I've been using iTunes 4.9 for several weeks now, and while outside of the addition to podcasts being included - hey, it's still iTunes. It works, it has it's drawbacks, etc. But slowly I started noticing that my iPod was freezing up less and less when listening to podcasts, hmmm ... now for over a week no freeze-ups at all ... finally! At first I continued to use iPodderX for most podcasts, with some on iTunes while I got familiar with it, then I discovered that I wasn't finding the iTunes podcasts on my iPod ... I failed to notice the new Podcasts item on the iPod menu. After that it was all iTunes, since now I can shuffle music and not get podcasts mixed in, and listen to podcasts in an organized way - very nice.
Once all the podcasts were delivered via iTunes and not iPodderX, the lockups were a thing of the past. I don't know why, but I suppose it has something to do with the conversion process. Anyway, the experience is much better than it had been.