Funnily enough, now that Zune is out of the equation iTunes and that connector problem seems to be the only way to sync podcasts right now. (You can subscribe to them via the Marketplace on the phone, but there's no desktop connection and no way to add podcasts that aren't in the market place. . . )

-allen (November 20, 2012, 12:07 PM)

Do you think MS is going to insist on their closed ecosystem?  Or do you think people are going to start complaining a lot and they will open up the features?  I think the latter will happen, but I'm way out of the loop.  I'm more worried that MS has designed the OS in such a way that certain important functions won't even be accessible to developers that were accessible with previous windows versions.

-superboyac (November 20, 2012, 07:15 PM)

I am almost certain that it wasn't a purposeful move, they just didn't get it done before launch. Like every other complaint I have with Windows Phone 8, this is functionality that was previously accomplished using the Zune desktop application that they didn't account for when cutting Zune out of the picture.

It could be worse, though -- at least in the US I have access to podcasts in the store. The international community just can't listen to podcasts unless they do so using a third party application.

No man, that's way too manual. The "Windows Phone" Windows 8 app auto-syncs content when plugged in over usb. There is also a Desktop/Windows 7 program (You linked to it previously) that I presume can do the same.

-allen (November 19, 2012, 11:20 PM)

This one? http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/windows-phone-app-for-desktop

Apparently there's a version that runs on a Mac ... But:

The Windows Phone app for desktop won't work on Windows RT

.
That's rather dumb.

-Stoic Joker (November 20, 2012, 06:43 AM)

The desktop app won't run on RT, none do. The Windows Phone app would work on RT and is what I use on Windows 8.