I'm thinking of upgrading from fenix 5x. Being able to play podcasts is one of the draws for me. I'm wondering, does the 5 plus series allow you to resume playback of podcasts where you left off? Can you skip podcasts and otherwise navigate on the watch? Have others found podcast playing to be satisfactory?
I have my 5 plus now and have transferred the podcasts as podcasts and played them during a run. All went well, except that the episodes play one at a time and I have to stop my run and manually start the next one. I'm wondering if there is a setting or some other way to get them to play continuously in series. I will try making a podcast playlist to see if that's a solution.
I think it would be fantastic if some developer wrote a CIQ app specifically for podcast management and playback! It would be great if we could configure the podcasts we want over a web interface and then have the Fenix 5+ automatically sync over wifi and fetch the new episodes and delete the played ones. I would easily pay $5-$10 for that CIQ app and would be reason enough to by the Fenix 5+
The way it stands though, the manual sync of podcasts, deletion etc over a USB connection is so 2000s, I cannot even begin thinking of going back to that process.
I think it would be fantastic if some developer wrote a CIQ app specifically for podcast management and playback! It would be great if we could configure the podcasts we want over a web interface and then have the Fenix 5+ automatically sync over wifi and fetch the new episodes and delete the played ones. I would easily pay $5-$10 for that CIQ app and would be reason enough to by the Fenix 5+
The way it stands though, the manual sync of podcasts, deletion etc over a USB connection is so 2000s, I cannot even begin thinking of going back to that process.
Agree that would be great. Apple Watch will do that with Watch OS 5, so that might be incentive for Garmin to facilitate the development of such functionality.
The way Garmin have structured music in their new watches and in Connect IQ 3 allows for developers to create music apps which could do exactly what you're looking for. If you go to the Connect IQ App Ideas forum you can put the request in there and see if any developers are up to the task.
So to be clear, one would have to download podcasts to computer hard drive, then drag/drop them to the Garmin interface, then transfer to the Fenix? Afterwards, you would have to go through and clean up old podcasts after they are played? Wouldn't it just be easier to sync music, podcasts through a mobile app. more quickly and easily? Seems like a clunky and an unlikely process any time, especially while on the go/travelling. For now, I find it much easier to just carry along my phone (get a Naked Running Band) and not worry about all of that hassle.
So to be clear, one would have to download podcasts to computer hard drive, then drag/drop them to the Garmin interface, then transfer to the Fenix? Afterwards, you would have to go through and clean up old podcasts after they are played? Wouldn't it just be easier to sync music, podcasts through a mobile app. more quickly and easily? Seems like a clunky and an unlikely process any time, especially while on the go/travelling. For now, I find it much easier to just carry along my phone (get a Naked Running Band) and not worry about all of that hassle.
Now that I've been playing with this for awhile, I have found it to be pretty easy. I use iTunes to manage my podcasts. Using the Apple ecosystem, there is no drag and drop. The iTunes podcasts show up in Garmin Express and it's easy to then transfer them to the watch. It's worth it for me to be able to not have to carry the phone, but of course that's a matter of preference.
Now that I've been playing with this for awhile, I have found it to be pretty easy. I use iTunes to manage my podcasts. Using the Apple ecosystem, there is no drag and drop. The iTunes podcasts show up in Garmin Express and it's easy to then transfer them to the watch. It's worth it for me to be able to not have to carry the phone, but of course that's a matter of preference.
I agree, it is fairly easy to load podcasts onto my 5S Plus using iTunes on my Mac and Garmin Express. I set up a smart podcast playlist that automatically updates with the newest versions of the podcasts I listen to.
Once on the watch, podcasts from the same source can be moved to the next one by pressing the "Next" button. You can also jump ahead or back 30 seconds. In order to go to a podcast from another source or start to play music, however, you do have to go thru the menu.
I agree, it is fairly easy to load podcasts onto my 5S Plus using iTunes on my Mac and Garmin Express. I set up a smart podcast playlist that automatically updates with the newest versions of the podcasts I listen to.
Once on the watch, podcasts from the same source can be moved to the next one by pressing the "Next" button. You can also jump ahead or back 30 seconds. In order to go to a podcast from another source or start to play music, however, you do have to go thru the menu.
I have also created a similar "smart playlist." I have found that if I load the playlist on the watch (rather than loading the podcasts), the podcasts in the smart playlist play in series on the watch without my having to do anything. So far, this has been working great.
