Whatever changes Apple has been making to the iTunes Store back end lately seems to have caused iTunes app on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad to stream some podcasts as music samples, rather than handing them off to the built-in media player like they’re supposed to.

We’ve tested and everything seems fine and working properly for all of our TiPb podcasts like iPhone Live or iPad Live, or ZENandTECH, Superfunctional, or Iterate, or any of the Mobile Nations podcasts for that matter.

However, shows on other networks like 5by5 and TWiT do seem to be experiencing the problem, and it’s annoying to say the least. So what can be done?

First, huge props to Rene — whatever he’s doing to edit and upload our podcasts seems to be immune to this annoying iTunes bug. Second, iTunes on iPhone and iPad is an app wrapper around online content, so Apple can change things any time, without having to give you a new version of iOS to update to, or giving you a choice to update (yeah, pretty much my nightmare scenario). Fortunately, this also means they can fix bugs any time as well. So here’s where we stand:

Bug symptoms

• You click on a podcast in the iTunes app on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad
• Instead of the media player coming up and your podcast playing, the little square music sample player pops up
• This means you don’t get full play/pause and other controls, you don’t get the timeline, and you can’t resume where you left off later

Bug fixes

• Download your podcasts instead of streaming them (you’ll need to be on Wi-Fi if they’re over 20 MB)
• Sync your podcasts over from iTunes desktop
• Get a podcatcher app from the App Store and use that to stream
• Wait for Apple to update

Seth and Rene have mentioned Instacast App Store link and Pocket Casts App Store link on past shows, but if you have a favorite podcatcher app you could recommend, please do so in the comments. Also, if you’ve found any other workaround, please let us know!

[Thanks Len!]

around with it — like they have been recently for downloads and category pages — y

I mentioned this during the iPhone live! #100 podcast, but iPhone OS 4 has taken a huge leap forward when it comes to streaming audio via the iTunes app. Since iPhone OS 2.2 you’ve been able to tap the title of a podcast to begin streaming (rather than downloading) the audio, even in the background while using other apps, but it was sometimes hit or miss. It would drop out, it would time out, you couldn’t really scrub through it, and if you left it for a while it would lose its place and start over.

In iPhone OS 4 it’s rock solid. You can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later — even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio — and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat.

It’s so good you may find you no longer download or sync podcasts but just stream what you want to listen to. (If they let you “subscribe” and receive notifications of when a new podcast appeared in the feed, it would be perfect).

Maybe this is architecturally laying the underpinnings for a grander Apple streaming service, or maybe they just wanted this app to work great for this functionality. Either way, iTunes streaming audio in iPhone OS 4 is a significant improvement.

Previously twice rumored and now recently made real during the WWDC 2009, iPhone 3.0 GM (gold master) sees the on-device iTunes app, which previously added the ability to download video podcasts in iPhone 2.2, round out its content with movies, TV shows, music videos, iTunes U, and audio books.

To make room, the tabs at the bottom lose Top Tens and Downloads and now include Videos (movies, TV, music video) and a standard More icon, which gives access to a screen offering Audio Books and iTunes U, as well as the displaced Downloads and relocated Redeem (for gift certificate codes).

Like with the iPod App, an Edit button lets you drag around tab icons to lay things out just the way you want them. Also, like with video podcasts, music, and App Store apps, 3G isn’t an option for anything over 10MB — which for video we imagine will be almost everything — so have your Wi-Fi standing by.

More pics after the break…

[Thanks to Muero for the screenshots!]