Catching the Podcasting Buzz

Posted Jul 1, 2005 0:38 UTC (Fri) by dyork (guest, #2819) [Link]

> What's a podcast?

Wikipedia has a lengthy definition of podcasting that goes into more detail, but essentially a podcast is typically an audio "show" (music, talk, just about anything) to which listeners "subscribe" via RSS. New shows are downloaded automagically to your computer by a piece of software called a "podcatcher" or an "aggregator". In one form of use, those shows are then synced to your portable media player for you to listen on the road.

As an example, here's how I use it. I have my podcatching software running on my PC and I have my MP3 player connected to my computer. Overnight, the software downloads new shows to my PC and then syncs them to my MP3 player. In the morning, I simply disconnect the player from my PC and bring it with me to listen to new shows during my commute to work.

Think of it like time-shifting radio... sort of like TiVo for radio shows.

> And what does it mean for Itunes 4.9 to have native support for podcasting?

What it means is that you do not necessarily require the separate "podcatcher" piece of software. iTunes can handle the subscriptions, downloads, etc., natively. It just has the potential to make it even simpler and easier than it already was.

> I'm trying to figure out how Linux users have something they didn't have before.

Linux users don't really have anything new (although someone did mention the idea of using iTunes with CrossOver office). On the other hand, Linux advocates have another forum to help educate people about the operating system and associated applications.

Forgive me... I'm a PR/communications/education/training kind of guy, so my brain is wired around helping educate and promote various topics, Linux being one of them. :-)

Regards,
Dan

Posted Jul 7, 2005 12:19 UTC (Thu) by mermade (guest, #30864) [Link]

Seemingly quite a bit in terms of privacy. Apple / iTunes are happily telling the world that "iTunes Podcast Subscriptions Top One Million in First Two Days" (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/30podcast.html)

Presumably they know who those people are and to which podcasts they are subscribing. This aggregated data could be rather valuable to interested parties, for advertising or more sinister purposes.

What if the RIAA subpeona'd Apple to provide information on everyone who subscribed to any podcast containing copyright music...

I think I'll stick with iPodder, thanks.