Download: BeyondPod for Android

BeyondPod lets you download both audio and video podcasts directly to your smartphone or tablet. It fills the gap of iTunes that does this so well for iOS devices and, even better, means that you are not dependant on connecting to a computer in order to get new episodes.

Read more: Android app reviews

There are two versions of BeyondPod. When first downloaded from the Google Play store it works as the full Pro version but will revert back to the Lite version after seven days.

The Lite version cannot schedule updates, can only update one feed at a time and only download one podcast at a time. How frustrating this is depends on how many podcasts you listen to. An unlock key for the Pro version costs £4.40 so it's not excessively expensive.

The interface packs quite a lot of information and so we found some of the icons a little confusing as there was no guide to what they mean. There is video guide that helps a little as you can see below but the interface seems to have changed a little since then.

Of more use is the BeyondPod screens page that we found looking at information about updates.

We strongly recommend browsing through the Settings of BeyondPod. Not only does this help give an idea what it can do but it might save you quite a bit of money.

Annoyingly the option to use Mobile data to download podcasts was enabled by default. Given that the selection of feeds supplied as examples includes a video feed from TED Talks this could cost you quite a bit of money.

To force BeyondPod to only use Wifi, start it and press the menu icon (three dots arranged vertically) at the bottom right. Tap on More and then Settings. Tap on Feed Update Settings. Tap the Use Mobile Data option to deselect it and then tap on the Download on Wifi Only option to enable it.

Once you start digging around in these settings there are some very useful options. One tells BeyondPod to toggle Wifi on automatically when looking for updated feeds and you can disable the notification icon if you don't find these helpful.

Podcasts are stored on the SD card by default, which is helpful as some phones don't have much built in storage.

After a slighly shakey start we warmed to BeyondPod and while it takes some getting used to, it is because of the flexibility it offers. Definately worth downloading if you have missed the ease of iTunes when listening to podcasts on iOS devices.