While listening to audio-only podcasts, iPhone owners can press the ‘Sleep/Wake’ button to turn off the display, yet still continue listening to the podcast. iPhone users can also click the iPhone’s ‘Start’ button when listening to audio podcasts, use other iPhone apps, and continue listening to the podcast uninterrupted.
Not so with podcasts. Pressing the ‘Sleep/Wake’ button, or clicking the iPhone’s start button shuts video podcasts off. The the inability to just listen to video podcasts has been one of my primary complaints with the iPhone’s iPod functionality.
All video podcasts are not created equal. Some video podcasts such as CO-OP, demand that the user ‘watch’ them to get the most out of them. Other podcasts , such as the ‘Cranky Geeks’, Geek Brief TV and Diggnation can usually be enjoyed without ever looking at the screen.
Hardly a day has gone by since I purchased my iPhone last August, when I didn’t wish I could turn off the screen and still listen to my video podcasts. Turns out that there has been a way to do this all along. It took me 8 months before I stumbled upon this trick.