iTunes podcasts should work across computers

Imagine this: I’m at work when someone tells me: “Hey, you need to check out this podcast”. “Sure”, I say, “I’d love to”. So I fire up my iTunes, add the podcast to my subscriptions, and forget all about it. Then when I get back home to my podcast-syncing machine, the podcast is downloaded and put on my iPod without me having to do a thing.

Sounds like a great experience and very Apple-ish, right? Too bad it doesn’t work that way.

An iPod isn’t allowed to be connected with two different iTunes libraries, which I can understand. Apple needs to deal with DRM issues and I can live with that. But why doesn’t iTunes store my podcast subscription settings on their server?

iTunes already logs me in automatically, the technology needed to store this really doesn’t appear to be that big a deal, and the podcast content isn’t DRM protected or even stored on their network. The infrastructure is there!

But I still have to send myself an email (or add a task to my ToDo list or whatever) and remember to subscribe to the podcast when I get home, or erase all my existing iPod contents to connect it to a new library. I expect more from Apple.