Podcast manager

Vocal

It's amazing that podcasts became and have remained so popular. They seem to have so much in common with radio that many of us thought they'd suffer a similar slow declining fate, falling beneath the wheels of low attention spans and social media. Instead, they've outlived the iPod that gave them their name, and they're thriving in all kinds of ways and genres. Their offline nature and length often makes them perfect for the commute, during a workout, or even just in the background of a working day. If the subject is loosely work-related, then all the better. There are now podcasts for every niche, from crime to cookery, whether you've got only 10 minutes to spare or an hour.

Something that can really help with your podcast enjoyment is a great application to help you consume them. Many can be downloaded as audio files that will play on almost anything, but there aren't many applications that will help you stay on top of the feeds you subscribe to and discover new ones. And that's exactly what Vocal does. Its GUI looks very much like an old version of iTunes, which means it's not surprising that the "Top 100" feature that dominates its default view is pulled from Apple's own podcast listing. But that doesn't take anything away from the quality of Vocal, or that it's using what's mostly likely the best source of podcasts you can find online.

Vocal has two fundamental modes. The first lets you discover new podcasts by presenting the most popular as a thumbnail view of their cover art. Clicking on the + symbol subscribes you to the podcast and takes you to the second mode. This is your "library," a listing of your podcast subscriptions. Selecting one of these displays the podcast's background information and keeps track of exactly where you are in your listening progress. This view will also neatly list each episode and let you start listening to any one of them without first having to download the audio. It's a brilliant way to experiment with new podcasts and to dip into what you might think is interesting before fully committing to a new series in its entirety. You can also add your own podcasts using their raw RSS feeds. There are settings that let you import or export an entire set of subscriptions with an OPML file and set the geographic location for the iTunes "Top 100" feature. This is great for exploring what's popular in different parts of the world.

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