Podcasts been and gone...? (non-US issue)

[fatpigeon]

Been getting pretty tired of dragging and dropping my media on Windows Phone 8, in contrast to the reasonably effortless Zune sync on my 7.8 handset (at least until the wireless sync broke. Again. Again in contrast, my iPad's wireless sync has never broken once). I finally gave Preview 3 of the WP app a try last week, and despite the basic and crappy level of the program as a whole, I was surprised to discover my Zune-downloaded podcasts actually synced.



As non-US users will know, you get pretty tired of looking at the passive-aggressive "It's lonely in here". Yeah it's lonely, you don't provide any means for us to put anything there, you Redmond morons. So this was a major leap forwards. It was no longer lonely. It's filled with culture and stuff!

Fast forward to this week after I upgraded to the (Really? This pile of underfeatured junk is your 1.0? Given the joke that's Windows 8 I'm not surprised, but still) 'release' version and I find all my podcasts are gone, and I'm left staring at "It's lonely in here" again.

Is there a workaround? Could I get Preview 3 back from somewhere? Or was the whole being able to sync podcast thing a figment of my imagination and someone just yanked my meds this week?

Appreciate any help.

 

[lakrisnisse]

As an old ZuneHD user and podcast listener I can understand your frustration. Download Podcast Lounge. It's an excellent app for podcasts. Dare I say maybe the best podcast app for us non-us wp8 owners.

 

[fatpigeon]

Dare I say maybe the best podcast app for us non-us wp8 owners.

On WP8? I don't think so.

In either case I don't want a third party tool that downloads on the handset, and furthermore doesn't keep tabs on what I've listened to on the device itself, let alone across devices (like Zune does). I know I won't get the latter, but I definitely need the former.

 

[fatpigeon]

Anyone? This is becoming a serious source of frustration since switching my most used phone to WP8. My 800 is probably on it's last legs judging by the amount of scratches on the glass (it's been dropped like 10000 times, if this was an iPhone it'd have been RIP within a few months of me getting it) and as I said the wireless sync has broken again, but it's still more usable than anything I've found in WP8. Problem is of course that if Ive got my headset on the WP8, I can't listen to podcasts. If I have my headset on the WP7 to listen to podcasts, I can't take calls. I need WP8 to do it all and I just don't understand why it can't out of the box.

Third party isn't the answer for me, at least not right now. None of the leading podcast apps (Podcasts! Pro and the abovementioned Podcast Lounge being two) in the marketplace works properly, i.e. trouble-free... even if you take the lack of certain key features out of the equation, they either need manual intervention to download (even when advertising automatic download), frequently just lose track position (even when it's advertised) or even whole podcasts go poof without explanation. I appreciate that devs are working on these apps as we type and I've bought them before pronouncing them useless, but they are right now.

 

[lakrisnisse]

Yes, you do need to manually download the episodes with PL, but other than that, it has been stable and done its job. This on a 920.

 

[Big Anonymouse]

Pretty sorry podcast situation on WP8 outside of US at the moment... I've returned Lumia 720 and went back to using 710 + zune because of that.

There's a number of podcast apps (podcaster, podcatcher, etc) but they are lacking or unstable or simply don't integrate with WP8 well (for example, if you're playing something and go into another app, and stop the podcast - all I've tried don't remember where you stopped - which is kind of a basic thing you need with podcasts)

 

[fjays]

Yes it's a disgusting mess if they don't fix it within a few months I'm getting an iphone.

On Nokia Lumia 820, it just had the GDR2 and Amber update. Yes, a few improvements, none that affect me much, FM radio was nice..
But no bloody podcasts!! Am in Germany, which is probably not supported.

Podcast Lounge is no good cause it only uses phone memory not the memory card. Otherwise it's good, but it's ridiculous as the memory card has like five times more storage.

I hear that with an iphone you can go straight into itunes, access podcasts, music, movies.. I've never had one, but they're keeping this stupid windows phone beta for way too long.