I’m Wood, and here’s my report. Overall, I like it.
The interface is good, simple but with enough power to satisfy. iTunes includes a pretty comprehensive directory. I added, for instance, Harry Shearer’s podcast version of his KCRW radio program, Le Show (funny and recommended, by the way), based solely upon seeing it in the top ten listing. I guessed before that Apple got their directory from someone else, probably ipodder.org, but still have nothing to confirm. If you, by chance, can’t find a particular podcast, it’s easy to add one. Choose “Subscribe to Podcast…” in the Advanced menu and paste in the XML link. After that, iTunes will treat it just like podcasts you add from the directory.
As for what I don’t like (heavy sigh), there’s not much, but it’s annoying. Kind of like that cut in the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it. I was wrong about there being some sort of bookmarking feature on the iPod. Looks like if you want to be able to listen to a podcast for a while on your iPod and finish up on your Mac you’re going to have to convert to bookmarkable AAC. Currently iTunes can convert mp3 files to AAC but has no way for an end user to make said AAC files bookmarkable. There’s an Applescript that does the trick at Doug’s Applescripts for iTunes but it’s still a cumbersome sort of fix. Apple should have made this feature available and one-click simple for users.
Next, a warning: As I found out the hard way, don’t listen to half of a podcast and sync your iPod if you have your preferences set to “Keep Unplayed Podcasts.” Based upon my experience, it looks like iTunes updates the playcount of a podcast even if you only listen to thirty seconds of it, which means if you don’t listen to the whole podcast before you sync, iTunes will remove it from your iPod and mark it played in your iTunes podcast list. iTunes previously would only update the playcount of a song when the entire song had been played. Why Apple changed it, I can’t guess, but I don’t like it. I’m wondering if this behavior will hold true for podcasts I convert to bookmarkable AAC.
My last gripe comes from my commute home today. You can’t, apparently, dial to the Podcast menu and hit play. Hitting play will start playing music. In order to play podcasts you have to drill down to at least the Artist menu level. I had gotten used to dialing to my Podcasts playlist, hitting playing and listening to whatever podcast turned up in the shuffle. Now I can’t shuffle podcasts at all, as far as I can tell, and I can only play multiple podcasts so long as I only try to listen to one artist. Plus, when you run out of podcasts from a particular artist, you get dead air until you dial to the next artist. Annoying and dangerous when you’re trying to do this in Vegas traffic.
So, Apple, if you’re listening, this is what I want:
- Autoconversion to bookmarkable AAC. Please.
- Auto-removal of played podcasts, but only after I’ve played the whole thing, whether on the iPod, the Mac or a combination of the two.
- Let me play all my podcasts in shuffle mode, regardless of whether I’m listening to multiple artists.
That shouldn’t be so tough, should it? Thanks.
Technorati Tags: geek, iPod, Mac, personal, podcast, podcasting, RSS, technology
Tags: 2 Comments
autofilling a shuffle with podcasts doesn’t work. You have to drag them over manually. sheesh!
See, now there you go. I really hope that Apple’s listening, because I can’t believe this got out the door like this.