How Do I Get Podcasts Without iTunes? (Zune HD & others)
A few weeks ago, we talked about the Zune HD. While it’s a great device that was easy to be excited about with it’s OLED screen, 480 x 272 video resolution and HD radio capabilities, listener Keith brought up an important point we didn’t discuss. It’s clear that Apple’s iTunes won’t support Microsoft’s media device, so where are users supposed to get their podcasts?
Keith’s question represented a pretty universal conundrum. While content providers like NPR have been providing listeners with downloadable audio recordings for years, it wasn’t until Apple added such content to their iTunes player under the title of ‘podcast’ that the internet radio show really began to take off. Apple takes care of its players with powerful software solutions and MS has it’s own media app (which we discuss in detail below) that does, for the most part what iTunes does. But we wanted to go farther than that because let’s face it; some people want to take a more independent route from the big guys’ media solutions, supporting other software developers without sacrificing ease of use. Still others are into devices besides Zunes and iPods, like, say the SanDisk Sansa series— where are they supposed to get their content from? To that end, we’ve made this post.
Well Keith, here goes our list, in no particular order:
1. Zune Software 4.0 is up and ready for download. The software takes care of all the needs of a Zune owner, from Podcasts to purchasing of individual pieces of media, through to getting your hands on a Zune Music Pass.
The new software, released September 15th, allows for a Pandora-like shuffle called ‘Smart DJ’, in addition to ‘Mixview,’ a mode that claims to showa you social & artistic connections between other albums, artists and even fans. Shortcuts made available via ‘Quickplay.’
MS is obviously looking to be competitive when it comes to podcasts.
Video currently includes Family Guy, Web Soup (E!’s Talk Soup for the Web), and Tekzilla. Standout audio titles include such notables as This Week in Tech and Windows Weekly.
A total 1-Stop-Shop for Zune HD users and owners of previous Zunes.
2. Winamp may have been around for more than a decade, but there’s a reason for that. Between it’s insta-search library features and it’s myriad skinning choices, they’ve kept current, and podcasting is no exception.
Since at least Q2 of 2008, Winamp’s media library has featured a podcast search interface. While it’s slim on typographical error correction, and it’s auto-download feature is not without it’s problems, it’s still a pretty robust integrated player/podcast solution.
3. JUICE (formerly named iPodder) is another application that makes subscribing to podcasts easy. There focus here isn’t to be an all-in-one player, but if you’re looking to shove content into your mobile media device, that shouldnt matter to you. JUICE’s mission is to get your podcasts from their source to your hard drive.
JUICE’s site has a host of images but this one’s significant because it shows how the program displays subscriptions, which is what we’re focusing on.
4. PODNOVA is a web-based client that claims it’s the “best way to find, subscribe, share, play and download podcasts.” As a web-based podcast system it’s pretty robust. PODNOVA not only seeks to deliver subscriptions, but to create entire channels of content that can be downloaded to your machine.
While you can use Windows Media Player to move any content on your hard drive to your personal media device, Podnova’s mobile solution, located at m.podnova.com, allows you to login from wifi, EDGE or 3G networks and download your pre-selected Podnova channel content to your mobile device.
In order to garner a better understanding of the Channels that Podnova encourages you to create, check out their video tutorial (Apple Quicktime or VLC browser plug-in required). It’s a great little video that shows you the power of Podnova.
5. In proper PC fashion, Windows Media Player (prior to version 11) allows multiple plug-ins to work in concert with the way it manages media for your device. Your job is to configure the plug-ins— after that most of them lay low in the background for the most part, checking-in from time to see what changes have occurred to your requested podcast feeds and then downloading them.
Again, there are myriad choices for these plug-ins, so we won’t go into them in great detail here but for those interested, check out Doppler, Primetime Podcast Receiver, RSS Radio, and Nimiq.
Possible problems with such plug-ins include incompatability with ongoing Windows Media Player upgrades and patches, as well as user frustration when Internet connectivity is slowed or processor usage spikes due to said plug-ins cropping up to find and download your requested content. The bottom line is that you have to keep on them, which is something many people might find burdensome.
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Most podcast authors place their content on an RSS feed in addition to making it available on iTunes (if not before, since iTunes requires an approval process and RSS feeds don’t). Several programs catalogue and search for these feeds in order to automatically download podcasts for users. That’s how a lot of the above-mentioned software pieces work.
It’s obvious that we couldn’t get into every way to subscribe and transfer podcasts from their source to your mobile media device, but the above are some of the more popular solutions. They show that getting content onto your new toy should be relatively painless, even without iTunes.
If anyone reading this has anything else to add in terms of suggestions/solutions for podcast subscriptions services outside of iTunes or Window’s solution, please drop your comments below.
