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All I want to be able to do is listen to a podcast on my mac, iphone, ipad or apple tv and have the playback position the same between them all. Podcasts app doesn't sync back to iTunes, which kills the Apple TV from getting playback position. 3rd party apps are iOS only, and aren't available on Apple TV.

Using the Music app syncs back to iTunes, so Mac & Apple TV gets playback position, but to sync that position to other iOS devices I have to do a manual sync (fortunately I can do this wirelessly now).

Ugh. Apple, let 3rd party apps on Apple TV and I bet this problem would be solved quickly.

I plan to listen to audio versions on my iPhone (now an iPod, as the AT&T account is on my Lumia 900), and watch video podcasts on my iPad (or via iPad and AppleTV to my TV). Does the Podcasts app avoid downloading "large" files over 3G when WiFi isn't available? [I should be able to figure that out from my usage.]

With the iPhone and the 30-pin to USB to radio in my car, the Music app skips back to mid-podcast when reaching the end of the selected one if there are no other episodes available of the same podcast (or to another episode if available, whether already played or not). That's jarring.

Podcasts on the other hand goes off and causes Music to play the available songs alphabetically. Fortunately, I like Al Jarreau "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" and Tom Lewis "According to the Act" (I can usually find a place to pull over and make selections before getting beyond those).

I'm not sure what the "correct" behavior is nor can I say what I would prefer to the abrupt switch to music. (My car radio would allow me to control the Music app...not sure about Podcasts. But it's not safe while driving.)

I have a bunch of subscriptions to change. Overall, Podcasts is an improvement but could be better. And may well become better when iOS 6 becomes final, or sometime after that.

--John Baxter

In the case of missing cover art, is that a fault on Apple (for example, how some, ahem MOST, of my iTunes Match albums are missing their art though they all had it before uploaded/matched) and internet connection, or is it just that the podcast doesn't offer cover art? Annoying, regardless, while searching for podcasts but, honestly, if a producer of a podcast doesn't care enough to supply cover art I'd be less inclined of listening to it. I may be an artwork snob but all the podcasts I listen to, well produced and well loved by their creators, offer easy to discern graphics. Even in an audio/video media it is important.

Christopher, you wrote:

"... Podcasts isn’t a terrible app."

And schoonerman wrote:

"Overall, Podcasts is an improvement ..."

Turns out that it *is* a terrible app that is not an improvement. I'll make my case.

1) If it was the last audio app I was using on my iPhone, it automatically launches itself if an alarm goes off in the Clock app. Immediately after I shut the alarm off, the last podcast I was listening to starts blaring out the speakers. This is terrible and often inappropriate if swear words start blasting out during my work meeting. This known bug cannot be prevented.

2) Same behavior happens if I ignore a phone call, hang up from a phone call, or quick-text a response to a phone call. Podcasts launches and starts playing the episode of Read It and Weep, or whichever other podcast I last listened to, for everyone in the conference room to hear. This known bug also cannot be prevented and also terrible.

3) Despite the common occurrence of (1) and (2), half the time I get back in my car (with Bluetooth), the iPhone is unable to determine that Podcasts was my last audio app, and it launches the default playlist in Music instead. However, unlike Music, Podcasts has no "now playing" button, so I have to manually navigate through the interface, find the exact episode of the podcast I was listening to, and launch it. Completely arbitrary and completely terrible.

4) Playlists are all kinds of broken. It hurts my head to think about enumerating the ways here. Terrible.

5) When cueing or reviewing from my car's Bluetooth controls, the Music app plays a sampled selection of what I'm skimming through, so I can get an idea of where I am. When doing this with the Podcasts app, it just sounds like garbled noise and is not useful in any way. Terrible.

I hope that you will not find my reasoning terrible.