The MacAlba

I’ve just installed the latest version of Apples iTunes - v4.9. The obvious new feature in this version is the ability to subscribe to, download, and manage podcasts, and again obviously, the podcast feature can leverage on iTunes ability to load the audio file onto an iPod.

I have a long time interest in podcasting having first started my own, the lookANDsee photoblog podcast, on August 25, 2004. I have used a variety of podcast clients, most recently the one build into NetNewsWire. Whilst the latter suits me very well I was curious to see how iTunes copes.

There’s an immediate visual clue with a new playlist titled “Podcasts” with its own purple icon (at least on a Mac). Clicking this playlist brings up a typical iTunes playlist screen, and a “Settings” button. This button is a shortcut into the Preferences menu for Podcasts. Here you can set update frequency, how many podcasts to download if the feed is new, how many to keep, and which and how many to upload to an iPod.

Next, I went looking to find how to subscribe to a podcast. That had me stumped for a minute of so until, while I was methodically working through the menus, I found it under “Advanced | Subscribe to Podcast”. The podcast’s feed URL gets inserted here.

Then, perhaps anticlimactically, it operates just as you’d expect. the latest podcast is fetched, loaded into the playlist, and you then can listen via iTunes or upload to the iPod.

Being on a lowly dialup connection, I haven’t downloaded much as yet. The acid test is to take it on the road and give the iPod menus a workout. I don’t expect any problems though.

Some of the iTunes Music stores will also let you pick podcasts. The UK store doesn’t, but the USA store does, for example. My own podcast “lookANDsee” can be found using the search facilitiy and shows up in the “Arts and Entertainment”, “International”, and “Audio Blogs” sections. I clicked the “Subscribe” button, and, Voila!, it appeared in the iTunes Podcast playlist.

Update: The UK store now shows “Podcasts”.

On the downside, having noted that the URL for my podcast is an old “podkey” one, I went to update it via the “Publish a Podcast” button. I input my preferred feed URL; OK; I gave it my Apple ID username and password; OK; then it wanted me to register an iTunes account; bummer. Being in a country that has yet to get an iTunes store, I couldn’t get past that hurdle.

Oh well, for a version 1.0 model it’s pretty good. I await version 1.1.