iVideo is a video podcast client for the iPhone and iPod Touch that claims to perform better and have more features than the default iTunes app. It boasts a selection of over 22,000 shows, fast download speeds and simpler browsing. To the contrary, this application seriously underperforms in multiple areas.

At first, the front page looks well organized, listing categories at the top, and series to scroll through. When you tap on a series, a list of shows from that series is displayed. From here, you can tap on a show to download it for viewing. You can also subscribe to a series and the app will download all new shows when they become available. Other features include the ability to mark a show or series as a favorite, emailing a link to a show and search. It all sounds great, but the app is far from intuitive and things just do not feel right.

Let’s start back at the front page. When you want to browse a different category, you’ll need to horizontally scroll through them at the top of the page. I’ve experienced this scroll bar before, and it just doesn’t work for me. The bar is very thin, and you need to touch it in just the right spot to get it to scroll left and right. My thumb is just not accurate enough to touch the right part of the bar to get it to scroll correctly. It is not a good option for selecting categories.

The next problem I experienced was tapping on a series too early. When you first start the application, it needs time to update its library. If you tap on a series before it has updated, you’ll get a message stating there are no shows available. The update takes just a bit too long to complete.

Once you finally get into a series and tap on a show, nothing happens until you tap the play button on the bottom of the screen. But, when you tap the play button it doesn’t actually play, but instead, starts downloading the show. In the iTunes app, when you tap on a show, it immediately starts playing. So, after you select a few shows to download, you will surely become a bit confused and wonder exactly where those shows are. There’s a little button at the bottom of the screen in the shape of a down arrow that will bring you to your downloads for viewing. Again, this app is not very intuitive.

The app also offers the option to subscribe to a series. However, there are no options to save the latest few or one episode of a podcast. You can only download all of them. This may create a problem with available hard disk space on your device.

iVideo is also not without its share of bugs. I had one issue where after tapping on a series, the update took too long and actually froze the entire app. Also, while flipping my iPhone sideways to view a list of shows, the icons at the top of the screen disappeared and there was empty space at the bottom. These are minor, but mentionable.

iVideo does have a good start here, with the attempt to create a video podcast browser with more functionality and better interface than iTunes. However, it’s just not ready in its 1.0 release. I really wanted to like this application, but with the bugs, slow download speeds and lack of social integration, I just couldn’t get into it. As is, I simply cannot recommend downloading this application. Stick with iTunes for now.