What is the difference between “all unplayed” and “all new” podcasts?

Question

When configuring the syncing of podcasts between iTunes and a device, it's possible to automatically sync "all unplayed" and "all new" podcasts.

It's not clear to me what the difference is between unplayed and new podcasts. An Apple Support Communities post explains it as follows:

Unplayed podcasts, are those that have previously been synced to your iPod, but have yet to be played while new podcasts are those that have been synced to your iPod for the first time.

If this is the case, what's the difference in sync behavior between the "all unplayed" and "all new" settings?

Answer 1

If you have three podcasts as follows:

• A - downloaded, synced and played
• B - downloaded, synced and not played
• C - newly downloaded, never synced, and not played

When choosing "all unplayed", podcasts B & C will by synced. A will be removed from the iDevice

When choosing "all new", only C will be synced. A & B will be removed from the iDevice

Answer 2

The difference seems to rest on partial playback. New means you haven't listened to even part of the podcast, whereas unplayed means you haven't finished listening to the podcast.

In testing, it seems:

• iTunes for Mac (v. 10.6.3) tips from new to unplayed at 15 seconds into a track
• iTunes for iPhone (iOS v. 5.1.1) tips from new to unplayed at 5% into a track

Note this is based on quick experiments, not cited documentation or the like.