{tech}.Ben Buckman.net

One of the reasons I wanted a Droid was an improved podcast-listening experience. I have a long commute each day, made pleasant [enough] by WBUR on the radio and podcasts (All Songs Considered, This American Life, RadioLab, This Week in Tech, etc) on my mobile. Previously this involved downloading the podcasts to iTunes, then plugging in my former-phone-which-shall-not-be-named, and either syncing with the vendor's media sync tool or (more reliably) dragging the files by hand. This took a long time and frequently failed to work, so it had to be done the night before or not at all (and it's a good thing WBUR was always there for Plan B).

Not anymore! I tried three "podcatching" apps on the Droid that looked promising: Google Listen, MyPOD, and BeyondPod. My requirements were:

• Ability to download and stream directly to the device, with smart controls for WiFi availability
• Slick, intuitive UI
• Cheap or free
• Ability to add or find any feed easily
• A generally comprehensive feature set

My conclusion is that BeyondPod is the best overall of the three. I especially like the way it handles downloading and streaming, categories, and its UI generally. It costs $7 for an "unlock key," but that seems a reasonable price for what I expect will be many hours of convenient listening.

Being able to stream a podcast via 3G to the car is pretty awesome. For the big files, I try to download them first via Wifi, which the settings make easy. Hopefully I'll be able to cut iTunes out of my podcast routine altogether.