Comments on: iTunes 4.9 is here.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 02:39:36 +0000

I love iTunes 4.9!!! It organizes the podcasts very well, earlier I said it sucked but now that I have updated my iPod mini and got all my podcasts, and I absolutely love it! Thanx Adam, – Ryan

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 21:15:43 +0000

I love the show. I looked up information on iTunes and found the article “How To Publish a Podcast on iTunes Music Store” and I understand all of it and also looked into recording with GarageBand and understand that as well. So, I have a blog that I set up for commenting on this podcast… which is the link available. The blog is on blogger, and I was turned to feedburner for creating an RSS of the blog. How do I go about editing the RSS information so that iTunes will update itself for what I need?

By: Mike R

Mike R — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:14:48 +0000

I thought the I-Tunes 4.9 Podcast catcher was extremely easy to use even though there were a few bugs with it. I subscribed to your Maccast Adam and it seemed to work flawlessly. Considering how easy it was to set up, I suspect this will be the pod catcher of ‘choice’ as new people start discovering the wonderful world of Podcasting! Great integration with the IPOD menuing system as well.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:17:26 +0000

I would also be interested in hearing how much the stats have changed after this release. I am sure liking it better then my prior pod catcher I like the integration much better. I am sure apple will continue to tweak and improve it.

By: Frank Burcaw

Frank Burcaw — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:09:03 +0000

Another thing that I don’t understand is how podcasts that are only published as bit torrent files are getting ranked in the top 100 on iTMS. Does anyone know how Apple is ranking the podcasts? My guess is that they are using someone else’s rankings.

To me, if you can’t subscribe to a podcast using iTunes 4.9, then it should not be ranked.

By: Frank Burcaw

Frank Burcaw — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:06:32 +0000

My iPod (15GB Third Generation) did not get an update with the latest iPod software update. It’s still running 2.3. I think that if you have my model, or do not update your iPod, then you won’t get the show notes downloaded to it for display.

By: Defragged

Defragged — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:06:08 +0000

“iTunes 4.9 has no support for show notes; iPodderX does.”

It does, right click (on windows) and select show description. That episodes notes appear, pulled from the RSS feed. Also, when listening to a podcast on an iPod, if the podcast was imported using 4.9, the shownotes show up while playing a show, just keep pressing select.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:01:15 +0000

Everything seems fixed now – just waiting for the logo to come up – links work, name’s right. Well done. And did i mention top 20!!!

Quality always comes to the top!

By: Frank Burcaw

Frank Burcaw — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 01:52:16 +0000

As a Windows user, I’ve been waiting for the 4.9 version of iTunes to come out with great anticipation. The pod catcher clients out there for Windows that have any kind of iTunes integration, well, suck. I’ve been using iPodder which will integrate with iTunes, but when it comes to deleting old podcasts, it simply just does not work.

I really like the new iTunes, but, I’d hate to say, I’m really disappointed. To me, Apple is a symbol for innovation with a high degree of quality.

The look and feel just seems to fall short of my expectations. I’m very disappointed that it doesn’t support bit torrent – but I suspect that it is just turned off while the recent U.S. Surpreme Court rulings on P2P software is better understood. Since Apple can not effectivly monitor the contents of a pod cast, the is a chance the someone could broadcast high quality copyrighted material.

Back to the look and feel, It just doesn’t look like it belongs in iTunes. Maybe the OS X version offers more than the Windows version. I don’t know.

Someone mentioned being able to view the show notes in the iPod itself. My third generation 15 GB iPod does not have that feature. Again, could it be related to me being a Windows user?

Again, this being my first highly anticipated upgrade from Apple, I’m just not that impressed. I’ve always watched the keynotes with baited breath – dreaming of some day owning a Power Mac and using those beautiful applications. Is this any measure of other OS X only applications? I hope not.

I give it a 3 out of 5 stars – but this does mean that I’m going back to iPodder – I just can’t go back to that….

Can someone tell me more about iPodderX? Is it just of OS X?

By: GreenAlien

GreenAlien — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:37:43 +0000

another benefit of using iTunes is the podcast file only exists once on your computer. With iPodder (at least with my setup) it appears in the iPodder designated folder and also the iTunes folder, which can become a factor when your podcast library starts to grow. I like to archive my podcasts in iTunes so I dont want to delete them from iTunes, but I also dont want to delete them from the iPodder folder for fear that iPodder will redown them. But with podcasting built in to iTMS i dont have to worry about this any more.

By: Evan Stewart

Evan Stewart — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:14:28 +0000

the best feature is that all files are resumable, even mps!!!!

By: mister5

mister5 — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:28:51 +0000

I’m with the others. I will probably stick with Ipodderx for the time being. I would still have to use that and blog torrent just to get TWiT.

Rock on.

By: car1son

car1son — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:20:20 +0000

Adam -
I’m curious if you noticed any increase in DL traffic due to the iTunes 4.9 release ?

By: maccast

maccast — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:30:18 +0000

Conrad,
I updated my RSS feed using Apple’s specs yesterday morning and iTunes has yet to pick up the change. If you notice all Podcasts listed in the iTunes directoty are not up to date. Inside Mac Radio has 3-4 new shows that are still not listed. I don’t know why Apple is not updating their directory listings at least once per day. I am very disappointed.

By: Stefan Bucher

Stefan Bucher — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:24:12 +0000

The MacCast was the first podcast I downloaded with the new iTunes.

Unfortunately the iPod shuffle didn’t get an update for synching the podcasts.

Best wishes from Switzerland

By: Alyx

Alyx — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 15:51:01 +0000

Wow, listenership has doubled since last I checked!

By: robb montgomery

robb montgomery — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 15:48:48 +0000

Hmmm. Maybe I’m stupid but I can’t ‘Autofill’ my Podcast downlaods to my iShiffle. Mr. Jobs – that’s a huge missing link.
What’s the point if they don’t auto-sync to my attached iShuffle?

By: Conrad

Conrad — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 09:52:41 +0000

Adam
Not only is your name replaced by your gmail account, but your icon is a broken chain and it says all files are unavailable. Holy crap, can it get any worse! You need to fix it dude before you drop off the list just when everyone’s taking a first peek.

Other than this – ITunes 4.9 rocks!
Conrad

By: James K

James K — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 04:42:41 +0000

The podcast part is not that user friendly, doesn’t appear to have a keyboard short cut or subscribe button (but it does have unsubscribe). I’ve only tried once to get the podcasts onto my ipod but it gets stuck about half way (I want to have about 15gb of music on my ipod and it gets stuck at about 6gb – don’t know why). As for subscribing using iTMS, we need a iTMS before we can do that. iTMS Australia? Pigs might fly sooner.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 02:50:45 +0000

I woke up, prepare to go to work and wha-la! ipod 4.9! Darn!

Can’t wait to get home from my windows invested work and play with the new itunes.

I’m using ipodder for Mac right now, and I believe I’ll definitely start using iTunes’ built-in pod-catching feature, even just for the bookmarkable audio, reading shownotes on my ipod and easy organization.

I very rarely listen to podcast on my computer unfortunately.

By: amr

amr — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 02:49:49 +0000

iTunes 4.9 has no support for show notes; iPodderX does.
iTunes 4.9 has no Bit Torrent support; iPodderX does.
iTunes 4.9 does not let you make settings to individual podcasts (such as making AAC bookmarking and number of episodes to download); iPodderX does.
iTunes 4.9 is slow in downloading podcasts; iPodderX isn’t.
iTunes 4.9 does have a usable interface; iPodderX doesn’t.
iTunes 4.9 does not automatically make playlists for the individual podcasts; iPodderX does.

In my opinion, iTunes has a ways to go before i decide to use it exclusively for catching my podcasts.

By: adamf

adamf — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:12:05 +0000

I think iTunes is far better than any third party software I’ve tried. And I’ve tried them all. Perhaps the podcast directory is slow now, but it’s the first day. You don’t have to use the directory, just input the URLs manually for the time being.

Well on a positive note, here’s a cool feature I noticed. When you download a podcast to your iPod, click the middle button twice (like you would to get to the star ratings on a normal song) and the show description comes up. Cool!

By: Antonio

Antonio — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 21:50:19 +0000

I don’t think the folks at iPodder or iPodderX need to worry. iTunes podcasting client is not a good user experience, IMO. It’s slow and unwieldy with lousy navigation (no back button after you look at specific podcasts via their directory) and it is damn slow. There is no way I’m going to use this over iPodderX.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:35:25 +0000

Urrrhhh! I am soo frustrated with iTunes 4.9, Such a bad interface, so many errors! Plus all of these STUPID podcasts like ESPN etc… I will stay with iPodder! Why didnt they test this stuff, another thing, why dont they make the categories more accessible. gosh, well we have to deal w/ it. Thanks for the show Adam!

By: jason

jason — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 18:17:40 +0000

I was wondering Adam, do you know if our Album Art will be displayed within the store? Right now, the images are either the purple podcast guy or a broken chain. Any input will be appreciated. Thanks!

By: Damon

Damon — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:43:11 +0000

Adam, I am getting an error when I subscribe. It says it must be authorized. This is not good for your ratings…

By: adamf

adamf — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:35:46 +0000

Well, I just deleted Podcast Tuner from my iBook. Poor software developers… :(

By: StretchDog

StretchDog — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:16:10 +0000

I agree with Jason from TN. Way too commercial.
I hope Adam can afford the server hit that iTMS is gonna create!
Latest edition of the Maccast is now up to 45 minute in download time!
I’m not using iTMS… interface sucks in my opinion… Can’t import subscriptions, plus you can’t drag URLs from the web into iTMS to subscribe to new podcasts you come across randomly.
Good Luck Adam!

By: Craig Patchett

Craig Patchett — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:07:51 +0000

The new iPod firmware lists Podcasts under the Music menu but doesn’t include an option to show all. To do this you have to go to the Podcast genre. Took me a while to figure this out, especially since I’m already using the Podcast genre with iPodderX. Unfortunately, podcasts don’t show up in Recently Added smart playlists.

By: Balazs

Balazs — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 16:51:12 +0000

MacCast is #15 on the UK store!

By: jason froom TN

jason froom TN — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 16:35:17 +0000

I think the new I-Tunes is too commercial. You have to go all the way to the bottom of the page to get to real podcasts which are listes as Indie podcasts. The top podcast are a complete joke. ESPN @ #2, yeah right. And the ESPN podcast iss over a week old. I hope this is not how the rankings are going to be in the long run. I will stick w/IPODDER X for now.

By: car1son

car1son — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 16:00:44 +0000

I think a lot of geekcasts are going to drop in relative popularity as iTunes makes podcasts more easily accessible to non-geeks who prefer ABC news, NPR, the BBC and ESPN to tech-talk for some incomprehensible reason :)

Too bad MacCast didn’t get a featured billboard pane in iTMS.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:59:20 +0000

iPod updater is available too.

By: jon from vancouver

jon from vancouver — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:53:13 +0000

#13 now, oh no, what shall we do?! :-D
Just updated my wife’s PC and her U2 iPod, works good. Now off I go to update my Mac and iPod. I wonder if my wife will want to trade her U2 iPod for the new one? :-)

By: Defragged

Defragged — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:33:58 +0000

My iPod *completely* died just before I did the firmware update, leaving me with the folder/exclamation point screen. After about an hour of formatting/updates/formatting/failing/formatting/sobbing I eventually got it working, albeit, with the task of updating my iPod’s music library ahead of me. Overall I think it’s quite cool. Especially when I found out that you can read a podcasts shownotes on the iPod (keep pressing the select button when listening to something).

Anyone have any ideas on how to get all my old podcasts into the new system?

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 14:31:42 +0000

I’ve downloaded 4.9, subscribed to the Maccast and am downloading the latest show. This is so cool! Thank you Apple for making it so easy!

By: Dave D.

Dave D. — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 14:29:07 +0000

#12 on US iTunes Store AC! Of course you were the first subscription I set up. Cheers from San Francisco!

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 14:19:55 +0000

Adam, you’re #12 in the Canadian iTMS at the moment. Seems to be a different chart for each iTMS country store.

By: Shayne

Shayne — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:24:25 +0000

Beautiful! Go #1 with a bullet, Adam. I’m subscribed to the Maccast.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:14:57 +0000

My G4 tower hung we I was suscribing to Inside mac. My first subscription was to maccast!

By: GreenAlien

GreenAlien — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:10:17 +0000

Bill, I’ve just subscribed to the MacCast in iTunes and it has all worked perfectly for me so far. Hope the glitches you saw are ironed out soon.

I haven’t tried syncing the iTunes podcasts with my iPod yet – hope Apple separate the music library from the podcasts on the iPod like they have in iTunes. Would be pretty neat.

..Ant

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:56:53 +0000

I think the Apple web folks are still tweaking things, as I’m getting a lot of errors trying to find and subscribe to some podcasts.

By: GreenAlien

GreenAlien — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:35:17 +0000

Quick note to say that it’s still showing iTunes 4.8 on Apple’s website but if you click through do the download page then it says iTunes 4.9.

..Ant

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:11:03 +0000

Let’s get you up there for launch Adam. Top 10 with a bullet here we come!