Need Simplest Podcast Player

By TrishC, 5 July, 2017

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

My friend has a 77 year old brother who lost his sight a year ago. (Both he and his sister are Spanish-speaking only.) He has not yet adjusted to his situation and spends much of his time in bed, depressed, in a board and care facility in Peru. He finds satisfaction listening to history, any kind of history, but has few resources where he lives. My friend will visit her brother in July so I’ve used Podcruncher to load 100s of hours of diverse topics of history, in the Spanish language, on an iPod Touch 5G and have been helping her learn the workings of PodCruncher and of VoiceOver so she can teacher her brother when she sees him. (She says he’s very intelligent and, unlike herself, has experience working with PCs.) However, my friend is having real difficulty partly because she finds VoiceOver so counter-intuitive and partly because I can’t override all of the labels on some buttons so she what hears is a mixture of mixture of English and Spanish.

Do any of you know of a simpler podcast player than Podcruncher? One that is in Spanish and that can import OPML files would be ideal, but neither is necessary. Or maybe there’s a better solution than podcasts?

Thank you for your help.
Trish

P.S. Once I store the podcasts on the iPod there is no further need to 1) add podcasts or episodes nor 2) delete any (although a button to present only unplayed episodes would be handy).

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Comments

By eclectica on Friday, July 14, 2017 - 22:16

I suggest that you try the built-in Apple Podcasts app. If you don't find it on the iPod Touch, it can be downloaded for free from the app store. Once you have subscribed to podcasts, you can ask Siri to play podcasts episodes, which could be useful for someone who is new to VoiceOver. Since it is an Apple app, I believe that if you have changed the iPod Touch's language to Spanish, the app will display buttons, etc., in Spanish, as well.

By Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 on Friday, July 14, 2017 - 22:16

I agree. While I don't have experience in Spanish Lang., I do agree that Apple's own podcast player is very simple to use. Since it's made by Apple, it's pretty much guaranteed to be 100% accessible. Once her brother gets used to voiceover, he'll likely feel more empowered. I'd check and see what podcasts you have on Podcruncher are available on Apple's podcast player. Odds are, they are and you may find some other podcasts that he may like in history and in other genres also.

By TrishC on Friday, July 14, 2017 - 22:16

Thank you eclectica & Dawn. I had considered Apple's Podcast before but the episode descriptions are so verbose it seems unmanageable . Podcruncher seems a lot more effifcient especially dealung with VoiceOver. I got excited just experimenting with SIRI; but not 'til today did I realize SIRI requires WiFi. Of course his iPod has no cell and I doubt he'll have access to WiFi. So, I haven't made much progress but I wanted to thank you both for your help nonetheless. I really appreciate it.

Trish