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[glynor]

Okay, with my new iPhone I finally care about using Podcasts on an Apple handheld device, and about the whole "getting them to auto-resume" thing.  Since MC doesn't support the iPhone 3G natively yet, I have to use an absurd workaround to get it all to work (fricking Apple).

So... Since I haven't really been following along, I'd love it if someone who has can tell me the following:

1. What is the current status of MC and bookmarking on Podcasts and Audiobooks on iPods (including Nano 3gen, Touch, Classic, and iPhone 2G)?

2. With my "generic" workaround (described in the thread linked above), is there anything I need to or can do to get it working?

3. All my Podcasts show up in the Music section of my iPod, rather than the Podcast section (and auto-bookmarking doesn't work).  Anything I can do here?

Sooooo... Larry or SwellGuy... Some help here?

[lalittle]

Sorry it took me so long to see this -- that little "1" next to "My Messages" just doesn't grab my attention very easily.  I'll answer your questions as best I can:

1. What is the current status of MC and bookmarking on Podcasts and Audiobooks on iPods (including Nano 3gen, Touch, Classic, and iPhone 2G)?

On my iPod Classic and my 5th gen iPod Video, Podcasts and Audible audiobooks both bookmark automatically (i.e. you don't need to set the "Use Bookmarking" option in MC.)

For non-Audible audiobooks (i.e. mp3 audiobooks ripped from CD or downloaded from other sources), I can get bookmarking to work by setting the "Use Bookmarking" option to "Yes" for these files.  I could also get it to work by setting the media type for these files to "Audiobook" but I do NOT do this because I CAN'T STAND the way the iPod classic dumps all audiobooks into a single folder.  I prefer to use a GENRE called "audiobooks" instead, and leave the "media sub-type" field blank.  This allows me to browse the books by author (i.e. artist) and title, which is a VASTLY (and I mean VASTLY) more convenient way to browse audiobooks.  I select the "audiobook" genre, then select an author, then a book.  The files for this book (on longer books that use multiple files) play one after the other until they're done, and playback stops.  This does not happen with the iPods "audiobooks" category.

Unfortunately, Apple, in their infinite wisdom, changed the way the iPod classic works (and I assume the iPhone works the same way) so that audible books NEVER appear in the normal list of audio tranks -- i.e. they ONLY show up under the iPods "Audiobooks" category, which means that your stuck with ALL the books being dumped into one gigantic folder (which I hate, hate, HATE!!!)  This is not an issue on the 5th gen iPod Video, where aa files show up in my normal "genre" list as well.  There have been complaints about this on the Apple forums for several years now, but Apple has decided that they know better then iPod users who actually LISTEN to a lot of audiobooks, and have hundreds of "periodical" type aa files on their iPods at one time.

2. With my "generic" workaround (described in the thread linked above), is there anything I need to or can do to get it working?

I started reading over your explanation, but I started getting a bit confused since I'm not that familiar with some of the things your trying.  I can say that I don't even try to use both iTunes and MC to sync my iPods for the very reason that you already discovered -- it's a pain in the butt.  I just use MC, and I live with any limitations that might cause -- i.e. if MC can't get the iPod to do what I want without iTunes, I just tell myself that the iPod can't do it.  Frankly, I can't stand iTunes.

3. All my Podcasts show up in the Music section of my iPod, rather than the Podcast section (and auto-bookmarking doesn't work).  Anything I can do here?

Ironically, I WANT both Podcasts and Audiobooks to be listed under their own genres with the rest of the music.  I'm actually not clear why people have a problem with this.  I just use two genres called "Audiobooks" and "Podcasts" for these files.  For people that want to prevent Podcasts and Audiobooks from coming up when shuffling, they simply need to create a smartlist that ignores these two genres and sync it along with the rest of their tracks.  By selecting this playlist on the iPod and letting it shuffle, they'll never have a Podcast or Audiobook come up.

Note that the "Podcast" category on the iPod lists the tracks in ASCENDING order, so that when one finishes, the next one in the list is the PREVIOUS one and not the next newer one.  In my opinion, the Podcast category on the iPod is nearly as annoying as the "all-in-one-giant-folder" problem with Audiobooks.  The iPod's "Podcast" category does have the advantage of "unmarking" the ones you've played, but it has one less level of hierarchy (no "artist" field), and puts them in what many people (like myself) consider a "backwards" order.

I hope this helps somewhat.

Larry

PS.  On a related side note, aa chapter points still do not function with MC syncs.  They worked with MC 10 and 11 (i.e. "next" and "previous" could take you to chapter points), but as far as I can remember this feature never worked with MC 12 syncs.

[glynor]

Thanks for the reply Larry.  It helps a bit.  It seems this is another victim of the generic handheld setup not acting the same as an iPod.

Just to explain a bit more...

I can say that I don't even try to use both iTunes and MC to sync my iPods for the very reason that you already discovered -- it's a pain in the butt.  I just use MC, and I live with any limitations that might cause -- i.e. if MC can't get the iPod to do what I want without iTunes, I just tell myself that the iPod can't do it.  Frankly, I can't stand iTunes.

Unfortunately, this isn't currently an option, because MC doesn't work with the iPhone AT ALL.  Can't sync anything at all of any type.  Perhaps you weren't aware of this limitation, but the iPhone 2.0 software does NOT work with MC at all.  At this point, if you try to sync over using MC, it "breaks" your iPhone/Touch and you need to restore it using iTunes.

To explain my workaround very simply... I'm using MC to "sync" to a designated folder on my hard drive.  (MC can "pretend" that any folder on your hard drive is a handheld.)  Then I'm having iTunes "watch" this folder and sync its entire library over to my phone.  I'd prefer not to use iTunes as well, but at this point my choice is to either use iTunes, or don't use my Phone at all.

On my iPod Classic and my 5th gen iPod Video, Podcasts and Audible audiobooks both bookmark automatically (i.e. you don't need to set the "Use Bookmarking" option in MC.)

For non-Audible audiobooks (i.e. mp3 audiobooks ripped from CD or downloaded from other sources), I can get bookmarking to work by setting the "Use Bookmarking" option to "Yes" for these files.  I could also get it to work by setting the media type for these files to "Audiobook" but I do NOT do this because I CAN'T STAND the way the iPod classic dumps all audiobooks into a single folder.  I prefer to use a GENRE called "audiobooks" instead, and leave the "media sub-type" field blank.  This allows me to browse the books by author (i.e. artist) and title, which is a VASTLY (and I mean VASTLY) more convenient way to browse audiobooks.  I select the "audiobook" genre, then select an author, then a book.  The files for this book (on longer books that use multiple files) play one after the other until they're done, and playback stops.  This does not happen with the iPods "audiobooks" category.

That's good to hear for the regular iPods.  That's what I didn't know... If it "just worked" or if there was some magic step I was missing.

The problem currently is that if you are syncing to a folder on your hard drive, as opposed to directly to the iPod, MC apparently DOES NOT add the same "magic glue" that makes these features work right to the files that it syncs.  So, again, the problem is that when MC uses a folder as a handheld, it assumes that the files are being synced to a "dumb" handheld.  If it had an "emulate iPod" switch, I suspect it would fix many of these problems.

Right now, when I sync over Podcasts (or Audiobooks I imagine though I haven't tried) via this method, iTunes and my iPhone just see them as normal "songs".  They get the [Genre]=Podcast, but that's it.  Bookmarking does not work.  They do not get the [Media Sub Type]=Podcast "effect" even if I want it do (which I'm not sure that I do, but even so, there's no way to make it work).

I don't know if there is a way for MC to do this really, because it may be dependent on entries in the iPod database, rather than entries in the files themselves.  If so, perhaps MC13 could be set to write out a full iTunes database (when in "emulate iPod generic handheld mode").  This would "blow away" your iTunes database every time you sync, but that's what I want anyway (because I'm only using iTunes to sync to my phone and not keeping anything "real" in it).  That way, it wouldn't matter what trickery Apple pulled with the iPod/Phone OS software, so long as the iTunes database structure remained constant.  I'd also think this'd be easier to reverse engineer, because there's only one variable...

[lalittle]

I thought I had read some reports that the iPhone was generally working with MC now, but I may be thinking of the iTouch or something else.  I don't plan to get an iPhone, so I haven't really been following this.

Regarding bookmarking, did you try setting the "Use Bookmarking" switch to "Yes" for the files?  Having them in the normal "Genre" list rather than under the iPod's rather poorly organized "Podcast" category would probably not bother you too much (to me this would actually be a GOOD thing), but not having bookmarks is definitely a problem.

On this subject, I'm curious why it's important to you to have Podcasts appear under the iPhone's "Podcast" category, which puts them in backwards chronological order, and eliminates the "artist" category?

Larry

[glynor]

I thought I had read some reports that the iPhone was generally working with MC now, but I may be thinking of the iTouch or something else.  I don't plan to get an iPhone, so I haven't really been following this.

It was.  The new iPhone 2.0 OS broke it and they aren't going to fix it until v13.  So any old iPhones or iPod Touches that have been upgraded to 2.0 (or any new iPhone 3Gs) don't work with MC at all currently.

Regarding bookmarking, did you try setting the "Use Bookmarking" switch to "Yes" for the files?  Having them in the normal "Genre" list rather than under the iPod's rather poorly organized "Podcast" category would probably not bother you too much (to me this would actually be a GOOD thing), but not having bookmarks is definitely a problem.

On this subject, I'm curious why it's important to you to have Podcasts appear under the iPhone's "Podcast" category, which puts them in backwards chronological order, and eliminates the "artist" category?

Yeah.  I don't care at all about having them show up under the Podcast category.  I just want the bookmarking to work.  Those files ARE set to use bookmarking (they bookmark fine when played back inside MC).  I suspect that MC is actively stripping this information out when it is syncing them to my "handheld" folder.  Not sure though... It could also be that MC does some "magic" on the iPod database to make these files bookmark as they should on the iPod.  Either way, it doesn't work at all.