooner or later.
I remember a time when that was the biggest criticism of Microsoft, the way they would absorb more and more features into Windows, putting all the little guys out of work.
I think anyone who listens to a lot of podcasts is still going to want a more serious app. I've never heard of Pocket Casts, but it looks really nice. I use Downcast and I see no reason to switch and lose features. Apple's not going to build auto playlists or server fetching.
Pocket Casts is excellent. The killer feature is server side feed updates. I subscribe to around 20 feeds. Checking for new episodes takes less than a second using Pocket Casts, every other apps I have tried takes at least two minuets.
I wonder though, because you still need to download the app. I think the previous position in the Music app was much more prominent for someone who wasn't already a podcast listener. So now someone searches the store for "podcasts" and sees a free Apple app with 3 stars and a $1 third-party app with 5 stars, and that's pretty competitive.
Yep, podcasts will remain niche if there is no built in support with a home screen app. Just as smartphone apps were niche until apple added the app store on the home screen.
Now if a podcaster wants to tweet "check out my podcast" with a link, they have to preface it by saying "make sure you already have a podcast app installed". A lot of friction for users unfamiliar with the medium.
Of course, Apple, even in a built in app, would never add all the features serious podcast listeners would need, so Pocket casts would still healthy exist. In fact, with the increased exposure podcasts would have on the home screen, Pocket casts would have even more people searching for "pro podcast apps".
Now all Pocket Casts has is the chance to compete with a free Apple podcast app tucked away in the app store.
I have been using Stitcher too, and love it. Interestingly, after The Talk Show moved from 5by5 over to Mule Radio, I contacted all of the parties involved to try to get the new version of the show on Stitcher, so that all of my postcasts are managed in one app.
I got a reply from someone at Mule (whose name I didn't recognize) that said that they did not like Stitcher's business model. This strikes me as strange because I figured that the larger the audience, the better deal the podcast is giving its sponsors. But, no, apparently they don't want Stitcher to host their podcast and then serve iAds (which I ignore) in the app. But yet they have no problem with Apple hosting the podcast on their servers.
This really sucks because Stitcher does a lot of things that lend to a great user experience including (but not limited to) transcoding the podcasts so that they can be efficiently streamed.
Hopefully this new app from Apple will allow me to gather my podcasts under one umbrella.
Edit: Ugh...no, this new app is nowhere near as pleasant a user experience as Stitcher.
I figured they were taking advertising money to fund both their work on the the app itself (which is free) and for maintaining the server infrastructure that allows them to stream quickly (which can't be cheap to them).
Which would be an appropriate arrangement of it was their content. But it isn't. Would you be willing to pay for those two products without the podcasts themselves? Of course not, the app and the servers are valuable to a consumer because of the content. If the content creators don't get a cut of that advertising money then the business model isn't fair.
Not to mention that stitcher removes any editorial control over the kind of advertising associated with any given program.
Sure. At the same time it is all of the content on Apple's own iTunes servers that gives value to those servers, and Apple uses that value to sell more hardware. Are podcast creators getting a cut of that? If not, then why might they think that business model is fair?
Edit to reply to below: that has been the case for the download model. How certain are you that this is still the case for the streaming model of this app? Have you sniffed the traffic?
About 80% of my walking around time is spent listening to podcasts, and I've been waiting for this for a long, long time. Namely:
- A podcast app that's separate from Music. They're really two entirely different tasks, and I don't like losing place in a playlist just to listen to a podcast, and vice versa.
- Buttons for skipping forward and ahead within a track.
- Never losing place in a podcast when switching tracks. This was a huge problem with the popup playback controls, where it's far too easy to hit rewind instead of pause.
- The ability to download and update podcast subscriptions directly from the device.
- Syncing listened/unlistened and playback state between devices.
I think they've covered all of my issues with podcasts, and it's a beautifully designed app (I have a particular fondness for reel-to-reel decks). Well done, Apple.
You didn't like Downcast, or Instacast, or Pocket Cast?
I use Downcast and like it a lot. I wasn't a major podcast person before --- I'd grab the "podcast version" of the latest episodes of things I'd listen to on NPR --- but having a client keep up with all that stuff for me is a bit of a revelation.
Cool app in a lot of ways, but its conceptual hierarchy seems weird to me so far — the main section that you're presented with upon launch (the "Library") has a tab bar at the bottom split between "Podcasts", showing podcasts you've subscribed to and/or downloaded episodes from, and "Top Stations", showing popular podcasts on the iTunes Store. So far so good.
But then there's also a "Catalog" button at the top-left that "flips the app over" (a la iBooks) and shows you a general store-browsing interface. The corresponding button to get back—which, I'll note, is on the opposite side in that view!—is labeled "Library".
tl;dr: There are Store interfaces in both the Library and the Catalog, seeming to break the conceptual hierarchy, and thus annoying me.
So,in the future, iOS will no longer have built in podcast support? iPhone users will now always have to download a separate app to get podcasts?
This is a huge set-back for the podcast medium. There is so much friction convincing potential blue water podcast listeners to subscribe to podcasts.
Haters are going to automatically say "podcasts are a niche, they have a small audience" so who cares? Well, before Apple put in built in support for smart phone apps in iOS with an app store on the home screen. The smartphone app audience was one of the smallest around. Now look at where we are.
Hard to say. It may come bundled with the final release of iOS6. I think they just wanted to get it out the door now for whatever reason. The app uses a number of new UI metaphors and includes elements of the iOS6 App Store redesign so perhaps they are just testing the waters a little here.
Personally I hope they do more apps as app store downloads. I don't want a stock app and I want a different calculator app. They can come pre-installed, but I want to be able to delete them and redownload them as necessary.
Podcasts weren't particularly visible before. I may be remembering wrong (I've changed the tab order in my own app) but Podcasts were hidden under the "More..." tab.
If it comes pre-bundled, click link, that opens in Podcasts app, click Subscribe.
If it doesn't, they've still currently got podcast integration with iTunes desktop, which means there will still be an iTunes page and itunes links will work, they just won't redirect to the itms-podcast protocol or whatever it is. They could link to the app from there.
But a much better way would have just been to add a "subscribe" button to podcasts in the itunes store, even if they were still in the music app, (which was once called the "iPod" app). Just as magazines in Newstand are allowed to let users subscribe and download new issues in the background.
Being in the music app also allowed them to be searchable by spotlight, which even gave you a blue indicator of what episode was un-listened.
I found the Music app painful to use for my podcasts. Not sure how much better this will make it. On the other hand I purchased Instacast and it is one of the most used apps on my phone.
Same here. I downloaded the Podcasts app, but it's so
limited that I'll continue using Instacast. Same deal when Reading List came out; I'm still a happy Instapaper user. I think it will actually have advantageous effects for third party podcast apps: more people will get acquianted with podcasts and when they need something more powerful, they know where to look for it.
Lately I have been having this thought that Apple ought to do the right thing and compensate app publishers when it chooses to, effectively, take them out with their own version of their apps. From an ethical standpoint I really don't like the idea of them watching, learning, observing and then damaging those who put lots of time and effort into understanding a problem and developing solutions for them. They've done this with e-books and other areas and now podcasts.
I am not saying that they should not publish their own versions of these apps. All I am suggesting is that the right thing for them to do is to financially recognize those who paved the road ahead of them.
To be clear, I am not and have not been affected by any of these Apple-released apps. I do fear the potential to come-up with something popular only to be taken out by the mother-ship.
This is a nice thought, but I don't think it's realistic. Most of Apple's value comes from refining the work of others. They didn't invent the computer, the music player, or the phone, they just made great versions of each of these things. I'd argue that Apple couldn't exist at all if they paid everyone who's work influenced them. They'd have to give away everything.
I'm being easy on Apple by talking about hardware items, I know. Apple's worst sins are when they rip off software. And it's frustrating how sometimes they'll buy it (Coverflow) and sometimes they won't (Watson). The way they go about it feels mean. But it just shows how competitive they are. Ruthless even. They'd rather play dirty and win than lose with honor. It's hard to stay mad at them though because they do it all with such good taste.
I'm miffed that videos were moved to an entirely different app; I'm subscribed to the TED talks video podcasts, but have to launch an entirely different application to listen to them (and yup, I listen to 99% of them as I'm walking around instead of watching them.)
Well, that's kind of silly. Not a huge deal, but I listen to my podcasts through a playlist that gathers all the podcasts I subscribe to, so it mixes it up a bit. Sounds like it won't happen anymore…
Does the Unplayed Episodes list seem the wrong way round to anyone else? I generally want to start listening oldest first because newer things refer to older things.
Breaking the podcast functionality out into its own app is interesting, but the 50MB limit for cellular downloads means that it's still completely useless for me.
Relevant to the "Apple changes App Store search" story from the last couple of days: I am so far completely unable to find this app by searching for "podcasts", or even "podcasts apple".
A quick Google search, on the other hand, worked instantly.
When new apps are released they are usually available via direct link before they start appearing in search results. The roll out is gradual on a per country basis. With my apps it can take 1-3 hours before they appear in search on all stores.
I couldn't see it on the App Store, but when going to the direct link, I got a message saying it requires iOS 5.1 - I'm on 5.0.1. Maybe it's because your device isn't up to date.
When I searched for "podcasts apple" it was the very last result. I guess that's noble? At the very least they weren't using their status as the owner of the store to promote their own app, I'll give them that.
Hopefully, Apple will _finally_ let me pay for a subscription to my beloved HyperCritical PodCast. I already Pay $5/month to 5by5 - and was considering increasing that - but I would happily pay $2-$3/month for a subscription to Hypercritical. John Siracusa puts an insane amount of effort into preparation, and even when I vehemently disagree with him (he's opposed to patents) - I still find his perspectives and intellectual rigor intriguing.
So happy there's an official way to do subscription. The app's a little underwealming though.
The fact they seem to have forgotten to stop the Subscription and Auto-Download cells from highlighting when you tap them is an indication of the lack of polish.
It's generally pretty laggy, especially trying to do things like scrub through a track and I've had it crash several times already just trying to select podcasts.
I like the radio dial, seems like a nice way to browse the different categories.
But this Podcasts app is missing 1 crucial feature it looks like - no ability to let you know the podcasts you are subscribed to have new episodes. I'm hoping that is expanded upon in iOS 6. Otherwise you still have to rely on syncing with iTunes.
Have you switched the "Subscription" toggle on for any of the podcasts you have? (Note this also reveals an "Auto-Download" toggle.) From the Episodes view, tap on the podcast itself at the top.
I haven't had any podcasts update in the last few minutes, I don't think, so I haven't been able to test it.
It's really odd that doesn't transfer over. I also find the way to get to the per-podcast settings was very unintuitive, it took me a couple of tries to find it.
The thing I find really odd is the recommended podcasts in the catalog.
So many of them don't have pictures, and many that do have pictures that aren't descriptive at all (just a person's face, no way to know it's a knitting podcast). And the picture is all you have to go by, there is no text unless you press the little info button.
I'd expect podcasts will start adding pictures now that they have another reason to, but I'm surprised Apple didn't filter out such podcasts from the top lists. It seemed very un-Apple-ly to go to a category and see up to 50% of the entries in some categories are just placeholder images. There is also no way to tell which don't have images and which are currently pulling the image over the network.
I thought the same thing but then I scrolled up and saw the search bar with the list view. Using the list view you get exactly what you want, a list of podcasts with tags for new episodes and a chronologically sorted list view of all unplayed episodes.
It currently isn't showing up if you search for "podcasts" but does if you search for "podcasts apple" although it won't be obvious it's from Apple until after you tap the result.
Come on Apple. Release a decent Audiobook app for iPad and I swear I won't speak ill about you again (I've submitted quite a few foul-mouthed bug reports and feature requests about iPad's Music.app in iOS 5, 6 and continue to do so every month).
That lousy, disgusting 'new' Music.app on iOS 5.0 (on iPad) was the reason I bought an iPhone. I just couldn't stand that app (I listen to audiobooks quite often).
I thought this was going to happen when it was left out of the iOS 6 beta but I didn't think we'd see it until the new iPhone/iOS launch. Glad they are putting it out now.
I'm curious to see what, if any, impact this has on podcast creators. If Apple pushes it the way they do iBooks and other Apple iOS apps it could be huge for them.
Just gave it a shot, and I wasn't impressed in the least. These types of apps are where Apple really fails. It's like they don't use the same designers they do for any of their other products on these small apps.
The interface is lousy, and very similar to the Music app. Discovery doesn't seem very useful either.
This might be useful for a 'light-weight' user and listener of podcasts but this doesn't even come close to apps like Downcast in terms of features.
I think Apple is probably targeting the light-weight users and trying to attract new users. Advanced podcasts features are something relatively few people care about. I listen to several podcasts daily and 99% of the time I just press play. I don't care about setting speed, bookmarks, or any of the other featured apps like Instacast (which I use) offer.
It's great that these apps are still available on the store and good for the developers that Apple hasn't just killed their business with a free alternative.
I am actually happy that this app is not what I want because I hope that this is the same sentiment for others. This will allow apps like Downcast and Instacast to further survive.
My other gripe is the navigation is too stylized for my taste. I am not looking for my podcasting app to be an experience, just function as a tool.
I don't understand why they put in poor implementations of advanced features though. Like the speed dial only has two options, too fast and too slow. Why include that at all?
I don't know, this one isn't that great and I prefer the music app after using this one casually this afternoon on the way home.
The download model doesn't seem as neat as the itunes separation. I keep current on my podcasts on my desktop, and I "catch up" on my iPhone. There's no way to trail behind a podcast (I use "sync 5 oldest unplayed").
Also, it didn't resume playing after receiving a phone call. Not a big deal, but it's another annoyance.
For the time being I put the Podcast app in a folder and switched back to the Music app. I personally find nothing wrong with the Music app and will continue to use it - whenever I upgrade to iOS 6 I'll probably take a look at 3rd party podcast apps.
It's completely bizarre. I guess podcasts are a form of talk radio, but tying them to some ancient radio technology that anyone under the age of 18 will have never touched is mental. They're even called podcasts: they arose because of the popularity of the iPod! Insane.
Apple really need to sort their designers out. I wish we could somehow have Microsoft's new Metro design aesthetics on Mac OS X and iOS, then I could have the best apps and OS design, and the best UI to use with them.