Nokia Releases a Podcast App for the Series 60 Third Editon
This is just too cool for words. Nokia has released a Podcast client for the Nokia N91 “Multimedia Computer.” While it is designed for the N91, it should work on any Series 60
Basically, you feed this application your typical RSS feed. It will pull down the feed and show you all the individual podcasts available. You can then select the podcasts you want to download and tell it to download. It will download the podcasts to your MMC card and then you can play them at your leisure.
What I’ve been doing is run bashpodder to download all the podcasts I normally listen to. I then make them available via my local network via a thttpd web server. Finally, I connect on my phone via WiFi and the web browser and download all the podcasts one at a time. A little painful, but it works. Furthermore, the web browser on the E70 doesn’t let me “save” something I’ve downloadaed unless the application the file opens up in plays it. With MP3, that meant having to “hear” the file in the Media Player prior to saving it.
In order to use this program and maintain my internal server that does all the downloading work for me, I had to write a script that would generate an XML feed of the various MP3 files I had downloaded. Fairly straightforward and well within my programming abilities. A short time later, I had an XML feed to point Nokia’s Podcasting client at.
Each mp3 file was lovingly displayed in a list. It has a little icon to the left of each item showing me the state of that podcast. A grey microphone with a down arrow tells me it needs to download it. If the microphone is gret with a checkbox, it is partially downloaded. If there is a green animated swirl shown on the right hand side of the file, it is actively being downloaded.. You are told what kind of file it is (MP3 in my case), how big the file is, and how much of it is downloaded. You can even “preview” the podcast while it is still downloading it (i.e. listen to what it has downloaded so far). If the microphone is orange, it’s fully downloaded and ready to rock and roll.
With this little podcasting app, I can refresh the RSS feed, go in and download all the new podcasts in one fell swoop, and not have to listen to each one as it’s downloaded. I can then go back in the application and play the podcasts when I’m ready. And when I’m done with the podcasts, I can delete them and they won’t show up in the list again.
One other thing. I can share my podcast feeds via Bluetooth or Multimedia Message. It will send an OPML file via whichever method you choose. I don’t have anyone to try that with, but it sure sounds cool. 
For me, at least, this application makes the whole idea of owning an iPod less desirable and makes it much easier for me to get podcasts to my phone.
Edit: I realized I referred to the phone OS incorrectly. It’s actually Series 60 Third Edition, not Series 60 v3.
tags: Nokia, Nokia e70, podcast client, Nokia N91
