Apple Releases iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting Support

It seems to me that Apple released iTunes 4.9 because it needed to
get its grip on a market that was on the verge of growing beyond its
control. Now that they've succeeded, I hope they can prevent iTunes
podcasting from turning into a freak-show junk-shop. If not, then the
iTunes podcasting venture could be doomed to mediocrity or even
outright failure.

The reason is that the iTunes Store works only with free podcasts.
Some podcasts are worth paying for, but you can't get them through
the iTunes Store. It's hard to imagine the Store developing truly
interesting podcast selections without accommodating the needs of
publishers of non-free subscriptions and shows, and that leaves such
publishers having to provide their own proprietary software. Most
people I think are like me... I want to aggregate all my media
software into one program (iTunes) and onto one media player (iPod).


H.

On 7/8/05 08:55, "Hudson Barton" <hhbvhighwinds.com> wrote:

> The reason is that the iTunes Store works only with free podcasts.
> Some podcasts are worth paying for, but you can't get them through
> the iTunes Store. It's hard to imagine the Store developing truly
> interesting podcast selections without accommodating the needs of
> publishers of non-free subscriptions and shows, and that leaves such
> publishers having to provide their own proprietary software. Most
> people I think are like me... I want to aggregate all my media
> software into one program (iTunes) and onto one media player (iPod).

Audible.com...that's pretty much what they are...paid podcasts.

--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

On Jul 8, 2005, at 2:02 PM, John C. Welch wrote:
> Audible.com...that's pretty much what they are...paid podcasts.
>

On the heels of the announcement for podcast support in iTunes,
Audible announced a feature where they basically assign an podcast
rss feed to each user account, so every time a new subscription item
becomes available, it automatically appears in whatever podcast
client you are using.

Works well with the new iTunes. The feed automatically downloads the
new content in "format 3", which is fine for spoken content. It
currently works only with subscription content (not books), which is
fine since you are likely to download the books as soon as you
purchase them.

Certainly is much more convenient than having to use Audible's slow
and cumbersome web interface to download periodicals content.

Since Apple already offers Audible content from ITMS, there is
nothing preventing them from making this Audible feature (or similar
features from other for-fee subscription providers).

Tn

--On July 8, 2005 9:42:10 PM -0700 Tomoharu Nishino <cheshirenekomac.com>
wrote:

> On the heels of the announcement for podcast support in iTunes, Audible
> announced a feature where they basically assign an podcast rss feed to
> each user account, so every time a new subscription item becomes
> available, it automatically appears in whatever podcast client you are
> using.

That is pretty cool. One problem I ran into -- my audible account/password
wasn't entered in iTunes (not sure why although I do usually listen on my
iPod not via iTunes.) Everytime I tried to download it would download the
file and then give me an error that the file was corrupt in a format that
wasn't compatible with iTunes.

I went to one of the existing audible files I already had, started playing
the file, entered my password. I then went back to podcasts and tried a
download again. Worked fine.

Kevin

There seem to be some downides to iTunes podcasting capability. Before this version, I used iPodder, and all my podcasts appeared in "My Received Podcasts" folder in "My Music". These all appeared in iTunes as separate playlists. If I use the iTunes podcast subscriber, all the podcasts appear on my iPod as one playlist. I don't want to listen to podcasts randomly - sometimes I want to listen to a particular radio programme or story or whatever - I want to choose. Trying to find an individual podcast is much harder and less friendly than it was before. THis could easily be changed by Apple - they just need to put the name of the podcast (like "album" or "artist") as a next menu level after podcast. Also, the podcasts that I am still receivign through iPodder are no longer updated automatically into iTunes - I have to to that manually. An unsatisfactory situation. C'mon Apple, you can do better than this.

Another complaint: there's no option -- or at least I can't find one -- to
automatically convert a podcast file from MP3 format to AAC. Doing so allows
files to be bookmark-able, so that when I return to a podcast file that I
had not finished, I can pick up right where I left off.

iPodder X includes this feature, and while that software is by no means
perfect, it makes for a vastly superior podcast experience. It seems a
natural for Apple to do this too.

Khoi

work: www.behaviordesign.com
play: www.subtraction.com

On Jul 12, 2005, at 10:57 AM, Catie Haqq wrote:

> There seem to be some downides to iTunes podcasting capability.
> Before this version, I used iPodder, and all my podcasts appeared
> in "My Received Podcasts" folder in "My Music". These all appeared
> in iTunes as separate playlists. If I use the iTunes podcast
> subscriber, all the podcasts appear on my iPod as one playlist. I
> don't want to listen to podcasts randomly - sometimes I want to
> listen to a particular radio programme or story or whatever - I
> want to choose.

Agreed. This aggregation Apple does is annoying. Worse is the fact
that these no longer appear in any playlists unless you manually move
them there. I have heard tell of hacks which make smart playlists
start working again for incoming podcasts but I have not tried any of
them out yet (but plan to in the next while).

> Trying to find an individual podcast is much harder and less
> friendly than it was before. THis could easily be changed by Apple
> - they just need to put the name of the podcast (like "album" or
> "artist") as a next menu level after podcast.

Also agreed. Though having the playlist situation fixed would go a
long ways towards obviating the need for this solution (but both
would be great too).

>
> Also, the podcasts that I am still receivign through iPodder are no
> longer updated automatically into iTunes - I have to to that
> manually. An unsatisfactory situation. C'mon Apple, you can do
> better than this.

How so? Did iTunes break how iPodder speaks to iTunes? I have not
heard of this problem yet nor do I use iPodder to test it (prior to
iTunes, and likely again now that my testing is largely complete) I
used NetNewsWire Pro to manage my podcast downloads.

-A

--On July 12, 2005 10:33:31 AM -0700 Khoi Vinh <publicsubtraction.com>
wrote:

> Another complaint: there's no option -- or at least I can't find one -- to
> automatically convert a podcast file from MP3 format to AAC. Doing so
> allows files to be bookmark-able, so that when I return to a podcast file
> that I had not finished, I can pick up right where I left off.

The last iPod update made MP3's automatically bookmarkable. I believe this
works on 2G (4 buttons at top) and 3G (click-wheel) iPods. 1G iPods are
left out.

Kevin

It gets weirder. Try this: Create a smart playlist containing files where Genre is "Podcast". In iTunes, you won't see anything in the list. Then sync to your iPod. You now have a playlist on your iPod containing all of your Podcasts!

OK, I'm suspecting that you have an iPod that's older than a 4G (either you have the four touch buttons that light up orange with the backlight, or the older wheel with the four buttons around it--not the click wheel). On the 4th gen iPods (with the Click Wheel) there was an update that put Podcasts in the main Music menu. However, on all other iPods, there is always a special Podcasts playlist on the iPod. So I suspect that this is the playlist you are seeing on your iPod, not the smart playlist you created in iTunes.

The last iPod update made MP3's automatically bookmarkable. I believe this works on 2G (4 buttons at top) and 3G (click-wheel) iPods. 1G iPods are left out.

First of all, the current iPods with the Click Wheel are the 4G, the 4 buttons on top are the 3G. The iPods with the original design (four buttons around the wheel) with the touch-wheel are 2G. And the 1G iPods are the original 5 GB iPods with the actual wheel that moves. This last iPod update only works with 4G iPods (for now, at least), and it puts Podcasts in the main Music menu, rather than in Playlists, and it also makes MP3 podcasts bookmarkable, as you said. Most likely, Apple will eventually make this update available on at least the 3G iPods, because eventually they made an update to the 3G that added all the previously 4G-exclusive features.

I hope this clarifies all the confusion about this.

Adam

Quoting abasscube <abasscubemac.com>:

> First of all, the current iPods with the Click Wheel are the 4G, the
> 4 buttons on top are the 3G. The iPods with the original design (four
> buttons around the wheel) with the touch-wheel are 2G. And the 1G
> iPods are the original 5 GB iPods with the actual wheel that moves.

This isn't quite correct either. 1G are the ones with mechanical scroll wheels
(there is a 10GB model with this scroll wheel, I have one). 2G are the 10/20
Gig models where they first switched to the touch wheel. What threw off my
numbering was my 10GB with mechanical scroll wheel. I knew a drive size change
wasn't enough for a Generation model change, but then I forgot about the first
touch wheel models. I wonder why the color ones aren't being called 5G.

And of course, none of these names are official Apple names.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61688>

> This last iPod update only works with 4G iPods (for now, at least),
> and it puts Podcasts in the main Music menu, rather than in
> Playlists, and it also makes MP3 podcasts bookmarkable, as you said.
> Most likely, Apple will eventually make this update available on at
> least the 3G iPods, because eventually they made an update to the 3G
> that added all the previously 4G-exclusive features.

Latest update also works with the mini. I can't imagine Apple considering this
enough of a motivator to drive people to new iPods (better podcasting support
won't get me to replace my 10 gig model, I'm waiting for an 80GB model for
that) so hopefully it will migrate down to the 3G iPods, but I doubt it.

Kevin

At 3:29 PM -0700 2005/07/21, kevinvanhaaren.net wrote:

>This isn't quite correct either. 1G are the ones with mechanical scroll wheels
>(there is a 10GB model with this scroll wheel, I have one). 2G are the 10/20
>Gig models where they first switched to the touch wheel. What threw off my
>numbering was my 10GB with mechanical scroll wheel. I knew a drive size change
>wasn't enough for a Generation model change, but then I forgot about the first
>touch wheel models. I wonder why the color ones aren't being called 5G.
>
>And of course, none of these names are official Apple names.

        Actually, they are for service -- if you send one in under
AppleCare or Warranty, they use these identifiers.

><http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61688>

        Note the keywords on the right side, which include kipod1 ... kipod4.


                                                Chris
--
Chris Pepper: <http://www.reppep.com/~pepper/>
Rockefeller University: <http://www.rockefeller.edu/>

On 7/21/2005 3:29 PM, "kevinvanhaaren.net" wrote:
> I wonder why the color ones aren't being called 5G.

Mainly because there's nothing "new" about them -- they're simply a minor
revision to the iPod photo line: The 60GB iPod photo was unchanged, and the
30GB model was replaced with an otherwise identical 20GB version. (And a U2
Special Edition model was added.) The other way to look at it is that the
30GB model was dropped and the two 20GB non-photo models gained photo
features ;-) But no new hardware features were introduced, which is usually
the key difference between "generations."


(On the other hand, one could make a convincing argument that the *original*
iPod photo models should have been called "5G" since they clearly were a
significant revision with significant new features [which would make all of
the current "color" models 5G]. But at the time, Apple wanted to keep the
two lines separate. So here we are.)

 
> And of course, none of these names are official Apple names.
>
> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61688>

Although 1G/2G/3G/4G/etc. may not be "official" names any more, they were at
one point and Apple used them frequently in the Knowledge Base. It wasn't
until recently that they deleted many such references. You can still see
some in this article:

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75178>

--
---------------------------
Dan Frakes
Senior Writer Macworld
Reviews Editor Playlist
---------------------------