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Appendix: the Microsoft Zune

The desktop client of the Microsoft Zune allows for podcatching and synchronizing – just like Doppler, Juice and iTunes (and unlike WMP 11). I found it useful to include this section in this guide as

1.	after all, the Zune is a portable device :)

2.	Microsoft promises "Zune store integration", which is quite a bit similar to that of Nokia’s on-device music store solution. One can only hope Microsoft also makes the podcatching and synchronizing capabilities of the desktop Zune version 2+ available for Windows Mobile clients as well – even if "only" on the desktop side, and not natively on the Windows Mobile clients (unlike, say, the way Nokia implemented their Podcasting app).

The desktop podcatcher component of Zune has no timing capabilities (it starts downloading new episodes as soon as you connect or wirelessly sync your Zune, which also starts the Zune app on the desktop), which may be a bit disappointing, particularly if you have a lot to download (which may also greatly slow down the desktop) and/or have a slow connection and, therefore, need to wait a lot for all the new episodes to download. Nevertheless, it has a very simple and logical interface, which is really easy to use, while still offering advanced capabilities like feed-specific retention and synchronization settings (the ability to set the number of episodes to store on the desktop / on the Zune, from 1 to 10 and including all).

It also has a built-in search, should you want to avoid having to directly paste the feed URL's to Zune. All you need to do is just entering the name of the podcast feed (like "modaco") to the search input field. It found most the English and German test podcasts. It, however, didn't contain anything Finnish from THIS list, not even English-language ones like Radio Free Finland. I needed to add these feeds, then, one by one.

Unfortunately, it doesn't support OPML import – not even in the current, just-released, 3.0 milestone version. It didn't have problems with parsing any of the directly entered URL's, unlike some of the tested apps.

Some screenshots (of version 2.X; the latest, 3.0 version isn't at all different when it comes to podcatching):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082008Podcasting/zune20podcast.jpg

(General settings)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082008Podcasting/zune20podcastseriesstting.jpg

(Feed-specific settings)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082008Podcasting/zune20podcastmain.jpg

(Main podcasts screen, showing all the subscribed feeds on the left and the episodes in the middle; the state of the current download etc.)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082008Podcasting/zune20syncgroups.jpg

(sync group-view, also showing the total space)

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082008Podcasting/zune20justsyncing.jpg

(Just Syncing-view)

Unfortunately, the Zune client does have its share of problems. For example, it entirely lacks MP4 (m4a) chapter support (like the ones in the enhanced MoDaCo podcast feeds or the Tiesto feed). Not even the just-released 3.0 desktop/device software fixed this.

Also note that Zunes can't update traditional podcasts over the air (only the newly (in version 3) added channels, but these channels can't be manually created) without the need for syncing with the desktop Zune software. Yeah, I know podcatching (with everything involved: incompatible feeds, incompatible formats can't be natively played back on the Zune etc.) isn't at all trivial; still, I would really welcome full podcasting client support as opposed to the pre-made, no-user-channels-possible channel syncing currently supported. Microsoft could, for example, just port the podcatching code from the desktop software to the device firmware. It's pretty solid and dependable; again, it was able to sync to all the feeds I've thrown at it not necessarily present in Microsoft's library.

(Some other, Zune & podcatching-related articles:

How to manage podcasts in the Zune software: this is the current one; also applies to 3.0.

Some examples of old, outdated, pre-version 2 tutorials:

How to Manage Podcast Content With Your Zune and HOWTO: Podcasting with a Zune. These are, again, outdated; now, there is absolutely no need to use an additional podcatcher in addition to the desktop-side Zune app. (This is also reflected by ExtremeTech's initial article Zune: iPod Killer or Half-Baked Flop?). Note that it was with the release of Zune 2 a year ago that podcatching has been added to the desktop software.)