Amazon vs. iTunes Store

I just noticed that amazon.com is selling DRM-free MP3 downloads, either individually (from $0.89) or as albums (from $4.99). And their downloader helper app automatically adds them to my iTunes library!

Sweet.

I was happy when Apple announced DRM-free downloads, but the reality has been that few, if any, songs I want are available from iTunes DRM-free. :-(

But Amazon’s selection seems good. All of it is DRM-free. And prices are comparable or cheaper than iTunes’ DRM music. (iTunes’ DRM-free music costs even more.)

Try this out quick before Apple decides to “enhance” iTunes to prevent it.

SOLUTION to iTunes: I’m not done listening to that!

Hallelujah! I figured out a solution to my previous rant about iTunes removing podcasts from my iPod before I wanted.

With the iPod plugged into iTunes (7.4.3.1), navigate to your iPod (under Devices). The displayed page typically shows the “Summary” tab; select the “Podcasts” tab. I was using the Sync “all new” setting. When I change it to the “all unplayed” setting, I get the behavior I want: It leaves podcasts on my iPod until I have played beyond the end. (At which point iTunes will display a non-empty “Last Played” date for the podcast – but only in the Libarary / Podcasts screen, not the Devices / my iPod / Podcasts screen.)

The key here is that:

• “new” means never started listening to
• “unplayed” means never finished listening to

This appears to be the opposite of what Apple’s FAQ states:

If you are syncing podcasts automatically to your iPod, do not set the Podcast Preference in iTunes to keep only your unplayed episodes. If you select this setting, listen to part of a podcast on your iPod, and then sync, the podcast will disappear from iTunes.

And this seems to be because at some point Apple changed their terminology from just “unplayed / played” to “new (unplayed) / not new (unplayed) / played”. (See this thread.)

And why is it I can never find all these useful postings until after I’ve figured out the solution? Once I know the solution, I know the right search terms to use. Just like you can’t use the dictionary to learn the spelling for a word without already knowing how to spell it.

iTunesU: More than a podcast? Unfortunately, less.

iTunes now has the iTunesU section where universities can post content, typically class lectures. It allows universities to have a more organized and branded presence in iTunes than just a collection of podcasts.

But let’s be clear. These are still, at heart, podcasts.

That’s not bad; in fact, it’s good. Because the capabilities provided by the podcast mechanism fits perfectly with what a lecture series needs.

Listeners need a way to subscribe so that they automatically receive new lectures in the series. They need a way to listen to a long lecture that allows interruptions and remembers their place so they can return to it. And they need a way to remember which lectures they’ve listened to and which they haven’t yet heard. Exactly what a traditional podcast accomplishes.

Why then do hardly any iTunesU downloads avail themselves of any of these featuers?!

(Insert expletives between every other word in the preceding sentence.)

I.e. why can’t all iTunesU offerings do the following?

• Offer downloads through regular podcast subscription.
• Check the Remember playback position option.
• Check the Skip when shuffling option.
• Have them show up in the Podcast list until they’ve been completely listened to. Then have them disappear.

I am soooo frustrated every time I download from iTunesU and forget to manually check Remember playback position and Skip when shuffling. I seem to repeat this scenario endlessly: I listen to half of a 90 minute lecture on the bus going to work. At work I listen to music (occasionally shuffling from songs into another 90 minute lecture – oops). Then on the bus home, I discover that I’ve lost my place in the morning lecture. (But universities must think that a fit punishment for not enjoying the lecture in a single sitting.)

Some will be quick to point out that, because the universities assume I wont want their downloaded lectures automatically deleted from my iPod or iTunes after I listen to it, I must not want a traditional podcast. While this might be typically true for an enrolled student taking the class for credit, I believe it is typically not true for the rest of the world.

My point is to give us a choice. Why not make the lectures available both as a traditional podcast and a new pseudo-podcast? (Will you at least enable the Remember playback position and Skip when shuffling options? Who would not want that??)

My understanding is that this is not a limitation of iTunesU, but a choice made by the particular iTunesU author. And that even though none of the universities I listen to enable these features, there are some who do. I.e, it is the choice or inexperience of the university which causes this.

If it’s inexperience, I’m surprised Apple doesn’t do a better job of giving guidance. Ditto if it’s choice, actually.

iTunes: Each playlist needs a checkbox

Like individual songs, each playlist needs a checkbox to decide whether it gets sync’d to an iPod or not.

I have lots of playlists, only a few are relevant to my mobile listening needs. But I’m forced to scroll through a ton of playlists on my iPod to find the relevant ones.

iTunes: Podcast settings need to be per-subscription

It makes sense to have global (default) podcast settings. But you need to be able to override them per podcast subscription.

I’m talking about whether to download all new episodes, or only the most recent. And how many episodes to keep (all, all unplayed, or the most recent n).

I have some podcasts that I only want the most recent n (and n is different per-subscription!); others I want all unplayed. (I can see how some people would want to keep all episodes period.)

I always want to download all new episodes. Unless I happen to only retain the most recent one episode, in which case it’s equivalent, though unnecessary (and hence an unnecessary UI complication), to specify to download only the most recent.

This grates on me even more because the behavior is not solely dependent on the settings (like it should be), but also on whether you leave iTunes open all the time or not. Here’s what I mean: Configure iTunes to download only the most recent, and to retain the most recent 4. If you leave iTunes running all the time, you always have the most recent 4 published episodes. If, however, you only open iTunes once a week, and the podcast publishes daily, you’ll have 4 episodes, one from each of the 4 most recent weeks.

Currently I leave iTunes running all the time so I don’t miss things. This is frustrating because iTunes is such a computer resource hog that it slows down my system.

Is there any good here? iTunes does support per-subscription override for whether to auto-delete or not. That’s good.