Subscribe to podcasts on your iPad without iTunes!

Check out GeekBeat.TV on your iPad without syncing with iTunes

Is it bad form to admit you don’t subscribe to podcasts anymore on the blog of one of the top podcasts on the Internet? If it is, I apologize. I’m not saying that I don’t watch Internet hosted videos or web series—I do! I even do work with some. I just don’t subscribe.

It’s weird since, going back in podcasting’s short history, the “subscribing” is what made it work. But, ironically, as technology like the iPhone, iPad and AppleTV made watching video more accessible to me, it actually made subscribing less convenient.

Instacast HD hopes to get me subscribing again… at least on my iPad. The US$4.99 app helps me find the podcasts I had previously just been keeping tenuous tabs on and allows me to subscribe, download or stream the content. I’m no longer tethered to iTunes!

Subscriptions on “tap”

The in-app search and top podcasts list makes finding your favorite podcasts simple and makes discovering new ones a snap as well. Subscribing is as simple as a tap. Once you’ve done that, you can easily manage the downloads by priority or even pause them if you’re paranoid about running up the usage on your data plan (if there’s a name for that phobia, let me know, I’ll add it to my Twitter bio).

Instacast HD is the big brother to Instacast for iPhone (a separate purchase at US$1.99 — Grrr!) and owning the two offers a feature that might temp me to buy them both. Just like my Kindle synchronizes where I left off in a book whether I pick it up again on my iPad or my MacBook, Instacast HD allows you to synchronize the play head position on a podcast. So, if you start listening to one on your iPhone during the morning commute, you can finish it on your lunch break on your iPad. It knows right where you left off!

I ♥ Podcatching

The interface on the iPad is extremely handy with show notes and archives at your flicking fingertips. Video will continue to play in the background as your read up, click links, enjoy the in-app browser—all while listening to the audio.

In the few hours that I’ve been playing with Instacast HD, it has made me fall in love with podcatching again.

I’ve just activated the push notifications and it’s telling me I have a few hours of listening and viewing enjoyment ahead of me tonight. I think I’ll set a few of these episodes to auto-cache so that I can watch them offline at my local Starbucks (data plan depletion phobia…I gotz it).

Gonna try to score one of the comfy leather chairs—wish me luck!