The literal first sentence of the post:

> The Apple Watch desperately needs standalone podcast playback, especially with the LTE-equipped Series 3, which was designed specifically for exercising without an iPhone.

So yes, pulling out the phone that you don't have with you is a deal breaker.

Do people really want to exercise without their phone? It seems like a non-starter for the folks that go to a gym. I run with a watch and Bragi Dash. The onboard storage of the Dash works fine for me, but most people end up using the bluetooth because they want their phone available for browsing the internet all the time anyway.

Being able to go for a run without taking my giant phone with me would be the only reason that I would buy a watch in the first place.

It looks like Apple Watch isn’t there yet. Maybe an Android watch is?

Nope. See my downvoted comment below, begging for somebody to make a podcast player for Android Wear.

Google Play Music is (AFAIK) the only media player that works on AW. However, you're unable to sync podcasts to a watch, only music (even though podcasts via GPM work on the phone). So over the last 1.5 years with 2 AW watches (Moto360 sport, Polar M600) across 2 major Wear releases, I've had to listen to music on my runs, rather than the podcasts I'd have preferred. And I take my phone on walks / hikes to listen to podcasts, when I'd prefer to leave it home.

If the apple watch supported podcasts, I'd probably switch.

Why do you think it isn't there? Actually I bought Apple watch series 2 for exactly this reason, running without a phone. It has everything you need (GPS+heart rate monitor+music), and you can even have podcasts with third-party apps.

Wasn't the whole article about how standalone podcast apps on the watch aren't possible? What 3rd party apps allow playing podcasts on the Watch without iPhone?

There may be some half assed solutions, the article was why a good standalone podcast app isn't currently possible.

did you know about Watchcast[1]? It's been offering offline Watch podcast playback long before Marco failed at the feature and requested new APIs...

[1] https://brianmcburney.github.io/

Watchcast has the same issues Marco brought up. Developers should not condone Apple's overly-aggressive platform limitations by sacrificing good UX just to release a feature.

It's mostly there. Podcasts might have a UX issue, but works great for music on the go

Absolutely! I go on every run without my phone. I've managed to cheat the Apple Watch into letting me sneak podcasts on to it through iTunes, but it's a hack and it doesn't sync back to my podcasts on my phone/computer.

Still, at least I'm able to go on runs with my music podcasts.

Edit: Changed iWatch to Apple Watch.

Yes, I'd really like to be able to run with just a small device while still getting the basic updates. I'm a jogger and my partner prefers cycling, meaning if we go out to exercise together, she's a few kilometers away from wherever I am at any given time, so coordinating finishing up her hour of cycling and my hour of running can be a chore.

I really don't like carrying around a large 5.5" screen phone while running; the armband pouches are about as convenient as you can get and I appreciate them for what they are, but just having a small watch device would be far better for me (and for many I assume). Easier to waterproof so I don't have to worry about it when it rains, less to break should an accident happen (I trip, collision with cyclist, etc), lighter overall. That plus having a means of shooting off a quick message via Siri or whatever voice service to just keep track of people would be wonderful.

Do I need it? No, but boy do I want it.

> Do people really want to exercise without their phone?

Yes. If I'm exercising, I want to carry the absolute minimum. If I'm doing a lot of daily tasks, I want to carry the absolute minimum. If I can get by without something phone-sized in my pocket by wearing something watch-sized on my wrist, I'd prefer the former.

Yes, otherwise why would LTE be useful at all on the watch?

Running outside, I definitely don't want to carry my 7+. It's large and I have the watch.

   Do people really want to exercise without their phone?

Yes, yes they do.

> Do people really want to exercise without their phone?

Yes. That is the entire reason I bought mine... Those phones are huge. It would be like strapping a plate to my arm while I run.

My phone stays at home when I work out.

Which is good because I don't use the gym benches to fiddle with my phone

Depending on what you're doing, you might need to pause/play/rewind the podcast a lot. I walk to coffee shops through some neighborhood area, and then some busy roads. So I make sure to pause for traffic noises, often I've gotta do so to talk with neighbors, and then so on. I don't even have an apple watch, but not having to deal with pulling my phone out a good number of times per walk over a lot of walks means a lot less times I could potentially drop my phone.

> Depending on what you're doing, you might need to pause/play/rewind the podcast a lot.

The existing 'now playing' capabilities of the watch handle this perfectly well. They don't handle selecting podcasts to play though.

I think the one's I'm listening to average to somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes. More agains the 90 min mark.

Where we’re going, we don’t need phones.