Podcatching Tutorial
July 15th, 2005As noted by Dwight Silverman and others, Apple has posted a tutorial on using iTunes and iPods to listen to podcasts. Who in the world would need a tutorial on using iTunes for anything? It’s so easy. (Yeah, I know, not everybody’s a geek like me.)
The tutorial has some good advice: make sure your iPod software is up to date if you’re going to use your iPod to listen to podcasts. Unfortunately, the iPod software isn’t so great, at least for those of use using older 2nd-generation iPods. The latest software for us older users is version 1.5, which doesn’t have as many nifty features as the software for the more recent iPods.
In particular, I have two complaints with listening to podcasts on older iPods: first, they appear under Music->Playlists->Podcasts. In other words, I have to select Music from the top menu, then select Playlists, then select Podcasts. This is unusually clumsy of Apple; Podcasts should be a first-tier menu entry alongside Playlists. Audiobooks should be a first-tier menu entry too, but it is listed in the Music menu. Why aren’t Podcasts and Audiobooks at least listed in the same menu?
My second complaint is that podcasts don’t get bookmarked. If I listen to a podcast, then go listen to something else, then come back to the podcast, then playback should start at the same point I left off. That’s how audio books work, and that’s how I would like to listen to podcasts, but the software doesn’t bookmark the podcast. If I go back to a podcast, the replay starts at the beginning every time. Lame.
Maybe I just need to stick a crowbar in my wallet and buy one of those new 60GB iPods.