So, I love podcasts. Listening to them, watching them, and ultimately, if I can ever find the rhyme or reason, creating them. Now, if I am correct, Apple and iTunes didn’t invent the podcast, but they sure did help to pioneer it. That being said, wouldn’t you think they would do it better that anyone else? Answer: NO, they do not.
Before I seen the light, I was an avid Windows, PC user. I was also a, dare I say it, a Microsoft Zune user (yes, one of only a couple of handful). Before you go knocking the Zune though, give it a try. Its actually a very solid player, at least the hard drive based ones. I cant attest to the new touch flash ones. The only thing that keeps it from gaining real traction though I think is the Zune Marketplace. While its very pretty and user friendly, it has some major bugs to it (one of those bugs is the reason why I quit using it, but I wont get into that now), and the content is very limited. One thing it does, and does very well though, is manage podcasts.
Since I switched to the iPod, I have had countless problems getting my podcasts to “act right”. Here is what I mean by act right: With the Zune, I had the option to auto download all of the episodes that I wanted, keep the ones that I wanted, and best of all, when a new episode downloaded, I didn’t have to do a thing. If I chose, the new episodes would auto sync to my player. It was as easy as turning on a radio. I suddenly realized in my disarray over this, that it is only because I am spoiled to how the Zune handled my podcast. With iTunes, I don’t have the option to auto download a set number of episodes, I am having a problem with it keeping the Album Art after it downloads, and how it does auto sync, it only does it when you first connect the device, not when a new episode downloads. Its just the difference in the software I guess.
Am I doing something wrong? If I am, please let me know. I am still a rookie with iTunes, so I could potentially be missing something. I would think that since iTunes helped to pioneer the podcast, they would do it better than the rest. If I could warrant the expense and aggravation, I would purchase a 4 or 8 gig Zune to manage my podcasts, just because it does it so well. Im just saying….
Thoughts??
Until Next Time
–Kev
