Podcasting - who cares?

[fjdouse]

Does anyone know how to remove 'Podcasts' from the menu on the left on iTunes? and 'Radio' too come to think of it, I don't care for either.

Update:
parb.johal@ante: I did that and found the quality of content poor and uninteresting, the thread was about whether podcasting is worth getting excited over or a load of wooby-jooby about nothing. To me, after having a listen and look through, I find it uninteresting - to ME, that's the point surely - we're supposed to give our own perspectives, others will agree or not, nothing wrong with that at all. I would have liked to see the iTunes podcast interface to be more localised, some English people may want to hear foreign US stuff, I don't, there's nothing wrong with it and it doesn't make me short sighted. I'm just not interested in much stuff from the US, it's not being anti-American or anything, some things I like, some I don't - I'd like to make the choice for myself rather than have it forced on me, I think that is fair and reasonable. If I was Spanish or German I'd expect and want relevant content, I'm English and I'd like British content supplied, the BBC podcasts are not very 'user friendly' as they are synthesised and hard to understand. Now, in the light of our last round, can you just be open-minded enough to understand that people have tastes and preferences without getting all haughty about it, and realise a question has been posed and I've answered it from MY perspective and according to my opinion without it being a slur on those who differ. I don't want to hijack this thread so if you want to continue, start a new thread or send me a message. Cheers.

[adambyte]

Originally Posted by Robn Kester

I just wish people would stop calling them podcasts. They are not being broadcast by an ipod. They are being listened to on an ipod, and many times, not even an ipod is playing them.

For them to be truly podcasts, you would have broadcast them from your ipod to somewhere else, such as with a FM transmitter.

Just to continue with linguistic thing.... To continue the comparison that "podcasts" should be put out by "iPods," then apparently "broadcasts" should be put out by "broads."

Instead, I feel that, although "podcast" is a silly name, it is okay because, instead of "cast"ing the message out to a "broad" audience, like a broadcast, you're "cast"ing the message out to an "iPod" audience.

Language rant over.

P.S. To remove "Radio" or "Party Shuffle" from the Source panel, choose "Preferences" from the "iTunes" menu. Click "general," and uncheck the options for the respective sources. Such an option however, doesn't seem to exist for the "Podcasts" feature.

[fjdouse]

Originally Posted by adambyte

Just to continue with linguistic thing.... To continue the comparison that "podcasts" should be put out by "iPods," then apparently "broadcasts" should be put out by "broads."

LOL! That's funny

Originally Posted by adambyte

P.S. To remove "Radio" or "Party Shuffle" from the Source panel, choose "Preferences" from the "iTunes" menu. Click "general," and uncheck the options for the respective sources. Such an option however, doesn't seem to exist for the "Podcasts" feature.

Of course! Stupid me! Thanks for that Seems a bit inconsistent not including a check box for podcasts though..

[Shookster]

Originally Posted by adambyte

Instead, I feel that, although "podcast" is a silly name, it is okay because, instead of "cast"ing the message out to a "broad" audience, like a broadcast, you're "cast"ing the message out to an "iPod" audience.

It sounds a lot like over-zealous marketing from Apple, or trying to place their brand image on a technology that they didn't invent, but as the name was thought up by a third party, that's not the case.

Also, it will be interesting to see if Windows Media Player will ever support podcasts because they'd clearly be advertising Apple's products

[fryke]

"pod"-cast. not ipodcast. It's about how it's distributed. You have RSS as a pod for MP3 (or other) content. It becomes clear if you think about it. Thinking "podcast" derives from iPod is a bit, well, strange. Both have "pod" in their name, but people seem not to think about what a "pod" is and means.

[Shookster]

"While it is derived from the word for Apple Computer's iPod audio player, it has no connection with iPod or requirement that one be used."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

[fryke]

Might be that the people creating it had iPods in mind, too, (and marketing-wise, that certainly helped), but my explanation still can make sense to those who want people to stop calling it "podcasting". Which ain't gonna happen, anyway.

[Reality]

I thought Podcasting was a neat feature. I downloaded a few things of the Mac to Mac show and enjoyed listening to it some as I did a little work on the computer. Though it's really neat and I'd like to see more and more things being added, I wouldn't ever pay for this. So, the moment they start charging, I'll stop listening. :P