#appradio needs

AppRadio Needs is a feature column where we review an iOS app that would be fantastic if brought over to the AppRadio platform.

AppRadio needs a podcasts app.  Plain and simple, it's the one thing AppRadio is sorely missing right now.  While we have a great selection of Internet Radio and subscription music apps, we're stuck using the stock iPod app if we want to listen to podcasts - or going back to unsafely browsing the iPhone for them.

Pocket Casts is, our opinion, the best designed and best suited app for bringing to Pioneer AppRadio.  The Podcasts directory features a cover art style navigation, with an easy to understand visual indicators of which podcasts have new episodes waiting.  This would look fantastic in landscape mode on the AppRadio screen, and be very easy to navigate - especially with horizontal scrolling instead of vertical.

The listening screen looks fantastic.  It is simple and easy to use, and using the same design concepts, it would look stunning on the AppRadio.  

Navigating through the episodes of a podcast is well designed and informative.  We can see what we've listened to, and what is unplayed, and a short written description of the podcast.  With a large font on the AppRadio screen, this would look fantastic.  I would recommend only viewing one podcast episode at a time on the AppRadio screen, with horizontal scrolling to page between episodes.  Even better, would be a menu of icons for each episode at the bottom of the screen, with an indicator of which are unplayed so that we can press those as buttons to quickly skip to a podcast we haven't heard yet, or are in progress on.

We're working on some mockups of what this would look like on the AppRadio screen, so look for that tomorrow.  @pocketcasts, are you listening?  This is a great opportunity!