Podcasts? W8 has no native podcast app and no commmon ecosystem with WP8.

[pwaggs]

What is the scoop on how W8 handles podcasts? Is there no native Podcast player which can elegantly handle the podcast environment across the W8 platforms and the WP8 platfoms?

I have paid for and downloaded PushPod for my Surface. It is a great program, however, it cannot synch my podcasts with my Lumia 920. On my Lumia I cannot enter the RSS for a podcast not contained within the "store". I cannot seem to synch a podcst to it as I could with the Zune software and WP 7.0 and 7.5 implementation.

Podcast implementation throughout the W8 ecosystem should be consistent and seemless. All device to talk to the cloud or one another and be kept crrent with the particulars of ones podcast playing. If I listen to a podcast on my Surface, it should show up as played on my Lumia or however much time in. I was expecting something far more robust than what I have found now which seems to be a gaping hole.

Then there is the audio cut out issue with the lockscreen, howevr, I am trying to address that in another thread.

 

[J515OP]

You'll just have to give it time. I am sure that will all be addressed at some point but for now what you have is brand new out of the box hardware and software. MS isn't providing a solution to everything and some of it is going to come from developers. It may be a hole but it is clear there are many things that require attention before syncing podcasts. Like the audio issue you mention, which is known.

Give it sometime for the various bugs to be worked out and apps to be developed. Other than that I hope you are enjoying your Surface.

JP

 

[pwaggs]

Don't get me wrong, I love my Surface. I just find it strange that MS abandoned the Zune podcast implementation which was extremely robust and replaced it with a gap in functionality. I will wait patiently...

 

[kirlam]

I feel the same way and this is a deal breaker for me in buying a WP8. I have a WP7.5 and enjoy having my podcasts in sync on my Win7 machine using Zune. I was expecting to be able to achieve the same thing on my new Surface RT...and was planning on buying a new WP8 next week when they are in the stores in Aus. Finding out that I can't keep my podcasts sync'd between the WP7.5 and Surface was bad enough but not to be able to do it between WP8 and my Surface is insane. I know it's early days but this is functionality available on the OLD platforms - I can't see the new environments as step forward if I have to give up functionality that's important to me. I'll be putting my WP8 purchase on hold until this is solved.

 

[J515OP]

Yes, it is available on OLD platforms which is exactly the problem. Everything is all new which means everything needs to be redone and retested. Perhaps the lesson in all of this is MS bit off more than it can chew launching 3 new OSes (Win8, WinRT and WP8) and two new pieces of hardware. In context though loss of minor functionality in the early days of any Windows launch is to be expected. Does anybody remember Vista?

Vista was a big change from 32 bit to 64 bit which meant there were almost no drivers available for it at launch. This was the biggest reason for Vista's failure. After a couple of updates and drivers becoming available Vista wasn't bad at all. First impressions can certainly make or break a product but this is no where near as bad as the Vista situation. Each of the new OSes has some work as does the actual Surface hardware. That is part of the price of being an early adopter.