How to update podcast subscriptions on a storage device?

December 28, 2008 4:19 PM

How can I get my podcast subscriptions to automatically update on an SD card similar to the way iTunes will load new ones/delete old ones on an iPod?

After a milk spillage incident, my iPod went through a few stages of deteriorating functionality over a few weeks before finally giving out. This is upsetting because I have a very repetitive job at which I am not allowed internet access but I do have computer access. I rely on podcasts/music to pass the time while I perform my rote job function.

I've resolved to use the SD card that I got with my cell phone like a USB flash drive. I've got a USB adapter for the card, so I can just plug it into my work computer and play whatever audio files through Windows Media Player. The problem is that it's rather cumbersome for me to manually replace all of my old podcasts with the new ones for every new work day.

What I'm looking for is a program that will be able to automatically detect if a newer podcast has been downloaded and, if so, replace the old podcast in a specified folder with the new one. Does anything like this exist?

posted by Team of Scientists to computers & internet (4 comments total)

The easiest way I can think: Continue to use itunes as before. Then use something like rsync, carbon copy cloner or superduper to sync your music/itunes/podcasts directory with your SD card. You could probably even make an automator script to do this automatically when you insert the USB adaptor.
posted by Popular Ethics at 4:59 PM on December 28, 2008

use Juice
posted by dripped at 5:19 PM on December 28, 2008

It's possible to do part of what you're talking about with Foobar2000. You'd set up an autoplaylist that was populated by every file in your downloaded podcasts directory, then set up a file operation to copy or move all those files to the drive of your choice. Not the most direct solution to the problem, but it would work just fine. I don't think it could handle removing old podcasts, though; you'd have to do that manually.

As for downloading podcasts, I use FeedStation/FeedDemon. I tried Juice some time ago and didn't particularly like it.
posted by sinfony at 6:09 PM on December 28, 2008

Google for "sync non apple ipod with itunes". The reason is because many non-apple ipods appear as plain old filesystems, just like your SD card. This should get you on the right track.
posted by chairface at 9:35 PM on December 28, 2008