I love listening to podcasts, it’s like having your own talk radio station available whenever you want. I listen to most of my shows in the car using the BeyondPod app but how about listening on Windows 8 or Windows RT. There are lots apps in the Windows Store and here are some of great free apps available.
PODCASTS!
The first app I tested was a free app called Podcast! This has a catalogue of podcasts you can browse from and has the ability to add any show via Importing an RSS feed. You can stream audio and video podcasts as well as subscribe to a show so it downloads the episodes for you to listen to offline. It keeps track of where you are up to in an episode so you can resume it later, supports the built in Windows background audio app and has a nice snap view.
The most downloaded Windows Phone podcast application is now available for Windows 8! PODCASTS! brings you the ability to browse, search, stream, and listen to thousands of podcasts from around the world right from the comfort of wherever you’re at. Stream both audio and video podcasts directly on your Windows 8 system anytime, anywhere. PODCASTS! now allows you to subscribe to your favorite podcasts and also download episodes for playback even when you’re not online. And best of all – it’s FREE!
Podcast Publisher Play
The next app I tried is called Podcast Publisher Play and is another free app from the Windows Store. This app has a nice clean UI and only has a couple shows listed but you can import your own. I tested the TDL feed and it didn’t display the text from the Podcast blog post correctly. Also there is no streaming option, it will only download the podcast before you can play it. I found this app a little flaky and it’s probably best to keep clear of for now until there is an update to the app.
Podcast Publisher Play is the first application in the Podcast Publisher suite. It allows anyone to download and play podcasts from any feed on the internet. You can play episodes with or without an Internet connection by syncing them to your computer.
News!
The next app I tried was News! The app is a free RSS reader app that has podcasts features so you can use it to read content from sites via RSS feeds. The podcast features are basic, you can listen to shows and read the blog post associated with it but there is no offline download support. This probably the best app for reading the blog posts that do with go a podcast but not ideal if you want to take shows with you offline.
Jujuba News! is functional and easy to use RSS reader. By subscribing to RSS feeds of the news sources you care about you can create your own personalized periodical right here on your WIndows 8 Start screen via live tile.
Jujuba News! supports podcasts, video feeds and regular text news.
SlapDash
The final app I tested is SlapDash Podcasts which is a cloud enabled podcast player for Windows 8 and Windows RT where your subscriptions are stored in the cloud. So you can go to slapdashradio.com and listen to your shows as well as the Windows Store and Windows Phone apps. It remembers where you are up to and you can continue where you left off listening on another device. There is a catalogue of shows included with the app (including our own TDL Show) and you can your own subscriptions via RSS. There is background downloads, sharing shows via the Share charm, live tile showing latest shows and PlayTo Support. This was my favourite app from the ones I tested, I like the online sync as well as the PlayTo featutes.There is also a Pro version that removes the in-app adverts The app is free from the Windows Store.
Cloud enabled podcast player for Windows 8. Your subscriptions are stored in the cloud, so you can access them from: the web at http://slapdashradio.com, your Windows computers, and your Windows Phones. Stream and download your shows so that you don’t have to rely on your data connection for playback. Saves the player location so you can stop a show and then pick up right where you left off. Browse or search a large catalog of popular audio and video podcasts (over 10,000). Manually add shows that are not available in the catalog. Additional features include:
As you can see there are some good options for consuming podcasts on Windows 8 and Windows RT, some are basic and some are more advanced. Personally SplashDash worked best for me. If you use any of these apps you can subscribe to our TDL Show Podcast via our RSS feed.
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