As I wrote six weeks ago, work has been progressing to convert the old open source Escarpod podcast catcher into an application that can be part of the (also open source) Symbian^3 operating system. Now, exclusively, with kind permission, I have much more on the app, appropriately just called 'Podcatcher'. Read on for a detailed walk through and screenshots. Note that Symbian^3 itself won't appear on devices until at least the summer, but at least we now know that it'll have podcasting functionality, a relief to many in the Symbian ecosystem, including me!
Read on in the full article.
very nice. Beats the bare bones of the current podcasting app.
Hey! why can't we have icons for update, add and settings, instead of text??
you won't even have to worry abt localization then.
Is this gonna be available for 5th edition?
Thanks for the coverage Steve!
Anyone can run Podcatcher on their 5th edition phone. We're very interested in people testing it out and reporting bugs. There are instructions how to run the latest build on the Podcatcher package wiki page.
About icons for the toolbar, that would be great. But someone has to draw them, or find suitable icons. I dug through the icons in the platform, and there are candidates that can be adapted. So this is another area where you can help out.
There is also a list of features planned on the backlog wiki page. If someone wants to take a stab at implementing it, we'd be more than happy!
About providing it for S^1 (5th edition), we certainly want to maintain compatibility. I'll be running the N97 for the foreseeable future, and I'll be running Podcatcher on it.
you think symbian is really so difficult to code for that nokia coders themselves couldn't bring the old podcast app into those newer E series phones?
Unregistered wrote:you think symbian is really so difficult to code for that nokia coders themselves couldn't bring the old podcast app into those newer E series phones?
Symbian is not difficult to code for.
just installed it without a hitch on my 5800. Missing some artwork but so far so good.
anybody got the name of the theme in use in the screenshots above?
The theme in the screenshots is "Just Black", a minimalist theme by Jon at tehkseven.net
Well, I'm glad Nokia has proceeding ahead with this.
Let's not act, though, that the company is only just responding to some wacky, out there, new fad. Podcasting has been around since the first few Creative Zens and iPods; what-- it's almost a decade now, I think? It isn't the 'tech elite, bloggers and first adopters' who are only into podcasts. I would include many consumers who commute to work/school.
Just because we're fans of a company, let's not excuse their shortcomings.
Nokia? What are you talking about? Nokia have nothing to do with this. I hope a day will come when everyone understands that the Symbian Foundation is *not* a subsiduary of Nokia nor is it obliged to Nokia in any way.
Brendan Donegan wrote:Nokia? What are you talking about? Nokia have nothing to do with this. I hope a day will come when everyone understands that the Symbian Foundation is *not* a subsiduary of Nokia nor is it obliged to Nokia in any way.
Oh, come on, be honest. Even though the SF is now 'independent', their main benefactor is Nokia. They're unofficially tied at the hip.
Yes the main contributor is Nokia, but this contribution has nothing to do with Nokia whatsoever.
In fact, as Steve mentioned in the article, Nokia for reasons unknown decided not to contribute their podcasting application.
@Jimmy1, so how would you explain the relationship between Nokia and the Symbian Foundation?
In relation to this contribution of the podcatcher application, what involvement do you think Nokia had?
Jimmy1 wrote:Well, I'm glad Nokia has proceeding ahead with this. Let's not act, though, that the company is only just responding to some wacky, out there, new fad. Podcasting has been around since the first few Creative Zens and iPods; what-- it's almost a decade now, I think? It isn't the 'tech elite, bloggers and first adopters' who are only into podcasts. I would include many consumers who commute to work/school.
Just because we're fans of a company, let's not excuse their shortcomings.
come on, if i walked us to the next 10 people i saw and asked them if they had weekly podcasts setup on their phone, i doubt even 1 of them would have it. The next 20 people? 50 people? I'd guess 3 out of 100 people have some type of podcasting setup on their mobiles. Even iphone users who have the luxury of itunes i doubt have much if any podcasts setup.
One feature I've always missed on Podcasting is for automatic deletion of podcasts by allowing the user to specify how many latest episodes to keep for automatically updated items.
For some of my podcasts, especially those that pertain to daily news, I really don't need it if it is more than 3 days old.
@Steve, sorry for the confusion last night, I got your tweet on twitter, those screenshots you spotted were mine, not yours that i was uploading. I too am testing Podcatcher, and helping making it better.
Very nice to see people trying it out. As I mentioned, we need help testing Podcatcher.
When you discover a bug in it (there are many!), please enter it into our bug tracker. There are instructions how to do that.
Raising bugs is one of the simplest ways you can take part in Symbian, and it's a necessary step before that bug can be fixed. Don't be shy to do so, and please provide as much information about the bug as possible, including how to reproduce it.
mouserider wrote:One feature I've always missed on Podcasting is for automatic deletion of podcasts by allowing the user to specify how many latest episodes to keep for automatically updated items.For some of my podcasts, especially those that pertain to daily news, I really don't need it if it is more than 3 days old.
Sounds like a good feature request. Enter it as a bug with the "severity" field set to "Feature.
Jimmy1 wrote:Oh, come on, be honest. Even though the SF is now 'independent', their main benefactor is Nokia. They're unofficially tied at the hip.
I think you need to realise there really is a difference compared to the previous situtaion. You can look at the governance rules too.
Yes Nokia remains the biggest contributor by far - there's no way that will chnage over night - but already other package owners and contributors are coming in - the podcasting application is one example of this. Their role is independent of Nokia - and things will happen and go into the platform without direct Nokia involvement. Social Framework is another good example.
The contribution primact of Nokia does mean that Nokia has a disproportionate influence (in one sense), but it is not able to block things on its own (as was previsouly the case). Thus far Foundation councils have been almost universally consensus driven, but...
Jimmy1 wrote:Well, I'm glad Nokia has proceeding ahead with this.
??????
Did you read the article? It's EmbedDev, not Nokia.
But don't let that fact get in the way of having a dig at Nokia.
teknolog wrote:Sounds like a good feature request. Enter it as a bug with the "severity" field set to "Feature.
Done.
I'll play with it more and assist where I can.
Great work!
Thanks a lot Mouserider for your exemplary feature request.
Just wondering if there is any chance of a version of Podcatcher for the E72 coming on stream? I've been watching the Bergamot page but there is no sign of the proposed S60 version of Escarpod.
Thanks in anticipation.
Michael
Hi, I've been trying out Podcatcher, after being a big fan of Escarpod on UIQ3. I'm now using an N97 Classic, and have managed to get it running OK, and have downloaded podcasts successfully. My only problem is that I can't get any of the podcasts to play! Tapping doesn't seem to do anything. The files are OK, and I can play them using File Manager, however this isn't very convenient, as you'll appreciate.
Has anyone else had this issue?
(Teknolog, I'll definitely put in a bug report when I get a chance...)
Yes, I have this problem too. I am using a Samsung i8910 with s60v5 (HX2.1). It installed without a hitch and downloads podcasts nicely. However, when I click the downloaded Podcasts it fails to launch the music player. I can find the Podcasts using the music player, but this is too much hassle.
Good effort though - much nicer than the Podcast application that comes automatically with the i8910. I'll keep an eye on development!
same here. it dowloads the podcast realy well but I can't launch the player from it. maybe it's a feature that isn't implemented yet.
Great idea, I installed it on my 5800, after I was shocked to find that the native podcast player was completely crippled in version v50, because you cannot sort podcasts anymore by date added, or by "never played".
Anyway, I downloaded some podcasts with the Podcatcher, but now how do I play them?? Going manually to the file manager is surely not a feasible option.
Great work!
As an ownner of an E55 I�ve been using Scarpod for some time already and it has been a pleasure. I wonder if you have any update on the port of Podcatcher to the S60v3 platform.
Thanks!