Podcasts app is probably most used app on my iPhone 4s. Despite not the most optimal design choices and reported issues, I've never been bitten by them hard enough to look for an alternative.
So, this morning I was kind of excited to learn that an updated Podcasts app has been released promising interesting goodies. I rushed to update hoping that at least some annoyances will go away. Unfortunately, not only them did...
Notice anything missing?
- Can you see the reel-to-reel scrubber? Nope!
- Can you tell how much time is left to play? Nope.
- Can you seek 30 minutes into the podcast? Nope.
- Can you change playback speed? Nope.
(Not) suprisingly on all of the screenshoots taken on iPhone 5 all necessary controls are present making for, I can only image, a great user experience.
I have three theories for why this happened, all of which are equally disturbing:
- This release of Podcasts was sponsored by Downcast.
- Apple wants to push me to upgrade to iPhone 5, which is less than perfect business practice.
- This is just a bug. But the fact that it made it into release makes me want to question engineering practice.
I've already lost around 2 hours of podcast time today and this makes me sad.