Most popular podcasts of 2014

By Rene Ritchie
published

I produced a lot of podcasts last year. Probably over 200 shows spanning 300 or more hours. We don't post all of them here at iMore anymore, but for much of the year they did, and they all embody the spirit we try to bring to iMore — that all this technology is by and for people, and it's the people that really matter. Out of all of those shows, I could never pick any favorites. Every time I'd try, I'd be reminded of another, and another, and find myself in an endless loop. So, I figured I'd see which ones appealed to you, our listeners, the most. According to the download numbers, and recognizing that's just one metric, here are our most popular podcasts of 2014.

5. Vector 59: Dave and the Canadians

Midway through the year we changed the format of our technology interview show, Vector. We needed a panel format that was less dependent on finding guests, and we wanted to focus more on the human side of the story. So, we enlisted a designer, a developer, and a therapist, and the rest is history... in the making. With over 40K downloads, the one with the title that sounds like a Barenaked Ladies cover band seems to have resonated the most.

We talk about how we chose our new iPhones — except for Guy who just downloaded iOS 8 — and what we think of them, iPhone scalpers and questions of racism, U2's supposed plans to bring back albums and fight piracy, Apple's new security and privacy policies and possible government backlash, and which of us secretly wants a gold Retina MacBook Air...

  • Vector 59: Dave and the Canadians

4. Iterate 74: Designing for iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, with Kawano, Sinclair, and Wiskus

Following up Apple's hottest event of the year made for the hottest Iterate of the year. At 60k downloads it showed that designing for displays and experiences both smaller and larger were suddenly on everyone's mind.

Apple has announced the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch. What does it all mean for designers? Former Apple UI Evangelist and Storehouse designer Mark Kawano, Jared Sinclair, and Vesper's Dave Wiskus talk it out with Marc, Seth, and Rene.

  • Iterate 74: Designing for iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, with Kawano, Sinclair, and Wiskus

3. Review 13: The Terminator

One of the greatest cult classics of the 1980s made for our most popular episode of Review this year — The Terminator. 75K of you enjoyed reliving it with us, which means it will most definately be back.

Don, Matt, Guy, and Rene talk The Terminator. It's a post-apocalyptic trip through the original and T2, with a dash of T3, T4, and Sarah Connor Chronicles thrown in for good measure. So how does James Cameron's genre-defining 80s flick hold up today? We absolutely, positively will not stop until we've talked it to death!

  • Review 13: The Terminator

2. iMore show 396: The WWDC 2014 lottery

Maybe it was pent-up demand for new Apple products, or maybe there was some whacky glitch in the matrix, but with over 100k downloads, our most popular iMore show of the year was the episode on Apple's WWDC 2014 announcement.

Rene and Peter speculate about the just-announced WWDC 2014 — iOS 8, OS X 10.10, potential new MacBook Airs and Mac minis, Apple TVs and a Game Store, iWatch, and more!

  • iMore show 396: The WWDC 2014 lottery!

1. Debug 47: Melton & Ganatra episode I: Demoing software to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs and iPad

Steve Jobs and iPad (Image credit: Apple)

A love letter from former directors of internet technologies and iOS apps, sensationalist media tried to twist it into an anti-Apple story and failed. With over 105K downloads, our most popular Debug — and podcast — of 2014 showed that hard work really does matter. (All told, 5 episodes of Debug hovered around the 100K mark this year, including the Nitin Ganatra trilogy and Swift round table.)

Don Melton, former Director of Internet Technologies at Apple, and Nitin Ganatra, former Director of iOS Apps at Apple, talk about presenting to Steve Jobs, web vs. native, implementing gestures, the importance of affordances, and more.

Your favorite podcast?

Thanks everyone for listening. If you have a favorite podcast from 2014, whether it's one of ours or anything else, please let me know!

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

11 Comments
  • In the "anything else" category: Hardcore History by Dan Carlin. Absolutely riveting in-depth, well-researched retelling of historical events. The most recent handful of episodes are free, moving into a for-pay archive as they get older. Cannot recommend highly enough "Wrath of the Khans" (rise and fall of the Mongol Empire) and "Blueprint for Armageddon" (WW1) highly enough - and both are still in the free area. New episodes only come every few months, but they are worth it - rich, long, and well-produced. iTunes link:
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history/id17300... (Also in overcast's directory but I don't see how to share that link) Sent from the iMore App
  • +1
  • Oh, you meant Most Popular iMore Podcasts. And here I came clicking after reading the title hoping to find some good electronica mixes. =( I don't do talk-talk podcasts. Would rather read the transcript while listening to music in the background. More sites should offer that, imho.
  • They're not all "iMore" podcasts, like I explained in the intro. It's more like "Podcasts Rene records and edits". That makes for an ugly title though. I like transcripts, but they're not the medium the artists intended. It'd be like reading the script to True Justice instead of watching the show. It feels a little less human that way?
  • Point taken.
  • Though it would be hard to call them the best 3 tech/gaming podcasts I find I've enjoyed the most this year are...rated-na, geed-out heroes, and Anorak's Oasis.
  • i really love vector!
  • I've enjoyed Vector, some great discussions on there. I do wish for future episodes that more variety of people are on it ie right now most of the time everyone's a apple user on Vector so you only get apple user view on tech etc it would be nice if there were views from Android, wp etc. Sometimes it does get apple pro and what I mean by that is that everyone just agrees and no real discussion happens and for that to happen there has to be views from different sides. Anyways can't wait to next year. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Thanks, great feedback!
  • Man those Ganatra/Melton episodes are good...
  • Stumbled on a great new scripted podcast called Ride with Coyote. Billed as a "Dark, Spaghetti Western," and that's a good description. Great stuff. I like the scripted stuff with creativity.