iTunes 4.9 With Podcasting Support

eakthecat writes "Hot on the heels of the 4.8 release, Apple has released the next version of its popular iTunes jukebox software. Version 4.9 incorporates several new features, most notable of which is podcasting. The front page and iTunes webpages have not been updated yet, but you can get your greedy little hands on it or through the new podcasting link in the music store! !"

Comments

Re:What IS podcasting?

[djkoolaide]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

Re:What IS podcasting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Podcasting is an audio distribution system based on RSS with enclosures. This allows anyone to setup their own audio show and easily distribute it to subscribers. One of the pioneers of Podcasting is Adam Curry http://www.curry.com/

Re:"Mac-dotted"

[the_unknown_soldier]

The podcasts are held on the server of whoever makes them. Slowness of teh podcasts is most likely due to the fact that Curry/Madge can't handle the bandwidth hit.

Re:Annoying installer

[chota]

Hmm... I've never had the problems you've described, maybe you're using the iTunes + Quicktime combined installer instead of the iTunes-only one? In any case, when the "Register Quicktime" box comes up next time, set your clock forward about 4 years, click "Not Now" and then set your clock back to the real time. No more annoying pop-up. :)

(Don't get me wrong, I still like iTunes, it just seems very unpolished in Windows).

I think that may be by design, to get you to "switch".

Also, it's now available on the website: Download iTunes 4.9.

Playing with it for a few minutes

[Dark Paladin]

The Good:

Rather nicely done. A good interface, the search function works, and the display is very iTunes-ish - to be honest, better than using iPodderX or NetNewsWire to import the songs, and you can add in custom feeds.

I like the ability to tell it "Keep the most recent X and dump the rest" - for news based Podcasts, I usually have to do that manually with listened ones. Now, once I listen to it, it will automatically be taken out. Sweet.

The Bad:

No built in support for turning MP3 to bookmarkable AAC's. I don't see any kind of support for video podcasts (such as Rocketboom, which is odd since iPodderX can export the videos to iTunes, perhaps in support for a (someday) future video iPod).

Otherwise, it's a nice addition, and it's going to be interesting to see where it goes. Kudos to Apple for getting it - now let's see how long it takes the Napster and Rhapsody folks to catch on ;).

Also an iPod update

[generic-man]

I'm also downloading a new iPod updater which is supposed to add Podcast support to "iPod with color display," "iPod with Click Wheel," and "iPod mini." Looks like the 3G series has reached its end-of-life as far as support goes.

Re:Also an iPod update

[DoubleEdd]

It does work with 3Gs. I'm listening to podcasts on it now, although it appears as an ordinary playlist. I assume later models get a couple of extra features or something.

IPOD UPDATE

[the_unknown_soldier]

Perhaps more interesting.. there is also an ipod update available!

http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

This means that your podcasts will FINALLY be organised on your ipod, and your ipod will treat it like an audio book: press pause, come back later and it remembers where you are!

Re:IPOD UPDATE

[zaren]

Also, there's been some bumping going on it the iPod line - all full-size iPods are now photo capable, you now have a choice of a 20 or 60 gig iPod (nee Photo), and the 1 gig Shuffle got a $20 price cut.

Make bookmarkable workaround

[mccalli]

No built in support for turning MP3 to bookmarkable AAC's.

A workaround for now (on OS X):

1. Set your importing preferences to AAC
2. Install this Make Bookmarable Applescript
3. Select the MP3, go to Advanced->Convert to AAC
4. Select the newly-created AAC, run the Make Bookmarkable script on it

Finished, and you only need to do steps 1 and 2 the once, of course. I've been using this to convert BBC radio captures to bookmarkable AAC for a while (workflow: Tivo->MP3->bookmarkable AAC).

would agree that making an AAC bookmarkable could do with being integrated into the main interface though.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:What IS podcasting?

[SFEley]

If it was news or other information, I could see the usefulness, but podcasting seems like a fancy soapbox for people.

Some of it is news. Some of it's music. Some of it's audiobooks. And yeah, some of it's just personal life and ranting. But don't limit your perspective to just those. It's basically whatever you want.

My own podcast narrates science fiction short stories. We also do some reviews and commentary, but I've made a solemn promise on it never, ever to simply tell you about my day.

DAAP & iTunes Music Sharing

[crazney]

In case anyone was wondering, Apple have not changed the DAAP authentication with this new version of iTunes. So my various iTunes apps for linux, etc still work.

BadFruit's BadApple is a BadProduct

[nuxx]

People may be interested in my write-up on Badfruit's BadApple which I posted to LiveJournal here.

In short, this tool modifies your HOSTS file to point the iTunes Music Store link in iTunes to a local copy of IIS. That copy of IIS serves a python app which hosts a fake music store to offer Podcasts. This copy of IIS is open to the entire world (listening on *:80) running some rather untested software, and the redirection (via the HOSTS file) essentially 'breaks' iTunes Music Store functionality. This behavior (still) does not appear to be documented on BadFruit's site.

It also appears to have some hooks into mp3tunes.com, but I wasn't able to completely determine what. BadFruit may be selling music or collecting referrals, I'm not sure which.

In short, please use lots of caution before installing this software. It makes some rather drastic changes to one's machine, and these aren't documented on BadFruit's site.