This weekend, I noticed that my TiVo could play podcasts. I don't know how long that feature's been there, months probably, but I just found it. Unfortunately IT Conversations isn't on their pre-populated list, but there were some that I was interested in. For example I listened to the latest TWiT this morning while I was getting ready. Here's a few thoughts and observations:

• This is a no-brainer for TiVo. Lot's of free content that they can put on their box for little effort and garner a "new" feature.
• You can add podcasts not on TiVo's list, but you have to use the cursor keys to select letters. This is almost as painful as entering URLs on your phone. No one's going to do it.
• If the are, they're not going to do it for long URLs. IT Conversations RSS URL is too long: http://www.itconversations.com/recentWithEnclosures.php. To add insult to injury, after I typed it in, something didn't work. I don't know what it didn't like.
• Once you start a podcast, there's no way to fast forward, back up, or pause at least not that I found in several minutes of playing with it. Its frustrating to have this remote in your hand that you can't really use for anything.
• The machine seems to get sluggish after it starts playing. I thought it was stuck at first, but eventually it responded to all the previous input I'd given it.
• It's possible to have a podcast playing and go to live TV so that they're both sending sound to the speakers. Seems that going to some other function ought to stop the podcast.

So, while I'm happy to see the new podcast feature in TiVo and will probably use it, like I did this morning, there are definitely some bugs that need to be worked out of the system. I'm not holding my breath.