14 February 2016

Stitcher Down


Sometimes it takes not having one thing to shed light on another.

I remember back when Apple first debrided their podcasts from the main iTunes app and made the separate Podcasts app.

I was a little miffed. This was back when I'd had my iPhone 3GS with limited screen space, and so one extra app would mean I would more than likely have to get rid of another app so everything would be even (I'm also very OCD in some things).

I did like its design, though, because it had this recorder reel theme under the hood that struck me as quirky and likable. The social media aspects of it, though, weren't what I was expecting. This is because I was already using Stitcher.

I'd decided to start using Stitcher on April 10, 2010 shortly after I'd moved to Georgia. This app did streaming podcasts, which meant that with my limited storage capacity (and unlimited data plan), I didn't have to worry about much and still could enjoy podcasts and my voracious appetite (especially) for news.

Sticher added more features as they went on, and so I'd put the Podcasts app to the side because it didn't do streaming of podcasts especially well under enhanced 3G conditions. I'd known Apple kept adding little things to the Podcasts app as they'd updated iOS, but I'd still not paid it an incredible amount of attention.

Then the last few days came.

Stitcher has been down for an unknown maintenance they've been doing, and to satiate my podcast thirst I've been playing around with the latest iteration of the Podcasts app on my iPhone 6 Plus (which by now ships with the Podcasts app inbuilt to iOS), and it's been pretty all right, actually. Aside from the insanely long links that occur when you want to share a podcast to social media, it's been pretty nice.

As I play around with it more, I wonder about Stitcher. I mean, I've had almost 6 years with it now, and the history function is certainly one thing I like,

Now I wait to see what Stitcher is doing with themselves.