iTunes 4.9 NOW AVAILABLE!

[hob]

The BBC may be in love with RealAudio but they're also in love with Apple! Also, the sensible people at the BBC's archive thing use lots of Quicktime 6 stuff (alongside wma )

I forget what the actual BBC section is called but I was reading it on Apple/Pro

 

[Earendil]

Absolutely. I actually think there should be only one Mini too.
It's much easier for the salesman to just say "here's the mini, here's the shuffle" without explaining that there are two sizes of each, as well as the two main iPods. 6 units is just too much choice. 3 or 4 iPods at the most at one time.

Heaven forbid people that are confused by that don't try and buy a computer... or a VCR

 

[feakbeak]

I mean the Shuffle is made for Podcasting.

I agree you should be able to load Podcasts onto the iPod Shuffles, but I don't understand where you got this idea.

I haven't tried loading Podcasts onto my Shuffle yet. I'm sure there is a way to do it but it may be inconvenient.

 

[hob]

I agree you should be able to load Podcasts onto the iPod Shuffles, but I don't understand where you got this idea.

I haven't tried loading Podcasts onto my Shuffle yet. I'm sure there is a way to do it but it may be inconvenient.

I just tried after reading all this. Something doesn't quite work right... It seems to crash the ipod - I put all the available BBC "today" program (6 podcasts) onto it, tried to play nothing happens

 

[mxpiazza]

Yeah what's up with that? Seems like a HUGE oversight. I mean the Shuffle is made for Podcasting.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out whether or not I was doing something wrong. I still can't believe I can't autofill my Shuffle from the Podcast library.

yeah, won't work with my shuffle... how could all these issues not have been discovered prior to release? the podcast library still isnt working consistently, some downloads (most, in my experience) aren't working... i don't really think there is any excuse for the quality, or lack of, with this update.

 

[Rocksaurus]

Anyone notice they put a color screen on the 20 GB iPods and have 20 GB for US $299 and 60 GB for US $399?

hob - awesome avatar.

Edit- Has the 1 GB iPod Shuffle always been US $129??

 

[Xenious]

Has anyone used a 3G with 4.9. What happens with podcasts, does the updater change anything in the menu structure?

Sorry for questions, am 300km from my ipod.....

It makes a podcast playlist, but there is no firmware update for a podcast main menu option like on the 4G's.

 

[hob]

hob - awesome avatar.

Edit- Has the 1 GB iPod Shuffle always been US $129??

Thank you!

Yes it has!

Nice quote!

 

[ravenvii]

Well here's your 5G iPod. The iPod Photo is no more. Guess next week's event is solely focused on the iTunes mobile phones.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Anyone notice they put a color screen on the 20 GB iPods and have 20 GB for US $299 and 60 GB for US $399?

hob - awesome avatar.

Edit- Has the 1 GB iPod Shuffle always been US $129??

No they used to be 150 US.

Too bad I just bought a 512.
I really like it though.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Something odd happened today when I connected my iPod my computer at work running iTunes 4.9.

It said that the iPod wasn't linked to the library (which it should say) and then it asked if I wanted to link it (I said no) and then it added the podcasts to my iPod!

Now I can't get them off till I go home. How weird!

 

[reedm007]

yeah, won't work with my shuffle... how could all these issues not have been discovered prior to release? the podcast library still isnt working consistently, some downloads (most, in my experience) aren't working... i don't really think there is any excuse for the quality, or lack of, with this update.

You do realize Apple isn't hosting these, right? I have a feeling all this traffic has maxed out the bandwidth for a lot of these podcasts...

 

[mxpiazza]

Has the 1 GB iPod Shuffle always been US $129??

no... it has always been $99/$149, with the EDU splits at $99/$129

now the splits are $99/$119

 

[jared_kipe]

The fanboys make a lot of noise on forums like these, but I doubt they have any impact at all on Apples' bottom line.

Mine works fine, must be scrubed with jhymn to remove the <iods> tag. which was needed on 4.7 or something.

 

[s10]

no iPhnow, but "any" phone?

Here are screenshots from the new phone dialog boxes. (When you open iTunes for Windows with Microsoft VisualStudio, you can preview all the dialog boxes.)

the phone references are very generic in these dialog boxes, making me think their will be different cellphones that will handle iTunes, hopefully not just from Motorola.

 

[mxpiazza]

You do realize Apple isn't hosting these, right? I have a feeling all this traffic has maxed out the bandwidth for a lot of these podcasts...

i realize that, but i know MANY people won't... they could have put something into the program that interprets if that is a problem, then gives you a pop-up box explaining the issue... its those things that make apple products easy to use and so self-explanitory... thats something Apple usually would do, but is another oversight of this upgrade.

 

[swirlboy]

3Gs Left in the Podcast Dust

The latest updater only has new software for newer iPod models (basically all the ones with click wheels). Podcasts are working fine with the older iPods, iTunes knows enough to file them as regular songs and playlists.

I do get the Podcast playlist, but all of my episodes from multiple podcasts are jumbled up in one disorganised playlist. Not very pleased with how Apple handled this. Why didn't all iPod models get the update with the CORRECT podcasting support? If it's a more technical hurdle for 3Gs, hopefully they'll find a way over it soon.

I tried a work-around by attempting to set up smart playlists for each podcast, but the smart playlists can't even find the podcasts in the podcast section. If I manually move the episodes to the main library (by dragging from the podcast list to the library icon), then I can utilize the the smart playlists. But how convenient is that?

Because of this limited podcast support for my 3G iPod, I may just stick to iPodderX which CAN make and update playlists automatically for my iPod model.

This is disapointing because I got all excited when I discovered the ability to sync podcasts on a second, in my case work, computer with no restriction. (I guess there is no restriction since podcasts are free). BUT if you copy them over to the main library, iTunes considers them music again and you are restricted. I may just use iTunes for podcasts I get from work for the trip home, and iPodderX at home for better, easier podcast organization.

 

[mxpiazza]

the phone references are very generic in these dialog boxes, making me think their will be different cellphones that will handle iTunes, hopefully not just from Motorola.

thats what i was hoping... i think it would be awesome if apple is co-developing a phone to work more seamlessly with iTunes, but if they made iTunes mobile compatible with a host of pre-existing phones. who knows though, i guess we'll find out on the 7th. i just wish that Apple held off on releasing iTunes 4.9 until then, and worked out all the kinks instead.

 

[Wash!!]

This stuff is cool!!!

I had try the other podcast programs and I must admit I did not see the attraction to this but that is now build into itunes I find it easy to find the podcasts and I actually subscribed to several of them and I can said "I dig it" now

 

[winmacguy]

Just downloaded it. Is it me or is MacRumors, MacBytes Dead? There were no posts yesterday on either (or was it a US holiday?).

Anyway, yep I just got 4.9 from software update. It's smaller than usual iTunes, weighing in at 9.9mb

Mudbug must be in "summer mode" I was posting over most of the weekend and on Monday as well and nothing was being shown on Macbytes..... (although it is now)

 

[feakbeak]

yeah, won't work with my shuffle... how could all these issues not have been discovered prior to release? the podcast library still isnt working consistently, some downloads (most, in my experience) aren't working... i don't really think there is any excuse for the quality, or lack of, with this update.

As for the apparent lack of Podcasting support on older iPods and possibly the Shuffles as well, I would agree that is just bad. I suppose not updating the old iPods is understandable as you cannot support them forever and you can still listen to the Podcasts it is just not as organized but you should be able to easily move Podcasts onto your Shuffle.

As for the problems with downloading it is probably not Apple's fault. I am sure most of these Podcasting sites are all getting record traffic. I bet many of the downloads are failing due to bandwidth limitations on the provider side - Apple is not hosting these Podcasts themselves. Although, I agree this behavior does reflect poorly on the new feature but it is really out of Apple's hands unless they choose to start hosting some of the more popular Podcasts in which case they'd probably start charging money to recoup the costs. I wouldn't mind so much provided that the prices were low (a fraction of a penny per MB for example) and have that money used to cover bandwidth costs only (doubtful).

Edit: Even if Apple trapped errors server side and displayed a message about why the podcast download failed, as you suggested, it would still reflect poorly on Apple. The average consumer we're talking about isn't going to read or care about that error message - they will still think the same thing as if the download had simply failed without an accurate error message, which is "This doesn't work, come on Apple."

 

[Stella]

Nothing new, apple always leave the last generations out in major upgrades.

Occurred with G2 and now G3.

Feel fortunate apple came out with the major update a few months back - its the first time they've done that for models prior to the latest.

I do get the Podcast playlist, but all of my episodes from multiple podcasts are jumbled up in one disorganised playlist. Not very pleased with how Apple handled this. Why didn't all iPod models get the update with the CORRECT podcasting support? If it's a more technical hurdle for 3Gs, hopefully they'll find a way over it soon.

I tried a work-around by attempting to set up smart playlists for each podcast, but the smart playlists can't even find the podcasts in the podcast section. If I manually move the episodes to the main library (by dragging from the podcast list to the library icon), then I can utilize the the smart playlists. But how convenient is that?

Because of this limited podcast support for my 3G iPod, I may just stick to iPodderX which CAN make and update playlists automatically for my iPod model.

This is disapointing because I got all excited when I discovered the ability to sync podcasts on a second, in my case work, computer with no restriction. (I guess there is no restriction since podcasts are free). BUT if you copy them over to the main library, iTunes considers them music again and you are restricted. I may just use iTunes for podcasts I get from work for the trip home, and iPodderX at home for better, easier podcast organization.

 

[amberashby]

The 3rd Generation iPod remains at 2.3, which is a shame. I can use podcasts, but they're lumped together with my music. Doesn't really help.

My 3G now has a "Podcasts" playlist and they all go there. I didn't even do the update. Look at your iPod.

 

[jncrow]

podcast sites down

Man what is with all the podcast sites being down. Tried to see what they had to say about the release and podcastalley.com is down as well as ipodder.org...Wonder if it is some degree of intigration that they are having to put together...

 

[Dahl]

The Podcast page background page is fugly.
A bad violet, yikes.