June 28, 2005
iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting - "Wayne's World Programming"
OK - so I'm surfing tonight and decide to see if the new iTunes with Podcast support is available - and voila - it is! I downloaded it just now, and here's my stream-of-consciousness experience:
I click the Podcast button. I see an empty list of Podcasts. I click Podcast directory. The Music Store opens. Where's the Podcast button? I have to click AudioBooks to find it. Not a great start.
Found categories, and search. So... any checking for dead Podcasts? I search for my favorite dead show, the Miller Report, and it's found! However, I'm not able to play any of the episodes listed, and it tells me so. Which is what I expect. Our Replay Media Guide checks all Podcasts daily to be sure they are working, and delists those that fail to have a valid MP3 file.
(Keep in mind this is a somewhat biased review, as I've spent a lot of time personally creating our Podcast client and guide.)
Search just looks for titles (descriptions) and authors. No show notes. We've done better with our guide. Also, substring searches don't work. Try searching for "urry".
Oh yeah - the presentation is really nice. Apple always does a nice job with this.
Show notes display is a little kludgy - lots of blank space in Daily Source Code.
Episode download works well.
Can't play an episode without downloading it. Major bummer. Most people listen from the Web.
OK - so I'm now exploring categories. I go to Technology, Podcasting. A bunch of Podcasts appear. I click Podcast 411. It starts playing the show from Dec. 31, 2004. What???? Maybe this is where the promo is supposed to go. It's the last entry in the RSS feed.
How about BitTorrent support??? I can see the RIAA raising a shitstorm with Apple if they include BitTorrent. Let's go try to download AirAmerica's Al Franken, which is BT. Tried Evil Genius, too. Can't do it. Not surprising.
I click the dang Podcast Directory button, and it brings me to the Music Store, with no link for Posdcasts. Annoying.
The category browser is weird - the column heading for Artist is actually a Podcast category.
There's no single click to a Home page for Podcasts. You always have to go through the Music store. It's like being in a hotel/casino, where you always have to go through the casino to get to your room. Also annoying.
OK - this is where it gets really bad. How the heck do you find these Podcasts on your iPod when you download them? Daily Source Code has a Genre of "Music". Huh? How am I supposed to set up a smart playlist for my Podcasts? Replay Radio automatically retags the genre as "replay radio" so they are easy to organize.
(Update: The Podcasts sync to a built-in Playlist called "Podcasts". I guess you just have to know this. On the plus side, the titles in the "Podcasts" playlist come out nice. On the minus side, there's no way to further manage these (like filtering if PlayCount=0 for unheard Podcasts.)
Looked at the preferences for Podcasts. Pretty basic. Replay Radio has more options.
Also - the directory isn't totally complete. Our 2 minute infomercial Podcast for Replay Music is nowhere to be found. Maybe there's some sort of editorial discretion going on.
OK - that's a pretty thorough run-through. I've seen enough. It's "Waynes World Programming".
I feel better about what we're doing now that the unknown is known. Quality tools for subscribing and listening will attract users. Apple's implementation is half-hearted, for sure. It's kinda like AOL. Replay Radio
and the Replay Media Guide is like the entire internet. People will start with iTunes, then wonder if there's something else out there, and hopefully they will find us.
(Plus, we can record radio broadcasts too. Apple can't/won't touch that!)
Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
June 27, 2005
Grokster vs. MGM
Many customers are probably wondering how the MGM vs. Grokster decision affects us. The answer is -- not much.
Despite the headlines that the Studios won, the key is in how the service is promoted. It's well explained from this article on Bloomberg:
"The decision is less far-reaching than technology companies feared," said James Gibson, a Richmond Law School professor who specializes in intellectual property and computer law. "The court focused not on technological capability itself but on whether particular defendants promoted the technology to infringe on copyright."
If Grokster said "Rip off Music" in their marketing, then they are toast. However, I believe they are smarter than that. The case now goes to trial with a guidline from the SCOTUS. Should be interesting to see how it's resolved.
(Update: After rereading the Supreme Court decision, it appears they were indeed saying "Rip off music". Maybe not those exact words, but their marketing efforts were clearly directed at capturing Napster users. In that regard, they may be toast.)
Applian Technologies does not support the illegal use of our software for infringing on content owner copyrights. We believe in fair use, and all of our recording products are built with that in mind. The major difference is that Grokster gave you access to copyrighted media that you otherwise had no ability to access. We do no such thing.
I don't know how we can make this any clearer than what we put on the bottom of every page on our site.
Now - back to making some more great software!
Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 25, 2005
RSS Emerging
Looks like RSS is finally coming of age. IE 7 will have one-click subscription to RSS feeds built-in.
There's also some cool RSS demos done by the Microsoft folks on Channel 9 here:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=80533
Just add content (or record it).
Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 23, 2005
We all dodged the Broadcast Flag bullet
Posted by Bill Dettering at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
More on iTunes 4.9
Great insight our dedicated user Stu:
iTunes 4.9, will be released at the end of next week about a month ahead of schedule according to the spy sites. It looks, to me, like Apple wants to put together its own XM Radio using podcasts. Perhaps, that's one of the reasons they've been so resistant to an XM/ipod product. On the other hand, the XM2Go is truly a piece of junk - technologically flawed.Looks to me like their trying to corner the content while podcasting is flying under the radar. I did a fellowship at my local PBS station a number of years ago working on digital rights issues. They realized all those great PBS documentaries hadn't anticipated the digital world and the original producers had retained the digital rights. It was quite a mess. In part, that allowed for the rise of the Discovery Channel. Obtaining content is the key.
Posted by Bill Dettering at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SF Podcasters Meetup
Just returned from my first Podscasters meetup. Pretty interesting. Some takeaways:
1) A lot of people are just getting into it. And they all complain that it's way to hard to make a Podcast.
2) Two people with companies trying to make Podcast advertising easier attended: Kiptronics and CastFire. Interesting stuff - check out their sites.
3) 75% of Podcast listens come from the Web. This is one of the reasons it is really hard to make metrics for advertisers.
I gave my schpiel (is that how it's spelled?) on the innovative things we're doing with our Replay Radio Podcatcher and Replay Media Guide, and how every Podcaster should sign up for our affiliate program and promote Replay Radio from their Podcast and Web site as an easy way to make some extra money.
Definitely worth going to - I'll be back!
Posted by Bill Dettering at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Odeo Beta
Just tried the Odeo beta tonight. Here's my take:
1) I couldn't get it to work. Seems like the Syncr couldn't connect. Server issues perhaps? I checked the firewall. Not a good first impression, but heck - it's a beta.
2) The program description says it's based "upon iPodder". I also saw a lot of Python stuff in the install.
3) Interface is simple. Layout is pleasing.
4) User-generated tags are interesting, but it appears that there is no editorial control. I was able to add a nonsensical tag to one Podcast.
5) Playing individual shows from the Browser has no controls. No way to fast forward.
6) Rating system is weak.
Overall, our Replay Media Guide is still better in my opinion. But they do have some nice features.
Posted by Bill Dettering at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 20, 2005
iTunes Podcasting goes corporate
What ARE Apple's iTunes Podcasting plans? Here's some insight from Apple Insider:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1140
The questions remain:
1) What will they do about all those Mashups out there? Their Music partners will likely cut off some of the premium music content if the issue isn't resolved to their satisfaction.
2) What about some of the "edgy" stuff? What will corporate do?
We plan on offering everything, and along with our ability to allow people to record radio shows, we'll be able to compete with Apple and surpass what they do.
Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
Replay Radio 6.0 and Replay Media Guide Released
To celebrate the release of Replay Radio 6.0 and the Replay Media Guide, we're starting a blog about everything to do with Online Media.
If you're not familiar with our Online Media recording software, we have some great solutions for recording Online Radio, Video and Music.
And our new Replay Media Guide is the first guide for Web radio, TV and Podcasts to be fully intergrated into scheduling and recording software.
More announcements are coming soon, so subscribe and stay tuned!
Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack