Updating podcasts on iphone via wifi

bazza
October 10, 2008 at 06:03 AM posted in General Discussion

Has anyone else found an practical way of update podcasts on your iphone without having to physically plug it in your pc?

There is an app called 'Podcaster' that you can get, but Apple have banned it from the app store because duplicates part of itunes functionality. So you can only install it if your phone is 'jailbroken'.

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bazza
October 14, 2008 at 10:23 PM

Found a Podcaster web app.

You just point your iphone browser to http://podcaster.soprotech.com/ , sign up then add your own feeds. Works pretty well but of course you need internet access to use it.

Looks like it doesn't support Chinese characters though.

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billglover
October 12, 2008 at 09:39 PM

iPlayer on the iPhone is a godsend. I've lost count of the number of times I've curled up under the duvet holding my phone. Need a way to disable the auto-rotate though. Lying down tends to mean things rotate the wrong way.

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bazza
October 12, 2008 at 03:24 PM

Just discovered there's a iphone friendly version of BBC iplayer and works very well. Only works via a wifi connection though.

You just go to the usual address and it detects that you're using an iphone.

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bazza
October 11, 2008 at 03:46 PM

I got a TV out cable off ebay, it said it was compatible, it works until the iphone recognises then it cuts the video and you only get sound through the TV. I read somewhere you have use a genuine Apple cable because it has a special chip it. That's just greed on Apple's part.

I did manage to get a car adapter today that works though.

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billglover
October 11, 2008 at 01:42 PM

I can imagine it being a pain, but the reasoning behind it makes sense. In order to keep costs down, Apple gave up firewire support. Most of the old accessories for the iPhone used firewire.

But, I didn't know there was a TV out cable. Is it expensive and what is wrong with it?

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bazza
October 11, 2008 at 12:59 PM

I think it sucks that the iphone 3g is incompatible with about 90% of existing accessories. I've had to buy a new car adapter and a new tv out cable, either of which work properly either.

I'm lucky that it actually works with my ipod clock radio.

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billglover
October 11, 2008 at 10:10 AM

@bazza: Haven't found a way but it would be nice. I'd like to see the iPhone make greater use of WiFi for downloading/syncing - even if you had to nominate a particular network as your "home" network.

@henning: I liked the idea of streaming the audio, but have been put off by the ChinesePod mobile site. For some reason it frustrates me.

Latest iPhone update has "broken" podcasts. It automatically plays all podcasts for a given feed. For the ChinesePod feed this means that we hear the individual lesson items in the wrong order.

Dialogue -> Lesson Review -> Lesson

Not sure of the best way to get round this. It's not a major flaw, but it's one of those little things that I dislike about my phone.

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taiwanator
October 10, 2008 at 05:58 PM

@henning

Seems you have a T-Mobile contract, or?

Did you encounter problems with their data volume limitations? Cit.:

Ab einem Datenvolumen von 300 MB (Complete M), 1 GB (Complete L) oder 5 GB (Complete XL) pro Monat wird die Bandbreite im jeweiligen Monat auf max. 64 kbit/s (Download) und 16 kbit/s (Upload) beschränkt. 

I can't afford such an expensive "flat rate" contract with such limitations... 49, 69, 89 euro per month plus volume limitation, no!

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bazza
October 10, 2008 at 02:22 PM

I don't have Cydia, I tried twice to jailbreak my iphone but the Windows software crashed both times so I thought it was best not to try it again in case I bricked my iphone.

I haven't been able to get 3G on it yet, both my network and phone are supposed to support it, but hasn't shown the "3G" symbol yet. I guess it's not yet available in my area. Works great through my home wifi network though but of course only went at home which kind of defeats the purpose of mobility. ;)

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hankfdh
October 10, 2008 at 07:08 AM

Mobilecast via Cydia is a little clunky in terms of usability, but also works.

http://code.google.com/p/mobilecast/

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henning
October 10, 2008 at 06:06 AM

Actually I just stream the lessons over the 3G network. Works fine.