Managing podcasts

[podcastlistener]

I'm thinking about getting an iPhone or iPod touch and want to listen to podcasts. With my current MP3 player/software combination I have a problem dealing with podcasts. So I'm wondering if iTunes+iPod/iPhone can do what I want. This is what I'm looking for:

I want to be able to have a playlist containing all podcasts that I haven't listened to. When a new podcast comes out I want to be able to sync with iTunes and have the new podcast get appended to the playlist. Preferably I should not have to choose which podcasts to append. All new podcasts should just be automatically appended. I don't want to have to make a new playlist everytime I download a new podcast and I don't want to lose my place in the playlist. I just want to sync the podcast and have it show up in my podcast playlist. Once I've listened to a podcast I want it to be deleted and taken off of the playlist. Thus the playlist should just act like a queue where podcasts that have been listened to get deleted and new podcasts get appended. I know that iTunes/iPod has some functionality in dealing with podcasts, but can it do all of this? If not, do you know of any device/software combination that can perhaps non-iPod or software for the iPod touch, something like that? If there's an application which can do this without syncing to iTunes, that would be work too.

Thanks!

 

[Nicksd84]

The iPod app has podcasts as a seperate category. It categorizes all podcasts and they leave off from wherever you were playing them. It syncs up perfectly with your iTunes podcast listings as they are updated. Additionally if you're not around a computer to sync you can download the podcast from the iTunes app and it'll be put into your iPod. It all works pretty flawlessly. Maybe not exactly what you want, but I think you'll be happy.

 

[podcastlistener]

So I know that iTunes has a podcast section and can download new Podcasts and delete old ones. Really what I'm looking for is to have a playlist (or something) that acts like a queue where new podcasts are automatically added to the bottom of the playlist and podcasts that have been listened to are deleted from the playlist. That's really the heart of what I'm looking for. Google Listen does it.. almost. It has a queue but you have to manually add new podcasts to the queue. Even that doesn't work for me because I have too many podcasts that come out at too many different times for me to keep track of all of them. I need all of my subscribed podcasts to be updated and automatically appended to the playlist/queue.

 

[honeytoast]

You can make a smart playlist to do what you want. Setup one with the rule Genre > Is > Podcast. If you do this and then set your podcast defaults to auto delete all played podcasts then I think you'll be set.

 

[podcastlistener]

You can make a smart playlist to do what you want. Setup one with the rule Genre > Is > Podcast. If you do this and then set your podcast defaults to auto delete all played podcasts then I think you'll be set.

I've heard that you can make a smart playlist of all the newest podcasts. I'm wondering: let's say I have a smart playlist on my iPod and I'm half way through it and in the middle of a podcast. Let's say a new podcast comes out and iTunes downloads it. Of course this new track will show up on my smart playlist in iTunes. I then go to sync my iPod with iTunes. When this happens, will I lose my place in the old playlist and podcast or will the new podcast be appended to the old playlist and my position in the playlist retained? More generally, how does iTunes deal with a mismatch between playlists in iTunes verses iPod? Does it just make a new playlist like "Smart Playlist 2" or overwrite the old playlist? If it overwrites, do I lose my place in the playlist?

 

[honeytoast]

iTunes will keep track of your place in any podcast that you listen to and that will be in sync with your iDevice. Also, as long as you set the podcast defaults to auto delete all played as mentioned before the playlist will just keep adding the new ones to the bottom of the list or per whichever sort option (Name, Time, Artist, Album) you have selected in the actual playlist.