The next podcatcher in the series is called ziePod. This is an interesting one. It is in the “podcatcher with a media player attached” variety. And it also has four different interfaces.

Yes, four. There is:

• Deskbar mode, which is just the media player in a bar, like winshade mode in Winamp.
• Player mode, which is the media player part and the playlist in a small window.
• Column mode, which has the media player at the bottom of the window, and podcast information at the top.
• Full mode, basically like your standard RSS reader. The column mode view on the left, then on the right the podcast information (this is the screenshot).

The column mode and full mode both have a, what I think they call, “bin view.” This is where there are four tabs along the top, Home, Folders, Search and Tasks, which contains bins of information. For example, Home has a bin “Today” telling you what podcasts have updated. This is quite handy. It also has two big “Synchronize” and “Add” buttons at the top, very nice. By default though it streams the podcast episodes. This can be annoying. You can tell it to download the podcasts to your hard drive via the options though. To download a separate episode you right-click it and then choose “Download.”

Of course though it has its media player attached. At the moment I’m not liking these. I want to use my player, not the one that is included.

ziePod can also be used as a standard RSS reader. It’ll show a little icon to show you the difference. But whether you’ll use it as a standard reader or not is up to you.

The interface is a non-standard one. In my opinion, it isn’t terribly pretty. I’ve also noticed that when I exit it, I think it is actually crashing. I’m not sure, but the notification icon stays in the tray until I mouse over it, usually indicating the program behind it crashed.

It does include a searchable directory. That’s what “Search” is for. You can type what you want and it’ll search it. However, it appears to search podcast episodes so that isn’t very good and there is no simple one-click way to add the podcast itself to your list. It uses a site called Feedzie to do it all.

Pros: At a glance information; easy to add podcasts (that you have the URL to); play the podcast without downloading it first.
Cons: Why four interfaces?; Non-standard UI; built-in player; downloading not by default; podcast directory only searches episodes.
Verdict: Well, it does appear like an OK podcatcher. Sometimes the interface could be clunky though, and I think you need to warm up to it.
ziePod Download