2 Ways to Listen to Podcasts with Music App Again in iOS 6

Podcasts are great for entertainment and learning, but let’s face it, the new iOS Podcasts app is not so great for many users. Unless you’re running the app on an iPhone 5, it’s slow and frustrating to use on just about every other device, making it a major step backwards for iOS 6 users from listening to podcasts from the Music app. But there’s some good news, you can listen to your favorite podcasts from the Music app instead through two different methods.

Listen to Podcasts from Music App with Siri

Siri comes to the rescue now that it can launch apps, and this is much easier than the above sync method. You will need to have podcasts already downloaded to use this approach, and you’ll want to try it out yourself with a few different shows before committing to this method completely:

• Summon Siri and say “play podcast (podcast name)”
• The podcast starts playing immediately by way of Music app, where it can be found as “Now Playing”

This works great for many shows, but it has some issues with certain podcasts names. For example, Neil DeGrasse Tysons popular “Star Talk Radio” is often interpreted by Siri as “SH*T TALK” for some reason and won’t launch unless you annunciate the entire shows name. A bit odd, but that’s the way it goes.

Siri is the easier approach, but if your iPhone doesn’t run Siri then the Playlists method below is great too.

Listen to Podcasts from Music App via Playlists

If you don’t mind syncing podcasts over from iTunes the old fashioned way, you can listen to podcasts directly from the Music app again, even in iOS 6. Here’s the complete process to do so:

• Tap and hold on “Podcasts” until it jiggles, then tap (X) to delete it
• Double-tap Home button to bring up the task bar, then find “Music” and tap and hold on it, tapping (X) to quit the app
• Connect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod to iTunes and create a new playlist for podcasts, then sync podcasts the old fashioned way by adding them to that playlist
• Relaunch Music app from iOS, find your podcasts playlist, and enjoy

The obvious problem with this approach is the lack of streaming, and the need to preplan your listening habits, not to mention the unspeakable act of stepping back into the technological stone age and actually connecting a cable between your iOS device and computer. Nonetheless, it can be a much better alternative than fumbling around in the clunky and slow Podcasts app, especially for anyone using an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or iPod touch 4th gen.

Great trick from MacWorld