If Apple's built-in iPod/Music app just isn't enough for your podcast listening needs, you're in luck -- TiPb has put together our top 5 favorite podcast apps from the App Store. From finding to streaming to downloading to managing, these are the best podcatcher apps we've found to date. Read on to see our recommendations!

Instacast

Instacast is a great app for managing and listening to podcasts. Instacast allows you to manage all your podcast subscriptions including subscribing to new ones all on the device. There is no need to use iTunes or sync your iPhone in any way.

Instacast has its own optimized podcast player app which includes features like 2x playback mode, bi-directional skipping and AirPlay. Instacast has even been written to make full use of the iPhone 4’s Retina display

The app has a beautiful and simple interface and even includes pull down to refresh; which will check for new podcasts and download them automatically.

[$1.99 App Store Link]

Podfisher

Podfisher is an app that I consider to be a half way house between the native podcast app and a third party app. The reason I say this is because Podfisher uses the iTunes database to retrieve the podcast episodes. This brings one positive and one negative.

The positive is that it syncs the podcasts you download over the air back to iTunes when you sync. This means if you use more than one iOS device you can keep all you podcasts in sync. The negative is how you actually download them. You have to click on one podcast at a time which takes you to the iTunes page for the podcast where you can manually download the latest episode. It is a bit of a pain to do that each time compared with the other podcast apps.

Podfisher uses the standard iPod music player so there are no new controls or interfaces to learn. It also gives you the ability to stream podcasts as well as locally cache them.

[$0.99 App Store Link]

Podcaster

Podcaster was one of the first third party podcast apps available and remains one of the favorites. It has a very polished user interface although does seem prone to the odd crash every now and then. It has all the features you could wish for in a podcast listening app; such as subscribing to new podcasts without the need for iTunes. Batch over the air updating including over 3G without any download limits, resume of downloads on interruption, Retina display graphics and audible alerts when new content is available and ready to listen to.

Podcaster has its own podcast player which features variable-speed playback, chapters, gestures, commercial skip buttons, and AirPlay.

[$1.99 App Store Link]

iCatcher

iCatcher is the first podcast app that is a universal binary; so works on both iPhone and iPad at native resolutions, a nice feature. It also covers most of the other bases too including background downloading over WiFi or 3G, schedule times to check updates, background playback of audio and playlists to name a few.

Again it has its own podcast player with all the usual features like AirPlay, track skipping, variable speed of playback and rewind. It also offers a gesture based control system with various swipe actions to toggle well used commands. Podcasts can be added via RSS feeds, a searchable database or via an OPML file.

[$1.99 App Store Link]

RSSRadio Mobile

RSSRadio mobile is another universal binary offering podcast playback on your iPhone or iPad. It is probably not the most feature rich offering but does cover most of the important ones.

Again it has the ability to download episodes of any size over WiFi and 3G, background audio playback, 2x speed playback, background downloading and password protected podcast support.

It definitely lacks a lot of the other apps bells and whistles and is the same price!

[$1.99 App Store Link]

Your favorite podcatcher?

While these may be some of our favorite apps to load up on our iOS devices to listen to podcasts, it doesn't mean there aren't other great ones out there. If you use something different let us know what your picks are as well.

And if you want even more suggestions on podcast and audio apps, check out our TiPb apps & games forum for more opinions from forum members. You can also give us your opinions on your favorite podcast apps in our TiPb apps & games review forum. We'd love to hear from you!

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• My Daily Journal (give-away): Now a universal application for iPhone and iPad, improved animations, 3 new paper designs, design enhancements, and the ability to export to Facebook. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Penultimate: Now you can create your own photorealistic paper from any image you have and a new option to include the paper design when sending or printing a notebook. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

• Instagram: Now with a radial tilt-shift mode. [Free - iTunes link]

• picfx: Take a regular photo and apply 36 effects and frames + 13 styles to create a fantastic, unique looking picture. Now with the ability to share to Flickr, new "classic" and space effects and more! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Podcaster: Now with AirPlay support and more! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

The good folks at JI Software Company have given us some promo codes for My Daily Journal to give away to our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Dungeon Hunter 2 HD - @skeetobite

The new iPad 2 is out, and I am sure that for the next week, you will be hearing all about it's new features, the new apps designed for it, and how wonderful it is. But in our excitement, let's not forget that the old iPad is still a pretty darn good machine, with plenty of cutting edge apps and features itself (of course, that won't prevent me from trying to get an iPad 2!). In that vein, I have selected Dungeon Hunter 2 HD as my pick of the week. A relatively new sequel to the popular and successful Dungeon Hunter app, this app takes what was good about Dungeon Hunter and adds even more deliciousness. As an action/adventure RPG game, it has many features that you would expect to see in major console games - multiple classes, cooperative multiplayer mode, unique skills and advancement options, and lots and lots of equipment and items to find. The graphics are nice, the controls are easy and straightforward, and the game itself is rather engrossing. There are also difficulty levels and "pro" clases to allow even more variability and enhanced replay. The multiplayer cooperative mode is what interests me the most - my wife like to play games like this where we "help" each other.

So while all the hoopla about the iPad 2 is nice, and the iPad 2 apps are nice (I wouldn't be surprised to see the device and the apps show up on this week or next weeks "pick of the week") let's not forget the original iPad, nor forget that it can still bring it when asked.

[$6.99 - iTunes link]

Planet Rock - @chrisoldroyd

It is a very simple app but one I use every day. Planet Rock is a UK based rock radio station, usually only available on digital radio or satellite TV. With this app you can listen on the go using either WiFi or the data connection on your iPhone.

The app streams high quality audio and also tells you what song is currently playing along with artist information. Other features are social network integration, schedule of upcoming shows, rock news, weather and a rock tribute calendar.

Planet Rock plays some amazing music from a wide array of rock artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Bon Jovi and lots of classic rock too. Well worth the free download if you like a bit of rock!

[Free – iTunes Link]

Wunderlist - @imuggle

Every once in a while I stumble across an amazing app by accident in the App Store. This was the case with Wunderlist. To put it short, I'm a list freak. Between TiPb, running a business, keeping clients info straight, and the 80 billion other things my brain apparently can handle, they're a necessity for my life to run smoothly.

I typically use Evernote for free form notes and ToDo by Appigo for time sensitive tasks. ToDo is powerful but I've never been a fan of the layout and complexity. I found Wunderlist while randomly browsing productivity apps. I'm extremely glad I did. Not only is it free, it offers free syncing! This is a privilege I've been paying Appigo a recurring $20/year to have. I may not be renewing it this summer.

The only thing I would like to see Wunderlist add is recurring tasks. Other than that, the UI is gorgeous and you can even choose from several beautiful backgrounds. It's easy to use and even easier to share your lists with others. You can share via e-mail or share a list and the user will be invited to join Wunderlist. This is extremely convenient for me as when I add a task to my business list, anyone I've shared that list with will see an updated list as well.

Did I mention the best part? It's free! Even the iPad HD version is available for free as well. Check it out and let us know what you think! Wunderlist has earned a permanent spot on my home screen.

[Free - iTunes Link]

WeatherAlert - @Alli_Flowers

Do you live in an area prone to changing weather? Snow storms? Flash floods? Hurricanes? Tornadoes? How about plain old winter, heat, or fog? If you're lucky enough to live somewhere unaffected by any of these things, move on to the next pick. But if you live anywhere else, you might want to take a close look at this app.

My WeatherAlert has been beeping alarms at me for two days now, as we have experienced horrible thunderstorms, flash flooding, and tornadoes. The nice thing is, you can adjust the alarms. WeatherAlert's push notifications offer the usual selections: badge, sound, alerts. You can also choose the weather type for which you receive notifications. And as you can tell from my first paragraph, there are a lot of conditions from which to choose!

WeatherAlert has consistently notified me before local news, and often before the weather actually becomes threatening. Don't get caught out in the storm. Let WeatherAlert warn you.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

GarageBand - @reneritchie

Make no mistake, GarageBand for iPad was created with three different but complementary goals in mind -- to delight and astonish users with an incredibly immersive content creation experience, to raise the bar for developers and challenge them to make mobile software of the same caliber, and to programmatically walk up to the competition, pull out a Bugs Bunny glove, fill it with a brick, and smack them back to the drawing board.

Both GarageBand and it's companion iLife app, iMovie, represent the next generation of tablet software, once again redefining perceptions on what can and can't be done with multitouch and 9.7-inches of glass and aluminum.

But that's big picture stuff and honestly, when you're laying down up to 8-tracks, tapping away on virtual drums, strumming virtual strings, tickling virtual ivory, and laying down some smoking hot vocals to top it off, you won't give a flying frak about the big picture stuff.

You'll be too busy rocking out to GarageBand for iPad.

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Podcaster - @JBaby_9783

I adore Podcaster and the recent update has made this app even better. There isn't anything wrong with how iTunes handles podcasts, but I needed a way to get my podcasts while on vacation without a computer. Podcaster was my solution. I love it so much that it's become my preferred podcast aggregator. I really like how I can download, or stream, my podcasts on the fly. With the newest update watching video podcasts is even better. In addition to scrubbing through videos, I love being able to skip backward/forward 30 seconds with a single tap. If 30 seconds is too much you can tap and hold the rewind/fast forward buttons to finely tune your scrubbing. Lastly, the ability to play my video podcasts at twice the normal speed is saving me a bunch of time!

If you listen to podcasts at all this is a must have app! Podcaster is on sale so now is the perfect time to try it!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

iMovie for iPad 2 - @llofte

With the release of the iPad 2, iMovie for iPhone has be updated to be a universal app for the iPad 2 - and it's awesome. Editing video on the iPad feels so natural, and Apple has done a wonderful job with its design. I'm already familiar with editing on iMovie with a Mac, so the transition to the iPad 2 was familiar and intuitive. Most of my video editing will be done on the iPad 2 with iMovie from this day forward. Check out my hands-on video of iMovie on the iPad 2 to see what I'm talking about!

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Real Racing 2 HD - @ichadman

I have been waiting for this game on iPad and now I could not be happier! 16 cars on track plus multiplayer. A long career mode and a decent selection of cars and awesome controls make this a must-have app for any racing fan. Not only that, but if you happen to won an iPad 2, the graphics look absolutely amazing. Buy this app now!

[$9.99 - iTunes link]

Music Quiz! - @JorjLim

iPods came with a great game called Music Quiz, which played a portion of a song from your music library, and gave you 4 options to choose from. Unfortunately when the iPhone was first released, it didn’t include this iconic title.

Music Quiz! is a port of the iPod game, to iOS. You can choose to use all of your music from your iPod library, or just selected songs or playlists.

The app can play, either random points during the song or the beginning of the song. It will play for 8-12 seconds, and the longer it takes you guess your song, the less points you get.

Its a great simple little game, and lets you relive those classic iPod days.

[Free - iTunes link]

News360 - @tracym1471, reader's choice!

News360 is a free universal app that searches over 1000 news sources and presents them in a super easy way. You can read what's important or drill down to the actual source all in the app. It has a lot of great features like a GPS option to show you local events, the ability to save articles, a wiki-like built in highlighter, and excellent social network integration. The app looks totally different from landscape to portrait - going from a flowing news picture view in landscape to a scrollable list in portrait. This app rates a look, as it is a viable replacement to many single source news apps out there!

[Free - iTunes link]

Your pick?

You’re part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for my tweet each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

Don't remember the iPhone App Store PodCaster-gate sega? We envy you. Long story short, Apple rejected PodCaster for duplicating iTunes functionality (downloading podcasts), then added that functionality to iTunes with iPhone OS 2.2. A short time back, a newly stripped down (and less user-friendly -- thanks Apple!) version of PodCaster finally made it into the App Store as RSS Player.

And for today, it's FREE [iTunes link]!

(Thanks to forum superstar Jamesus for pointing this out!)

Podcaster was rejected from the App Store for duplicating the (at that point upcoming) functionality of the built in iPod app. Seems like Podstreamer (Streamcaster in the Canadian store?!), however, made it in. While the two apps might not be identical, the situation does nothing to alleviate the appearance of capricious, near-random behavior from Apple's approval department. (Thanks benstinson for the tip!)

Next up, Daring Fireball reports that a CoverFlow-esque contacts app was rejected by Apple for using the private CoverFlow API.

The problem? According to developer Landon Fuller, they didn’t use any private APIs — they created their own Cover Flow implementation using the public APIs.

Gruber rightly notes the apparent hypocrisy in Google publicly flaunting their use of private API's in the Google Mobile App, while Peeps is rejected for the mere (apparently wrongful) suspicion they're using one.

Lastly, Ars Technica says Apple has added a new category to the App Store... one that allows for Pull My Finger to make its inglorious return:

"The very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn't want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this 'genre' of apps were going to be handled," he added. "She told me they'd be lifting the restriction on them, and more apps will follow that may have been previously not allowed."

What else will this new "Entertainment" category cover? What else will it allow? Your most creative guesses welcome in the comments!

Daring Fireball's John Gruber, in an attempt to get to the bottom of the PodcasterGate's latest controversy, namely Apple reportedly slapping "NDA" (Non-Disclosure Agreement) on the rejection notices and discussion there off, confidentially polled developers and came to the following conclusion:

My conclusion is that as [redacted] up as this entire situation is, both with the App Store rejections for “duplication of functionality” and NDA frustrations, it does not seem as though Apple has changed its policy regarding whether rejection notices are confidential.

Indeed, some Mac (but not iPhone) developers reported all their communications from Apple, going way back, bore non-disclosure language. This latest wrinkle does indeed appear to be inconsistent legal notices from different Apple developer reps, rather than any substantive change in response to PodcasterGate.

Still, resentment levels among iPhone developers are still soaring, and due to the NDA, the public displeasure ain't nothing compared to what's building internally.

Start alienating your developer base and there's two ways to handle it: the right way, and the current Apple way. Delicious Monster's Wil Shipley offers up what should be required reading for both Apple PR and App Store staff, on how to go about the right way: let the market decide. Apple, much to their discredit on this one, has chosen pretty much the exact opposite. Macrumors reports:

Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with Non-Disclosure (NDA) warnings: THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE

That's right. Apple's answer to upset developers? Shut them up. It's the business equivalent of not only Apple putting their heads in the sand, but yanking the developers heads down with them. iSigh.

And if developers choose to use (or abuse) the Ad Hoc distribution method to provision 100 specific licenses at a time as a way of circumventing the App Store? Well, Podcaster got away with it for a while (read: 13,000 whiles!) but TUAW now says Apple has turned off the spigot on that one as well. Podcaster: no more licenses for you!

NetNewsWire's Brent Simmons says this behavior is beneath the Apple he knows and loves. John Gruber, by way of linking to Simmons' article, says the situation is beginning to give him "the Fear". We know how, and what, both of them feel.

Hey, Eddy Cue: Didn't Apple put you in charge of the App Store? You did great on iTunes and are fixing the MobileMe. Can't you put foot to trouser seat on this fiasco before it drives all the best developers (and customers!) to You Know Where?

Seems it wasn't a hair that broke the blogerati's back, it was an App. Or more precisely, it was Apple's denial of the Podcaster App that let loose the floodgates of negative internet reaction. Or even more precisely, it is the continued lack of certainty among developers as to what can and will be denied by Apple, leading many to reconsider the return on investment of hours upon hours of coding with 11th hour rejection hanging perpetually over their heads, like a virtual Sword of Damocles.

According to Read Write Web, Podcaster will be turning to Ad Hoc to distribute their App for nowwhile everyone from Daring Fireball to Roughly Drafted cover (and in some cases, recover from) the various comments and implications flinging back and forth across the blogsphere, the New York Times has decided to escalate the attention level:

I can’t see how distributing the program will hurt Apple. If anything it will make the iPhone a tad more valuable. On the other hand, treating developers capriciously is most certainly going to discourage them from spending nights and weekends working on new and useful applications that may give more people reasons to buy an iPhone.

Sure, the App Store is growing twice as fast as iTunes Music (though starting from zero is an easy way to generate an opening curve), and may well hit a billion units moved by 2009, but with Android's open marketplace on the horizon, and Microsoft me-too'ing their way in with Skymarket, there could be alternatives. If Apple doesn't take a page from their MobileMe fiasco playbook and rapidly standardize and clarify the rules of the game, they could lose their early lead. And that could cost them the Mobile Internet Platform dominance they so currently crave.

Don't get us wrong. It's Apple's platform and they, like a Nintendo with the Wii, have the absolute right to approve or deny anything developed for their platform. But developers have the same right to stop developing for a platform they don't think serves their best interests. And consumers have the same right to stop buying it for the same reason. As with the Blacklist push-back, that will be the ultimate officiator of this debate.

And a terse one-line email from Steve may not fix things if Apple waits too long...

Podcaster.fm, a pod-catching App designed to help you stream podcasts via WiFi or cell data, should you find yourself away from iTunes and unable to sync, has been denied entry into Apple's App Store -- the exclusive venue for legitimate iPhone distribution:

Today I finally got a reply from Apple about the status of Podcaster.

Apple Rep says: Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.

The developer finds this odd in light of the multiple calculator, weather, and other duplicative apps already in the App Store, as well as the dedicated pod-catchers from Digg and Mobility Today.

Apple does deny iPod App access via the SDK (likely for industry demanded DRM reasons), but this is new -- and uncomfortable -- ground Apple's treading, if the denial is indeed upheld. Daring Fireball links to Steven Frank's nightmare scenario to try to put things into a grander perspective:

Apple makes code-signing mandatory for desktop Mac applications. You can now only buy them through iTunes. Think it can't happen?

It could, but as with the great app blacklist debate, I think the repercussions from the community would be near-nuclear, and I think Apple knows that.

(Via Ars)