So far I really like my ZUNE. Only real complaint - no RSS. Seems a lot of people have the same complaint. Thing is complaining only goes so far before it becomes whining. I hate whining. But I do it all the time.
Better to do something about it that sit around and whine.
Turns out the Zune play lists are just XML files and pretty simple ones at that. I have Doppler setup to grab the couple of PodCasts that I like. It puts them in a directory. The next step is to write a simple script that updates the Zune play list with the new downloads. That will take maybe twenty lines of code. Big deal.
The only real challenge is making a decision. How do I know if I've played the podcast or not? Do I simply wipe out the old stuff and put in the new stuff? Very tempting. However, I listen to the Russ Martin Show and often fall way behind (I'm still listening to Tuesday of last week). Each day of RMS generates 6 to 7 files and about 3 hours of content.
Perhaps the simplest thing I can do is just append files to the end of the play list. Then I use the Zune UI to delete the stuff I've already heard and the new stuff just moves up the stack. Sort of a FIFO queue.
It really would be cool if MSFT would release an SDK for this thing. I'd love to turn on the WI-FI so I can sync with my workstation without having to tether it first. I can honestly careless about sharing music with other people. If they have a Zune they'll have the same subscription. Just go down load the bloody song and be done with it. If the track is from the PodSafe network they can go bloody download it themselves and not have to deal with the 3x3 thing.
The big thing I want is access to the Zune DB. I want to know what has been listened to. Then I could automatically update the play list once a podcast has been listened to.
Maybe I should hack my own way in. Not like they can change the format too much. Its probably an MDB file anyway.