My iPod Touch is 6.5 years old and is starting to have an issue that the Apple Senior Techs have to put me in touch with the Engineers to try to solve, and aren't certain that it will. I received it as a Christmas gift in college and it has served me needs really well. In case the problem can't be resolved, I need to start looking for the replacement. Also, the Senior Tech is making it obvious that my iPod is officially ancient - the operating system is as up to date as it'll get and is several years old.
I use it for subscribing to about 35 podcasts and my iTunes music library. Plenty of that library was purchased over the years, but probably 1/4 of it came from CD's loaded onto itunes many years ago that I don't have the hard copies of anymore. I listed to about 8 podcasts a day, and no music, but I love having the large library to access. A 32 gig iPod is plenty for me. The tech keeps asking about other things, like photos, email, etc. I don't connect it to the internet.
The obvious answer is to use my phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy S7. I know there's different podcast subscription apps out there - any recommendations? And is there any way to control when episodes are downloaded? We have moderate internet speed (6 Mbps) and if episodes are downloading while I'm checking email and my husband is watching Netflix, something doesn't work right. One of the reasons I like iTunes is because I can control when episodes get downloaded by deciding when to open iTunes. I can also choose to get a whole bunch from the archives at once but only put 4 or 5 on my iPod at a time. Is there a way to replicate this with something else?
If I have to, I'll but the $200 new iPod Touch to keep my experience the same. But I can see the writing on the wall that Apple doesn't want to support them anymore, and I'll probably be in the same position in 4 years. What else should I look at?