Podcasting - now you too can hear voices in your sleep
OK, Apple’s released iTunes 4.9, which now supports podcasts. And I’ve written up this (and the tweaks to the iPod line) over at The Register.
A few considerations, if you ask me:
1) if you’re featured on the iTunes Podcast Store, you’d better be ready to serve a lot of bandwidth;
2) what happens if Osama (or less extremists) decides to get into this podcast business - who’ll know what’s being said?
what about libel by someone in the US on someone in the UK?
Others are more positive. A few links mentioning iTunes and podcasts:
Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research;
The Unofficial Appple Weblog
Know what still bugs me? You can’t index a podcast. People talk, and it’s not searchable. That’s frustrating on the Today program. At least it matters less with podcasts.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Dowling on Adam Curry: nailed in a second; and looking back at predictions for 2005 (23 January 2006; score: 45.05%)
- Video podcasting to iTunes; Cocoalicious; Camino hits 1.0a1 (16 September 2005; score: 42.51%)
- The father of articles about podcasting? (13 June 2005; score: 37.84%)
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June 29th, 2005 at 1:47 am
You may not be able to index a podcast in the true sense of the word, but check out podscope
at www.podscope.com. Very interesting early stage audio search facility.
Of course detailed show notes with timecodes allow people to listen to just the bits of
podcasts they might be interested in.
Best wishes
Alex
June 29th, 2005 at 8:34 am
Charles
As regards indexing a podcast, this had been niggling at me too. I don’t want to go through a 2 hour podcast for one thing. However according to ipodlounge’s guide to iTunes 4.9
http://ipodlounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-itunes-49-with-podcasts/
there are now “Enhanced Podcasts” as described below (hope this html stuff works like I expect it to):
[quote]”Enhanced Podcasts
In addition to standard podcasts, which are just audio recordings, iTunes can deliver “enhanced podcasts”, which contain “chapters that reference pictures or web links that are displayed within the iTunes song artwork viewer.” The best way to see an enhanced podcast is to subscribe to Apple’s iTunes New Music Tuesday podcast. When you start listening to this in iTunes, you’ll see a Chapter button to the left of the info display.
Click this button to display the chapter selection menu. In some cases, as in the example below, the menu will contain graphics, but some will only contain text. In either case, this lets you skip to a different part of the podcast without having to fast-forward.
In addition, the graphics change in the album art section of iTunes’ window as the show progresses. Some shows, such as Adam Curry’s PodFinder, also feature clickable links in the album art window. If you hear something about a podcast you like, when listening to this show, just click the link to go to the appropriate page in the iTunes Music Store Podcast Directory.
Podcasts available from iTunes can be either AAC or MP3 files, and are bookmarkable. These bookmarks allow you to stop listening at any point, then pick up again from the same place - a new addition to MP3s. To be enhanced podcasts, however, and use the additional features such as chapters, they must be AAC files.”[/quote]
While not solving all the problems (and of course it requires podcasts to be done in AAC, not MP3 which may be a barrier for many), it sounds like a step forward in organisation. I also liked Alex’s link to podscope. What would be real nice is podscope functionality directly on our players so we can search in realtime through the podcast we’re listening to
Ian
June 29th, 2005 at 8:36 am
Oh, sorry, got the html wrong! I’d put ” around the ipodlounge material though, so hopefully you can see what’s attributable to them and separate my final paragraph at the bottom.
How about Comment edits so we can fix what we mess up?
Ian
June 29th, 2005 at 11:44 am
The chapters are nice, but it is a far cry from having a full transcript embedded in the file.
June 29th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
Woo! I think the BBC may have listened to me. (And, I suppose, at least a few hundred other listeners, but still.) Back when they demoed their Radio 4 podcasts, I said I wanted In Business added. And, lo and behold, having just downloaded iTunes 4.9, I’ve also now downloaded the latest episode of that very programme.
If they’ll just put Desert Island Discs up… I guess there might be copyright issues with the music though. Pft. They only play, like, a minute or two of each track. Come on, record companies! Get with the program. Or podcast. Whatever.
June 29th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
Small Paul
The In Business stuff has been around a few weeks I think - as I’ve been getting them in NetNewsWire. The first one I noticed was the one they did about podcasting!
Now, I’d like some of the comedy programs done this way too!
Ian
June 30th, 2005 at 10:09 am
I think I gave my feedback a few weeks ago, so I’ll just assume that they leapt to it the second my missive came in :)
Yeah, if we get a new series of Giles Wembley-Hogg Goes Off, I’ll be subscribing to that. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue would be nice too.
Sorry Charles, I’m turning your blog into my Radio 4 podcast wishlist.