iTunes 4.9 + Podcasting
Ok, its Tuesday and Dave was right. iTunes 4.9 is OUT. And man, GO GET IT. Apple really did an amazing job with their podcast support. I’m extremely impressed. Using the already proven interface of the iTunes Music Store is great for browsing and finding new podcasts. Not only that, but man, the podcasts don’t just sit in your iTunes. Apple has added a “Podcasts” section to the left navigation bar in iTunes (per my request *grin*). From there you can browse all of your podcasts. They gave you the option to control which podcasts will by synced to your iPod and how many.
Added to the podcasting support is multi-chaptered AAC files. Now you can have bookmarks, or chapters, in your files. These chapters can have seperate artwork attached to them as well. This is sick when it comes to podcasting. Now when listening to an engadget podcast and they start talking about a new mobile device, look over at the artwork, and its showing you that device. Want to know more about it? Click on the artwork and it will link you to a URL. Its fantastic.
Apple also tossed an iPod update at us allowing support for podcasts and the multi-chaptered AAC files. iPod presents a scrub bar with lines on it to represent the chapters. Click forward and you skip to the next marker. Pretty simple. They also put a Podcast section on the main screen just like Audiobooks. Clicking this presents you with a list of your shows, click one and you see all their associated podcasts. Its wonderful, its just what I wanted, and its Apple’s 1.0 support for podcasting. I can’t friggen wait to see what’s next.
Update: When scrubbing through a chaptered podcast, iPod shows you the title of that chapter. Click again and you’ll see a description of that show in full text. WOW! Apple really went all out for their podcast support.
- PT has a nice quick review up at MAKE
- Flickr
- Technorati