iTunes complaint and search for replacement

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Grundbegriff
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iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by Grundbegriff »

Is it just me? Or is iTunes terrible?

My needs are simple. I have an iPod Nano, and I use a Windows laptop. I want to be able to do the following:

(a)
Given an existing podcast (e.g., History of Rome, History of the English Language, History of Philosophy), I would like to subscribe, download them a few at a time in chronological order, and keep them on the Nano until I listen to them.

(b)
Given a daily podcast, (e.g., a daily news broadcast), I would like to subscribe, configure to keep the most recent N episodes on the Nano, and not have the software interrupt this freshening if I haven't listened to it in a while.

In my view, that's not too much to ask. But I find that if I have a daily podcast and neglect it for a while, and then decide to pay it some attention, iTunes has stopped bothering to download it at some point, say a few weeks prior, because it knows better than I do what my priorities are. And I find that no combination of configuration settings (e.g., "oldest first", keep 5, ...) on the podcast configuration screens in iTunes will achieve (a) for me; iTunes really, really wants me to listen latest first.

Help? Is there some software other than iTunes that is generally understood to be much better? Am I missing the boat? If so, what's the boat?
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razgon
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by razgon »

For podcasts you will want pocket cast which does exactly what you want. It's a 10 dollar one time purchase though, on EACH platform. Mobile and browser, but it's the best.
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by Jeff V »

Grundbegriff wrote: is iTunes terrible?
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The Meal
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Post by The Meal »

iTunes is terrible. iTunes handling podcasts is even more shameful (somehow).
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by Smoove_B »

I am part of the group that thinks iTunes is terrible. I don't listen to podcasts (driving a car from 2003 with no audio input for modern technology is so retro) so I missed out on the announcement that Amazon Prime members can get podcasts (or whatever they're calling it) and audio books from Audible. I don't know if this provides a better solution in any capacity, so if you didn't know about it (and are a Prime member), I figured I'd mention it.
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stessier
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by stessier »

I also don't like iTunes - so thanks for the heads up on Audible!

I manage my podcasts manually. I don't let iTunes sync anything - I go in and download new podcasts once a week and transfer them to my MP3 player. It's a pain, but I don't lose anything this way.
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RunningMn9
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by RunningMn9 »

stessier wrote:I manage my podcasts manually.
This, and I do it on my phone, so I don't end up using iTunes (the app) at all. This of course doesn't help Grund, who is trying to get stuff on a Nano.
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by MonkeyFinger »

What about Media Monkey? I've used it in the past and it seemed to be a pretty complete suite, it also has a "Podcatcher" for automatically handling the downloading and syncing of those. All that in the free version.
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Enough
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Re: iTunes complaint and search for replacement

Post by Enough »

razgon wrote:For podcasts you will want pocket cast which does exactly what you want. It's a 10 dollar one time purchase though, on EACH platform. Mobile and browser, but it's the best.
I love Pocketcasts! And good news, on Android at least it's only $3.99. I have recently really gotten into the chromecast feature so I can very easily send the podcast to the big speakers when I am doing stuff around the house.
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