Thursday, November 13, 2008

Preference settings per podcast

Under the label Instructions, I try to compile a set of help posts, giving some guidance to listening to podcasts and more. The first four are a quick guide for the beginner:

1- listen on line
2- download audio files
3- get iTunes
4- put feeds in iTunes

The next post I made, explains about RSS. This mainly showed how you can sign-up with an RSS reader (Google reader) and start following this blog.
5- RSS readers

6- For advanced users I posted my own strategy to manage podcast feeds by the dozens with the combined use of iTunes and Google Reader.

On the same subject an update for those big users of iTunes.

You have been suffering, like myself, I assume, from the default settings for podcasts: download the latest episode. This sounds like a nice middle road between the other two options download all episodes or do nothing. However, even with this method, once you are subscribed to a medium amount of podcasts, bit by bit, iTunes will fill up you storage room with endless stream of audio you probably are never going to listen to, even if you wanted to.

Therefore, like me, I assume, you have changed this setting to do nothing, leaving it for you to occasionally drop by iTunes and decide what to download and what to leave on-line. This is where I used Google Reader as an early warning system. Although it works fine and this still is my default approach, with version 8, iTunes has improved the options.

You can now set the preferences for each podcast specifically. This comes in especially handy for those podcasts you are sure you want ot listen to, or those notorious podfaders like the UCSD and BBC podcasts. When you select your podcast in the list, down the bottom of your screen you can click settings... and the dialog comes up. Choose well and live happily ever after.



The only thing left to desire is that you can access this option through a right click on the podcast, and not just by select and the clicking settings downstairs. We're getting there all right.

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