The new features in iTunes 8 haven’t impressed me. Genius is mainly a way for Apple to sell you more music, and the new views in iTunes are very slow, compared to the older list views. 

Something that is very useful in iTunes 8, though, is its support for individual podcast settings:

This is a great feature, because it lets you keep your podcast subscriptions current, without filling up your hard drive or using up too much processor power. 

For example, I subscribe to a lot of news podcasts, so I’ve set iTunes to keep the most recent episode. But I also listen to some great music podcasts that I like to keep copies of. Now iTunes lets me set those podcasts to keep all the podcasts. 

To access the Podcast Settings dialog:

• Click the podcast icon in the left navigation, under Library
• Select the podcast to update
• Click the Settings button at the bottom of the iTunes window.