iTunes 4.9 With Podcasting Support 498
eakthecat writes "Hot on the heels of the 4.8 release, Apple has released the next version of its popular iTunes jukebox software. Version 4.9 incorporates several new features, most notable of which is podcasting. The front page and iTunes webpages have not been updated yet, but you can get your greedy little hands on it or through the new podcasting link in the music store! !"
Annoying installer (Score:5, Insightful)
I really wish that if Apple releases software for Windows that they actually put the work necessary into it to make it a good product. (Don't get me wrong, I still like iTunes, it just seems very unpolished in Windows).
What's with the dept line...? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ouch!
Can someone explain why this is a waste of bandwidth and time? Wouldn't a major company with a massive userbase supporting podcasting actually help the genre?
Also, since (presumably) Rob hasn't actually *tried* the software, isn't judging it a little harsh?
Podcasting mainstream? (Score:4, Insightful)
They must envision an economic model for podcasting one day, similar to their iTunes store I'm guessing, it'll be interesting to see how this develops.
Re:What IS podcasting? (Score:2, Insightful)
The iTunes support for podcasting means that now iTunes will act as your audio blog aggregator/player.
hm (Score:4, Insightful)
slick, but: (Score:5, Insightful)
The only missed opportunity from my perspective is the lack of some peer-to-peer method of distribution of the podcasts. That would be awfully nice. As it is, if your podcast gets popular, you're going to have to contend with a hefty bandwidth fee, which leaves at least a vestige of the old-media power structure in place; those who have the bucks control the means of distribution. With a stripped-down BitTorrent or even a Gnutella-style "swarm" distribution model, your listeners could actually distribute your podcasts for you; truly listener-supported public radio.
Otherwise, good stuff. More nice work by the iTunes team.
~jeff
Re:Annoying installer (Score:2, Insightful)
(I know it's not $499 because of the extras you have to buy, but I'm betting you have a keyboard, mouse and monitor lying around).
D
UI is a mess though (Score:3, Insightful)
- Going to a category subsection of the podcast list on the iTunes Music Store results in a browser window that lists genres, yet clicking any genre goes back to music listings, without any way to return. Podcast genres are in fact listed under the "Artist" column, and podcast titles under "Album".
- There is now a subgenre column in the iTMS browser, which could be helpful if I could find any way to read or set the subgenres of music I already own.
- The "All" item sometimes disappears from the top of the Artist column, meaning that you have to change genre/subgenre in order to change artist.
- There are "[x>" icons beside some podcasts which aren't explained (though they could just be part of the feed name).
iPod/iTunes's strength is partly in its simplicity - it's a good app for many people's music archival and retrieval needs. Perhaps it's being pushed to do too much? Some of the recent additions such as photo browsing (which can't be anything but mediocre on a 2" screen) and the new podcasting facilities might be better suited to a different GUI rather than being shoehorned into the existing ones. I love the idea of Podcasting in iTunes, but it's different enough from album browsing to warrant a bit more GUI work.I felt the same way about MacOS X Tiger's slightly premature release - although it was quickly improved with updates, the "release as beta, fix afterwards" approach is one I'd come to expect more from one of Apple's chief competitors. I hope Apple don't continue down this path - their software has often been a comparative joy to use, and these annoyances reduce that enjoyment.
Re:Annoying installer (Score:1, Insightful)
I think that may be by design, to get you to "switch".
I agree. I think one of the biggest missing features with iTunes in windows is that iTunes does not display the current song name in the taskbar. This means that every time you want to check what song is being played you have to switch to the program. This would be a very easy problem to fix, and I couldn't figure why they hadn't done it yet, then I realised that, of course, they don't really care because there is no similar taskbar in OS X where this would be useful.
Re:What IS podcasting? (Score:3, Insightful)
In other words, the audio (and sometimes video) video equivalent of a blog. Nothing more.
Re:What IS podcasting? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"Mac-dotted" (Score:5, Insightful)
The cost of doing business is *much* higher in western Europe than in the States. Hence, the higher prices - so that companies can attempt to recoup the taxes they must pay. It's not just Apple: Phillips, BMW, Mercedes and Virgin's products are more expensive in Europe - even if they are European companies.
You didn't think that all those social services were free did you?
Re:Annoying installer (Score:3, Insightful)
Compiling programs works fine in the background of any modern Mac. It's been years since compiling software was a truly taxing task for a modern computer. I remember well when it took 15 minutes to compile and link my Unix-based BBS software on a 286. Thank goodness those days are long gone!
On games, though, you win. I don't like games, so it doesn't bother me, but I understand that's a problem for many. Hopefully the new Macs on Intel will change that. If Steve's really smart, he'll add some version of the DirectX API to the MacOS, since this seems to be the top objection of people considering the switch.
I suspect he's like me, hates the violence in video games and doesn't want to support it. But who knows? Maybe he's just arrogant and doesn't want to use other people's standards.
D
Re:Prompted by BadFruit's BadApple? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What IS podcasting? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't stomp the world flat. It's complicated. (Score:4, Insightful)
My own painful example would be Leica and Swarovski optics. A Leica spotting scope that cost 800 USD three years ago is now $1300. Leica isn't paying dramatically more taxes today than they were then. I still can't buy their dang scopes, and I could have back then.
Anyone who's traveled in Europe or anywhere else could tell you that prices in different sectors of the economy can differ in ways that may or may not reflect the added costs you're talking about. Gas for private cars is much more expensive. Other stuff will be far cheaper than you'd find them in the US. And until the Euro there was tons of variation in those things from place to place. Soda in Paris, always expensive. Instanbul is cheap, but it's hard to say how cheap at a given moment because of Lira inflation.
The world is not reducible to doctrines.
Re:Annoying installer (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What IS podcasting? (Score:3, Insightful)
You get more than whiney blogs. Many news outlets podcast their shows.
Really want to hear "The Treatment" on KCRW? or "Classic Rockstar Interviews" on Q104.3?
Simply subscribe to them.
Personally, I'd love to get NPR's Marketplace. Sadly, I'm at work when it's braodcast and can't tune it in.
Think the rock hit your head (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that rock hit your head. Apple has removed some features that most people don't use, and a few people (like you or I) miss.
But burning and sharing removed? Sorry, that's not going to happen because they are core features that Apple is promoting. Why would you buy an Apple laptop and a desktop if you couldn't share? Why would you use iTunes if you couldn't burn CD's? It makes no sense.
Basically Apple racheted down the iTunes features to those used in a home setup, and they are pretty much done it seems. Although I am also sad iTunes no longer lets me share with everyone in the office as well as it used to, I have to say that since there's no other choice at all that lets me share anything whatsoever I can't be too mad at them. Why not bitch that Windows Media Player has no sharing at all?
Re:"Mac-dotted" (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you advocating that the poor in america should live like the poor in the middle ages?
America claims to be the land of the christians. If everybody in america who claims to be a christian actually acted like a christian then there would be no poor in america.
Re:What IS podcasting? (Score:4, Insightful)
Podcasting can do that.
In its small way--like blogging and posting--podcasting is helping to unplug people from the central switchboard of corporate media.
No, it's not as if this is the Enlightenment, and you have a lot of Voltaires running about beaming great thoughts into mp3 files, and suddenly we'll throw off the tentacular church and state. Someone blabbing about his day through your expensive tiny white headphones does not a revolution make.
Doesn't matter. American society is like Terry Schiavo: if you want excitement and growth, brother, you've come to the wrong vegetable. That's why anything outside of the grey, soggy, monolithic blob that constitutes our majority media is welcome at this stage--just to show people that they don't need Big Daddy Fox or Mommy MSNBC.
Podcasting removes these baleful arbiters. It shortcircuits the money power's monopoly on the conversation. It says, "Who the fuck needs a doorknob like Brit Hume, anyway?"
The early signs are promising. With each download, podcasting happily extends the trend of declining audiences for corporate media. And that is a Good Thing. The less the great obedient horde lines up for more orders, the better.