gPodder

• Homepage: http://perli.net/projekte/gpodder/
• Version: 0.8.0 (07/28/2006)
• Platform: GNU/Linux
• License: GNU GPL

gPodder—Copies podcasts directly to your iPod

gPodder has the advantage of being able to copy podcasts directly to your iPod. You subscribe to podcast feeds using gPodder’s “channels”: simply paste the feed URL, select the content you’d like to download, and press the download button. By default, they’re added to the podcast playlist, so they’re considered actual podcasts by the iPod! An excellent feature that allows you to use the iPod’s full podcast functionality, such as remembering where you were. Under the Podcasts menu, you can both Sync to iPod and clean up iPod podcasts.

On the downside, for each downloaded file, the artist field is overwritten with “gPodder podcast”, and it doesn’t look like that can be reconfigured.

Overall, gPodder is an excellent program for managing your podcasts; it’s lightweight and clean, which I prefer.

BashPodder

• Homepage: http://linc.homeunix.org:8080/scripts/bashpodder/
• Version: 1.2 (09/14/2006)
• Platform: All (requires bash, wget and sed)
• License: GNU GPL

BashPodder brings the base functionality of an aggregator down to its barest essentials—just tell it what feed you want it to check and which directory to put the downloaded content in. Using the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid), BashPodder consists of just three files: a crontab friendly script, an XML stylesheet, and a text list of feeds. There is a GUI available, but that kind of defeats the purpose of such a minimalistic approach. I like this no-nonsense approach: just paste the source URL into the feed list and the next time the script is executed, the feed will be checked and new content acquired.

Other iPod Managers

There are other “free” iPod managers, some cross platform, others platform specific. Development on the plugin foo_pod for the audio player foobar2000 (closed source with a BSD API) has ended with feature completion for the 4G and no current plans for anything above. There’s a plugin for Winamp, which is being overshadowed by the recent inclusion of official internal iPod support. EphPod is closed source, and while it seems to work well for anything under a 4G, it hasn’t been updated in years. The manager Media Monkey comes in two flavors: a no-cost no-nags version, and a commercial version with additional functionality. However, it lacks essential features like duplicate checking.

Visit the Wikipedia article Comparison of iPod Managers for a good roundup and comparison of these other utilities.

Firmware Replacement

There’s another more drastic direction that you can take: replacing the iPod’s operating system. While not for the faint of heart (you run an extremely slim chance of bricking your player), you can completely unlock the potential of your iPod using free software.

Replacing the iPod’s operating system can completely unlock the potential of your iPod

iPodLinux

• Homepage: http://ipodlinux.org/
• License: GNU GPL

iPodLinux is custom uClinux kernel with an interface named podzilla. Dozens of applications in the form of modules have been written to add functionality and value, including utilities like text keypads and screen locks, and games like chess and tetris. Using the Music Player Daemon (MPD), it supports MP3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, and AAC files. It’s under a state of constant development, but in my opinion it’s not a mature, stable application yet.

Rockbox

• Homepage: http://www.rockbox.org/
• License: GNU GPL v2

Rockbox is a free and mature operating system/firmware replacement, and it’s not limited to just iPods—Archos, iriver, and iAudio devices are also supported. It plays back many formats, including MPEG audio, Ogg Vorbis, Musepack, AAC, AC3, FLAC, WavPack, Shorten, Apple Lossless, and WAV. It comes bundled with many applications and games, including Brickmania, Chess, Doom, Snake, Space Invaders, Game Boy emulation, and much more. The last time I was on a business trip, my flight was delayed, but the Rockbox applications helped time pass by much faster. Best of all, Rockbox has an excellent implementation of gapless playback built in by default.

Neither iPodLinux nor Rockbox have official stand-alone installers, but if you follow their simple step-by-step instructions, you’ll be fine. Overall, because of its maturity, functionality, and support, I prefer Rockbox over both the official iPod firmware and iPodLinux.

Conclusion

I currently use gtkpod when managing my iTunesDB, gPodder for subscriptions, and Rockbox when I want to completely liberate my iPod. Fortunately, there are many free tools and options for iPod management, so you should now be able to find your own balance between the functionality you crave and the interface you prefer.