The Price Of $0.00

It’s hard to complain too much about anything that you can get for free. Sure, the plastic water bottles that companies give away at conferences aren’t always totally spill-proof, and maybe the song that Apple gives away each week on iTunes isn’t always earth-shatteringly good. But something for nothing? Hey, you won’t find me looking in the mouths of any gift horses.

Well, except one. Podcasts are fantastic. And they’re free. But finding them, getting them, and organizing them isn’t as easy as it could be.

Here’s what I’d love to see.

1. Wireless podcast downloads. When I travel, I try to stock up on podcasts so I always have something good to listen to while I’m traveling. But sometimes I run out, and that’s when really, really wish I could download podcasts wirelessly. I’ve tried some web apps that claim to do this for specific programs, but haven’t had much luck.

2. A better way to organize podcast playlists. On my third generation iPod, I could line up a dozen shows for a particular podcast and play them all straight through, the way that it works for songs in an album. For some reason, I wasn’t able to do that on my fifth generation iPod or now on my iPhone—I have to choose each show individually, which is annoying out on a run or running errands. Smart playlists can keep the podcasts playing, but I haven’t found a way to play, say, all American Life podcasts followed by all of the personal finance podcasts from the Wall Street Journal followed by all BBC news podcasts without putting in a lot of effort. And I hate effort.

3. Podcast bookmarks. I’m usually listening to podcasts on the go, and when I hear something that I think would be great to look up later, use as part of a magazine pitch, or add to my to-do list, I’d love to be able to tab it and come back to it.

4. An easy way to distinguish audio podcasts from video podcasts. Unless the podcaster has made it obvious in the title, it’s not always easy to figure out which one you’ve chosen when you’ve got it on the screen. The iPhone helpfully separates out the videos, but the overall playlist includes both, so sometimes I’ll click on a program and . Boo.

Anything else I’m missing? Or better yet, has anyone found a way to work around these problems?