iTunes 4.9

I have been listening to a few different podcasts for awhile now, but the overall workflow of getting them onto my iPod has always been annoying. First of all, there was lots of software to automatically download podcasts, but none of them seemed to have the ability to get the file onto my iPod (and remove it once it’s been listened to). Some of them could add the tracks to my iTunes library, but since I have too much music to make much out of the “Library Syncing” in iTunes, this didn’t really accomplish much for me. Enter iTunes 4.9, which makes the whole process much more bearable. First of all, it provides a whole new top-level category in iTunes which makes it very easy to find my podcasts. Second, and most importantly, it can sync podcasts to my iPod seperately from everything else, so all I have to do is connect my iPod to my computer and everything else is taken care of for me.

There are a few annoyances, though. First of all, I have set iTunes to delete podcasts I’ve listened to off the iPod. Unfortunately, their interpretation of “listened to” really equates to “began listening to”, and if you play the first second of a file, it marks it as played and deletes it the next time you sync. Also, my iPod has been locking up lately, as it did before, requiring a hard reset (which loses my current position in what I was listening to in the process). Those issues aside, this had made the whole podcasting experience for me far more bearable.

And just in case you are interested in what podcasts I’m listening to:

5 thoughts on “iTunes 4.9

  1. I’ve been working with Erik Marcus on his podcast “Erik’s Diner” on Vegan.com. Not too bad of a technology to work with, but since I don’t have a portable MP3 player it doesn’t have quite the same coolness factor for me.

  2. I’ve been meaning to put out a podcast list to my LJ. Maybe i’ll get to that tomorrow. :)

    I was looking for the Car Talk stream, but found it was pay only. :( oh well..

  3. Hmm, the behavior you don’t like where iTunes considers a podcast listened to based on starting to listen to it is exactly the behavior I want. When I stop listening to something and don’t finish it before I sync next that means I am done with it and am not going back to it.

    1. Ah, yes, but the problem with that is that if I get past that “starting to listen to it phase” and only get halfway through it on my commute I don’t want it to delete it next time I sync…

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