With ZCast, anyone with an iPhone can become a podcaster

Would you like to become a podcaster? Now you can with ease with a new app called ZCast. With this free iPhone app, you can create your very own podcast or just listen in to hear what others have to say.

To launch a new podcast, just choose a topic and you’re ready to broadcast. You can also schedule a podcast for a later date. Want to make it a group effort? Invite people from your Twitter network to cast with you.

You can listen to ZCast podcasts live or subscribe and listen later. As a listener, you can chat with the speakers and other listeners, thereby providing commentary in real time.

While ZCast sounds a lot like Meerkat or Periscope without the video, this isn’t the case. Unlike these services, ZCast allows you to invite others to become a speaker in your podcast. Additionally, ZCast offers curated and transcribed searchable content.

ZCast shows great promise and features a slick, intuitive interface. Right out of the box, novices can become podcasters with no setup costs. And because ZCast requires a Twitter account, finding new listeners is relatively straightforward. Also impressive: When you start a podcast, a tweet about your topic is posted for your followers to see. In turn, those folks can listen to the podcast via the app or through a desktop browser.

Unfortunately, ZCast isn’t without its problems. During our tests, we had a difficult time connecting to the service, both as a podcaster and listener. Almost certainly, this is a temporary, launch day issue. Nonetheless, this could turn off would-be users from the start.

In addition, we were surprised by ZCast’s lack of content. Other than many “we’re live, baby” broadcasts, there isn’t much here. Again, perhaps this is a launch day issue. Still, we’re surprised that ZCast’s developers didn’t take this into account before going live. This would have been a perfect time to get guest podcasters online to introduce the service.

We’re going to keep our eye on ZCast in the coming weeks to see what develops. We may also start our own podcast in the coming days.

You can download the app on the App Store.

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