iTunes 4.9 To Support Podcasting 352
WaRrK writes "O'Reilly Radar are reporting that in a demo at D: All Things Digital Conference, Steve Jobs showed off iTunes 4.9, which has support for iPodder like functionality. Although, he was "slightly" dismissive of the phenomena, describing it as "Wayne's World for radio". Also, whilst currently only supporting free content, they are not ruling out paid for podcasting in the future. iTunes 4.9 should be available within 60 days." Yeah, Steve's kinda right on this - podcasting is neat & all, but the breathy overstatement of how it will change our lives is a wee bit overdone.
Podcasting info (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Reality Check (Score:2, Informative)
A radio station that I help run (not on air, but the web side, backend, etc.) benefits a lot from podcasting, because not everyone can catch the live show.
So we have a 'wrap up podcast' with a few extra benefits.
So those who CAN catch the live show get it all and then some.
No, it's not as revolutionary as Internet Radio itself, but it is already quite popular and has several advantages.
A simple feature like being able to play more of your favorite media, easier is not a bad thing to implement.
Re:Reality Check (Score:5, Informative)
(You've got to love the nutral point of view of Slashdot articles.)
Re:Reality Check (Score:5, Informative)
IT Conversations [itconversations.com] (Doug Kaye project), is a top notch Podcasting source. (ok, it was around before the rage about podcasting, but podcasting made it integrate with my life).
Public Radio Fan [publicradiofan.com] also has a list of many podcasts that were radio programs - enabling you to listen to your favorite programs on your own time.
I hope all of NPR's programs become available as podcasts as I enjoy listening but don't live on their schedule.
Re:where did I read this story before? (Score:1, Informative)
Podcasting requires neither Mac, iTunes nor iPod.
Any MP3 player will do, and it's in the RSS that the magic lies.
There are key differences between podcasting and archival:
(1) A podcast is not necessarily kept available long term.
(2) A podcast is meant to "magically" appear on your portable MP3 player as part of your routine syncing/charging activity.
I don't like the name either -- it wrongly implies reliance on an iPod, and gives Apple free marketing -- but I think we're pretty much stuck with it now.
Re:podcasting as timeshifting (Score:3, Informative)
Not very hard... (Score:5, Informative)
Personally, I think that party shuffle is a *fantastic* enque system. You just have to have all your music in the iTunes database already. After all, iTunes is a database, not just a player like Winamp or XMMS. If all you want is a player then yeah, you probably won't like iTunes. If you want a music database that lets you generate playlists based on database queries then iTunes is more your style.
Re:That's all well and goo, but . . . (Score:3, Informative)
Right click on song, click on "Play Next in Party Shuffle"
There you go.
Re:I don't get it. (Score:2, Informative)
With Podder, when the RSS announces a new download, it gets uploaded to my iPod automatically so I don't miss it.
The whole "it's amazing"/"it's bollocks" argument really seems to stem from whether or not anyone actually finds any broadcasts they want to listen to. I just use it for the various BBC shows, but that's plenty to keep me going.
Re:I don't get it. (Score:5, Informative)
Programs using an RSS feed to get URLs to audio files, downloading those, and cooperating with your jukebox software or your music device directly to, as another commenter said, "make audio magically appear" on the device. This is a) convenient, so people like it and have a bigger chance of using it, b) chock full of 'hot' technologies (RSS, automated downloads, digital music), so tech columnists and managers like it, and c) enables a wider range of people to be broadcasted. It also works better now than it would have a few years back, since audio can be heavy to download, and more people have faster connections now.
It's automated, it's refined, it's buzzword-heavy for those who like that and people get it without a lot of explanation. Like a lot of technologies it's not new but brings the concept to a wider audience. I think it's overrated myself and not worthy of the label great, but I can appreciate that these things make it good.
Re:Reality Check (Score:1, Informative)
While the parent is on topic, at least two of the other responses are apparently responses for the other Apple thread regarding Apple using Intel chips in some of their future designs. I noticed this on another thread earlier where people were talking about cuba in the thread on European nations and the song and singers contest that took place recently.
AAC != proprietary (Score:1, Informative)
AAC is more or less the audio part of MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, depending on the version you're using. Last I checked, MPEG-4 isn't any more proprietary than MP3.
Re:RSS 1.0 versus RSS 2.0 (Score:3, Informative)
Any feed consuming program nowadays worth its name has got to support all pertinent RSS/Atom versions. I trust iTunes to not disappoint here - Apple just wrote a Syndication framework (for Tiger and Safari "RSS" 2.0) that's read any feed I've, uh, fed it, and from the get-go announced support for both Atom and "RSS" (although it's unclear which versions of RSS they claimed to support).
Uh, to answer your question... (Score:3, Informative)
And you can bet integration with iTunes will make this number explode.
Podcasting and the idea behind it is bigger than you think. It's a pretty evolutionary way to broadcast, be a radio show host, distribute cheaply and quickly news/gossip/whatever, and all in a cool way (iPod!).
It's also a market opportunity. You know, I'd like to subscribe to a Bright Eyes podcast. Whenever a new song is avail on iTunes, it automatically buys it, downloads, and it's there waiting for me when I wake up.
It's in its infancy still, but it IS a big deal. For those on the side of the road, you too will be driving soon.