How BrowseCast works and interacts with Google Listen
What is BBC BrowseCast?
BBC BrowseCast is an Android application that provides a easy to use view of the BBC Radio Podcasts. Viewing podcasts can be achieved by browsing by “Station” or by “Genre”.
How do you use BBC BrowseCast?
When you first launch BBC BrowseCast you are presented with a Dashboard of the options available.
Selecting Browse Podcasts by Station will present you with a list of Stations, selecting a station will present you with podcasts available for that Station.
Selecting Browse Podcasts by Genre will present you with a list of Genres to select, selecting a Genre will present you with all the podcasts for that Genre.
When a Station or Genre is selected you are then provided with all the relevant podcasts for that Station or Genre.
Podcasts by Station
Podcasts by Genre
Selecting a podcast will then provide you with information about the podcast.
You then have the ability to send the podcast location information to Google’s Listen application (if installed). If Listen isn’t installed you are given a button to press in order to search the Marketplace and then manually download and install the application.
How does BBC BrowseCast interact with Google Listen?
If you “Send to Google Listen” the podcast location information is sent to the locally installed Google Listen application for potential subscription (more on this later). You will be presented with an “Add a subscription” dialog from Google Listen. Clicking “Add” will then load Google Listen.
NOTE: Adding a subscription for a podcast you are already subscribed to will result in a force close of Google Listen. This isn’t BBC BrowseCast crashing! It is is a bug in Google Listen.
The reason I said potential earlier is because once Google Listen retrieves the podcast information from the BBC you can view further information about the podcast and choose to “Subscribe” to the podcast or not.
NOTE: Once BBC Browsecast passes the podcast location information to the Google Listen application, BBC BrowseCast no longer has any further input.
Coming soon… read my article on How Google Listen interacts with Google Reader
- No comments yet.