On-the-Go Delete on the iPod

Sinve I've started listening to a lot of Podcasts on my iPod, I've wanted the iPod to have a Trash Can even more. I usually just listen to each podcast once, but I rarely remember to manually delete the ones I've already listened to. When I first wrote about this idea, I proposed that the ratings interface also be used to delete, but that has some problems. Unfortunately I can't think of a really good way to delete music from the iPod without adding another Now Playing slide-across screen. Maybe, with the next iPod revision we'll see some more advanced functionality.
Delete on the iPod should work just like on your OS: deleted files first go to the trash. From the Trash, files can be restored or permanently deleted. For people who use the auto-sync, the Trash would be automatically emptied on sync and any trashed files would be prevented from being automatically transfered to the iPod again. As for the interface for deleting a file, I would hope that if the next iPod revision does include a touch screen that we'll see some more advanced functionality while a song is playing: such as deleting music, adding a song to a specific playlist, and better playlist management all around.
Comments
There's a way you can do this: Adding stars to mark individual tracks allows you to update your playlists on the go. — Then, using for example a one star rating gives you a quick way to mark tracks to edit or delete once you get back to itunes.
Posted by: Tom | August 26, 2007 04:25 AM
Wow, that's a really good suggestion. I've totally created a smart playlist to grab all the songs with a 1-star rating. However, these songs could still be played on Shuffle. I guess that was part of the advantage of the trash idea, songs in the trash wouldn't be played on shuffle.
Also, I just realized that iTunes can automatically sync Podcasts separately from music. So that really solves the whole Podcast issue.
Posted by: getgreg | August 26, 2007 10:54 PM