Get, listen to podcasts on the iPhone without synching
The iPhone is a great media player, but requires that the vast majority of your content be synchronized over from a PC or Mac. There are exceptions that take advantage of the device’s wireless capability but by and large, most of what you listen to or watch came over from a computer. Wouldn’t it be great if you could leverage the iPhone’s connectivity to pull down and listen to podcasts? With the Podcaster web application, you can.I gave Podcaster a try this morning and was able to add our podcast by searching for it with no problem. Listening to the podcast worked well over WiFi, but I gave it a try over EDGE as well since Podcaster actually streams the file to your iPhone. I let the file buffer-up for about a minute, just to be safe and had no hiccups in the playback over EDGE. Your mileage may vary based on your signal strength and the bitrate used by the podcast. This is a nice web app that frees your iPhone from the confines of the iPhone dock and also saves space since the files are streamed right in Safari. Although I didn’t try this function, Podcaster can apparently now import an iTunes podcast playlist; useful for when you can’t find what you’re looking for in the directory.(via Palm-Mac)
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I don’t usually listen to audio podcasts on my iPod touch but for some video podcasts (e.g. Cranky Geeks) I’ve bookmarked the RSS feed, which allows me to watch without synching. I don’t have to wait for the whole thing to download before I start to watch so, apart from being more convenient than synching, it’s also quicker. Plus I don’t fill up my memory with podcasts I haven’t got around to watching yet.
Art, that’s the key benefit to these mobile approaches in my opinion: no wasted space on the device.
Or you could jailbreak and use mobilecast to download OTA, and erase when done. That way you have the content when offline(on a plane), with no need for a computer to sync with.
Voiceindigo has been offering the mobile (low biterate) version for a long time.
For example, this is the Mobile Tech Roundup low-bit vrsion you can access from any phone, including the iPhone.
http://www.voiceindigo.com/m/podcast.do?rssid=6529
I will give this one the credit that it has a couple podcasts that voiceindigo doesn’t have.