Stitcher is (audio) podcasts done right

Just a quick post about a great application I’ve seen mentioned by Cali Lewis: Stitcher. If your a talk radio fan like me, you’ll really appreciate this app! Ever since I switched from an iPhone 4 to a Galaxy S3 and stopped using Apple’s Podcast application it has been frustrating to keep up to date with podcasts.

I’ve used BeyondPod on Android (which I’ve praised before - excellent Google Reader integration). I then tried to search for a third party podcast application on the iPad that would synchronise with Google Reader. First there were none, then some (like Feedler and Instacast) but all have been bitterly disappointing with Google Reader integration. Instacast could import OPML (after a messy bundling of feeds in Google Reader) and Feedler could read the feeds (but not handle the video and audio contained within the feed item properly). To be honest I’d given up hope, I said to myself I’d chalk it up to fate and just buy a Nexus tablet when the iPad 2 was no longer serviceable. But - happily - I was wrong and had been looking in the wrong places…

I’d never heard of Stitcher before, but to my surprise it has all the features I needed: position and read status syncing across all platforms. By all platforms I mean the most important - PC (web version), Android and iOS (iPhone/iPad). It also has a great auto-playlist feature that works on recommendations. If you’re a music fan like me who has used these type of services for years (auto playlists) and have always been bitterly disappointed (like I have been) - fear not, I’ve used it and it actually works. Out of 10 tracks it suggested I probably skipped two clips. Those two I actually listened to before skipping because the rest of the suggestions were so good. Incodentally this is where the name comes from, the act of stitching together short audio clips.

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#podcast #review