As Steve Jobs promised, iTunes 4.9 has now been released and includes podcasting support (Mac and Windows versions available, free). I just downloaded, installed, and checked out. Here are some quick thoughts:

- unless you want iTunes to take control of most of your audio extensions and Quicktime to handle your video be sure to uncheck the box during setup.
- installation process was smooth and trouble free
- A new top level directory directly beneath “Library” contains podcasts that when clicked takes you to a special area with many podcasts, including promoting “publish podcasts to the music store.”
- a special “Indie Podcasts” section features eight podcasts including Inside Mac Radio, the Gillmor Gang and the Dawn and Drew show
- a search reveals Webmaster Cookbook is available, so it seems that they also went off the OPML directory
- count me in the (small?) group that doesn’t like the window in window approach of the iTunes store. I’d much prefer that to be undocked so I could see it full screen with my sidebar. I can drag to the second monitor and expand for a full view. On the Mac I don’t use any sidebars so I’m sure it looks good there (haven’t upgraded that yet and checked it out).

All in all, it’s nice to Apple support podcasting embracing instead of ignoring it or breaking out the lawyers and trying to shut it down because the name is too similar to one of its trademarks.

Did this post make you go hmm?

 Loading ...