iTunes 4.9 has podcast support – A MAJOR disappointment
For about two months I have been really looking forward to the 4.9 version of iTunes
- I expected seamless podcast support and most importantly auto conversion to bookmarkable
aac files. When you listen to number of podcasts I do you want a good podcast receiver.
So what did I find:
- Intergration with iTunes is OK – a true GUI directory is sweet although it is
more basic than corporate GUIs I churned out in 1994 on 16 bit 386 machines - No bittorrent support – this means podcast providers hosting bills will skyrocket if
many users move away from iPodder - We cannot paste custom urls when a podcast is not in Apple’s directory, like My’lanta for
instance - There is no Auto conversion to bookmarked files (aac) -aargh, bookmarks
are why I bought an iPod in the first place - No playlist per podcast – all podcasts are dumped into the same playlist. Do Apple
not realize many people use their iPods solely for podcasts and don’t want to be scrolling
through 100+ files at 90mph on the highway while simultaneously riding the bumper
of a 911 and flipping off the SUV that they just cut up?
Ok enough of a rant already. I tried the Primetime
Podcast Receiver a month ago which looked promising but turned out to be
a little buggy with no bittorrent support either. Hopefully it will improve or iPodder
will add auto bookmarkable aac conversion. It is quite tempting to write something
myself building on my two week hack of my MP3
Jukebox (it looks rubbish but functionally was better than any commercial
MP3 Jukebox in 2001) .