Podcasts on PowerPC

[InAWhiteRoom]

Hi all,

I’m trying to find a way to listen to podcasts on either a G4 iMac or PowerBook, both running leopard. It’s looking like iTunes 10.6.3 won’t allow podcast downloads, though.

Are there any alternative, lightweight programmes that I could try instead? Or, does anyone know of a workaround to get podcasts working again?

I was thinking of using the snow leopard beta on the PowerBook, but I’m not certain if I can go beyond iTunes 10.6.3 even with this.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[B S Magnet]

Hi all,

I’m trying to find a way to listen to podcasts on either a G4 iMac or PowerBook, both running leopard. It’s looking like iTunes 10.6.3 won’t allow podcast downloads, though.

Are there any alternative, lightweight programmes that I could try instead? Or, does anyone know of a workaround to get podcasts working again?

I was thinking of using the snow leopard beta on the PowerBook, but I’m not certain if I can go beyond iTunes 10.6.3 even with this.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I can only speak to the compatibility of iTunes with SL-PPC:

The latest version to run on Build 10A96 is iTunes 10.4.1. It resembles 10.6.3 in virtually every way, but it lacks some new, iOS-device-related components/frameworks introduced with iTunes 10.5.0–10.6.3 which prevent it from running on 10A96. iTunes 10.4.1 can tune into iTunes radio, but I have not tested podcast suitability on it.

The latest version to run on Build 10A190 is iTunes 10.6.3. I have not personally tinkered with this combination just yet, so I’m not able to speak on podcast server compatibility.

 

[davisdelo]

You should be able to use any RSS app to subscribe to a podcast feed. Of course you’ll need to know the url for the feed, probably not the most elegant solution.

 

[InAWhiteRoom]

You should be able to use any RSS app to subscribe to a podcast feed. Of course you’ll need to know the url for the feed, probably not the most elegant solution.

Thanks - I’ve had some success with this approach.

I can download the mp3 file of the podcast episode directly by accessing the podcast feed via TenFourFox’s integrated RSS viewer, and then import this file into iTunes.

It’s an extra few steps, but it does mean my iMac and iPod are now nicely syncing podcast episodes 😁

I’ve had less success, though, with a dedicated RSS app - I tried an old (circa 2006) version of NetNewsWire, but it wouldn’t recognise quite a number of different feeds. Any thoughts about Leopard compatible RSS apps?

 

[davisdelo]

Any thoughts about Leopard compatible RSS apps?

I gotta say I’m not really knowledgeable of many RSS apps beyond the obvious NetNewsWire. The only alternative that comes to mind is RSSOwl.

 

[InAWhiteRoom]

I gotta say I’m not really knowledgeable of many RSS apps beyond the obvious NetNewsWire. The only alternative that comes to mind is RSSOwl.

Thanks! I’ll take a look at RSSOwl 🦉

 

[Riku7]

I have an iMac G4 running Leopard. My experience is that it doesn't let me subscribe to some podcasts, but it does allow others. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the age of the podcast, but it's somehow related to the way they're delivered. It's completely random which ones work. I swear I am getting updates of new episodes on some podcasts.

I like to listen to podcasts on that Mac regardless, and there's actually a workaround for gathering all your podcasts to iTunes anyway: I subscribe to the podcasts that work, and the rest, I download with a different machine, and move to the G4's iTunes! They appear into the podcast tab as if they had been downloaded there in the usual way. If any podcast is downloaded directly from a website or otherwise isn't from iTunes, it will end up into the regular music library side of iTunes as a standard mp3. To fix that, select the item in iTunes, hit +i, then from the info window, find a selection where you can define its type as Podcast instead of Music. Click OK, and it will move to the Podcasts tab and act like one! The most important point being that it remembers which podcasts you have listened to and which ones you haven't, and, if you don't listen to the whole episode in one go, it will remember where you were.

I think you can also try adding podcast rss addresses manually, so finding them from the iTunes store really isn't your only option for getting content to the Podcasts tab. Out of the three methods, finding actual mp3 files and adding them to iTunes as podcasts manually seems to be the most reliable way to succeed every time.