podcast application for empeg?

I've been using podcasts now for quite a while on air travels (together with audiobooks). Yesterday I've used the empeg's auxiliary input for the first time to listen to podcasts in the car. I so loved it! However, it's totally awkward and dangerous to handle the iPod in the car!
Is there a podcast application to download podcasts directly to the empeg, or do I have to copy them there manually? If there isn't one, wouldn't that be a great project?

If you use mp3tofid+rsync to sync tunes (instead of emplode/jemplpode) you can just have your podcasts copied to your music directory on the host machine, then synced over to your empeg on a regular basis. But, I don't think the Cygwin port of mp3tofid is ready yet, so you'll have to have all your music on a Unix-like file server for this to work.

Isn't a podcast just an MP3 file? Can't you just copy the MP3 file onto the player normally?

Most are MP3 files, while some are AAC. So yes, the empeg would be able to have the MP3 ones transferred manually to it to listen to them. Though I think the poster was wishing for a more automated way.

I've personally just gotten used to using the iPod for podcasts, since it does niceties like sync shows automatically from iTunes, including the playback position. So I can listen to one partially in the car, then come home, sync, and resume playback via AirTunes to somewhere in the house. Syncs also only take a matter of 30 seconds typically, so it is a lot easier to deal with on a daily basis then the 5-10 minute sync ordeal that is my empeg with 50gigs of music.

I went with an iPod nano for the podcasts, so it's not quite as dangerous in the car to control. The placement of the headphone jack and the small size means I can plug it into the wire I have run in the car to the aux in, and the Nano stays in place simply due to the plug holding it there.

What is a Podcast?
Wikipedia says...

Quote:
Most are MP3 files, while some are AAC. So yes, the empeg would be able to have the MP3 ones transferred manually to it to listen to them. Though I think the poster was wishing for a more automated way.

Exactly! Something like starting emplode/jemplode (or a specialized app) and then automatically updating the subscribed podcasts on the empeg.
The podcasts would then be in a separate playlist called podcasts and could be played just like any other tune. In my eyes, that would be a significant improvement of the empeg!

Of course I can also update the podcasts with iTunes, then dig through the folders to find the mp3 files, copy them to the empeg, sync and listen to them in the car.
But while that's safer than handling the iPod in the car, I'm sure it's obvious that it's nowhere near as slick!

For example, before podcatss were integrated into iTunes, there was iPodder. IIRC that was an open source project (if not, I'm sure there were more podcast clients). Why not use that technology, include empeg sync capability instead of iPod synching and we're good to go. Doesn't sound too difficult, or is it? Maybe rentacoder.com is the way to go?