I’ve been using iTunes for downloading podcasts since iTunes 4.9 came out in 2005. It was a great moment that took podcasting from the obscure straight into the mainstream in one swoop. In the last five years there has been nothing that could take it’s place - even as we all moved from basic iPods to app driven iPhone.
With the recent release of iOS 4 Apple enabled background audio playback which resulted in a race to see who could put out the best podcatcher first. Luckily Alex Sokirynsky had an almost fully featured client on the app store already that just needed iOS 4 support and a little polish.
Despite a few buggy releases Podcaster has matured into the best way to consume podcasts. I’m no longer tied to iTunes syncing and I can download fresh content wherever I am. I used to sync to my Mac multiple times per day and now I rarely need to. You can easily bring your OPML subscription file over from iTunes and it’s only 59p/99c. Highly recommended!