# Podcasting - who cares?



## cfleck (Jun 28, 2005)

I'm a bit befuddled by the podcasting inclusion in iTunes/iPod.  I check out the itms and wasn't impressed by anything available either.  So what is the big deal here?  It seems more like radio shows you can download.  Am I wrong?

I don't know.  I just feel like it is a whole lot of wooby-jooby about nothing.


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## CreativeEye (Jun 28, 2005)

you're right - podcasts are exactly like radio shows you can download...

to the people who like podcasts it great wooby-jooby that itunes supports them...

to the people who don't care about podcast its wooby-jooby over nothing...


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## Convert (Jun 28, 2005)

I tried it, and in all honesty, I wasn't that impressed. But that's simply because the material I wanted wasn't there. I'd make my own, but it's too much for too little.

It's a nice thing for the people who like listening to somewhat late radio shows, but I'd rather buy a radio add on to listen to the radio - live - on my iPod. Sadly, that doesn't exist.


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## mw84 (Jun 28, 2005)

There are a FEW good podcasts you just have to look around. But the majority I've heard lack. The one's I like aren't listed in itunes. One of my favourites is Poose Radio, hilarious. Personally I prefer the ones that don't include music.


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## adambyte (Jun 28, 2005)

and Al Franken is there. He's cool. But... I just listen to him on the radio, anyway, on LA's KTLK AM 1150.

Eh.... whatever.

P.S. "Wooby jooby?" lol


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## markceltic (Jun 28, 2005)

adambyte said:
			
		

> .
> 
> P.S. "Wooby jooby?" lol


 Yeah you know it's like the "twist" a new dance that goes like this, or the watoosy or mashed potatoe....


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## RGrphc2 (Jun 28, 2005)

I think Howard Stern should put his KROCK show into Podcast form!!!  Even when he goes to Sirius he should podcast as well for us who can't afford Satillete radio now


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## Ceroc Addict (Jun 28, 2005)

mw84 said:
			
		

> The one's I like aren't listed in itunes.


From what I've read, it's possible to subscribe to podcasts from iTunes which aren't listed in the itms.

Podcasts are fantastic. Hopefully with Apple's support the number of good podcasts will increase significantly.
*
Has anyone figured out how adding bookmarks to podcasts works yet?*

Kap


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## symphonix (Jun 28, 2005)

I think it will pick up a variety of podcasts as time passes, but for now its likely to be pretty sparse. I work for IBM, and I know the developers and tech types there use Podcasts A LOT - lectures, announcements, blogs ... many are available as podcasts which is ideal for catching up on while driving to work, etc. I suspect Apple internally has a culture that probably use Podcasts, Keynote and QuickTime streaming like crazy.  Even news vendors like CNN are picking up on the possibilities for Podcasts. We'll have to wait and see what this means to the general public in a couple of years though.

Still, I like the idea that in a couple of years time, I'll be driving to work and have the day's programs - which I chose for myself - playing on the car stereo.


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## Randman (Jun 29, 2005)

It's great.


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## fryke (Jun 29, 2005)

To sum it up: It depends on the content. I think the implementation in iTunes is a bit unclear - Apple has done better jobs with iTunes features in the past. But knowing that this _does_ take off, I think it's great that Apple has acted rather quickly.


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## MBHockey (Jun 29, 2005)

I don't see myself ever using these things, i really don't understand why Jobs is making such a huge deal about them.

Just my opinion though; i'm sure other people will use them.


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## Ceroc Addict (Jun 29, 2005)

fryke said:
			
		

> To sum it up: It depends on the content. I think the implementation in iTunes is a bit unclear


Unclear?

I'm disappointed that it doesn't seem possible to add bookmarks directly from within iTunes, or drag and drop podcasts that I've already downloaded into the Podcast playlist, but other than that I think they've done a great job.

Kap


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## Satcomer (Jun 29, 2005)

My only thing is this Podcasting seems like a fad just like blogs were/are. I will hold off my judgement until I see the PodCasts are updated on a regular basis. I DO BELIEVE Podcasts will not be free (from commerical sites) for long.


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## cfleck (Jun 29, 2005)

No question about cost.  Someone will start charging as they become more popular.

My major beef is that there doesn't seem to be any of any great interest to me.  Oh well.  Time will give me more choices I suppose.  

Yes, wooby-jooby.  Like mumbo-jumbo only with more funk.


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## adambyte (Jun 29, 2005)

lol.... I take it back.... I found all the KCRW shows, and because of my love for NPR, I have subscribed to those. Okay, so, not a big deal, but.... it's pretty spiffy to be able to listen to things you might have missed.


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## fjdouse (Jun 30, 2005)

I suppose if you're American or like American content it's ok, I can't find anything of interest to me at all, I tried the BBC one but I can't understand a word, it's all done with some speech synthesiser.

I can't even find a way of removing it! I only like the Library and my playlists being shown, not the rest of the junk.

So for me, it's of zero interest and a waste of time. Horses for courses as they say.


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## Shookster (Jun 30, 2005)

I agree that there should definitely be more control over the feeds once they've been downloaded. One of mine got renamed automatically to "storage" for some reason and it won't let me change it back.

P.S. I'm not American and I still found content that I was interested in. If you want news / talk, they'll most likely be better on a proper radio station. I listened to feeds on the kind of subjects that they don't normally broadcast on the radio - e.g. screenwriting and marketing (yeah, I know, boring).


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## fjdouse (Jun 30, 2005)

Shookster said:
			
		

> P.S. I'm not American and I still found content that I was interested in.



You found British content, apart from the BBC?


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## CreativeEye (Jun 30, 2005)

I'm not American either and found interesting content.

There might not be a lot of British content up there right now but give it time - I'm sure there will be. In exactly the same way as widgets were all US-centric to begin with but now you can get localised ones...

Just because theres no British content doesn't make it uninteresting in itself - thats a bit short sighted - the fact that theres no content AT ALL that YOU find interesting makes it less appealing to YOU.

it's a bit like saying - 'I love movies, but they are all pretty much american so i dont like them and they are a waste of time for me - therefore i dont go to the cinema...'

if you truly want more british content, help yourself and try google! i just did a search for 'british podcasts' - and the first hit? 

http://www.researchbuzz.org/hub_of_british_podcasts_.shtml


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## Robn Kester (Jun 30, 2005)

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.

And I think podcasts (silly name aside) are a fad and will die. imho.


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## CreativeEye (Jun 30, 2005)

was it adam curry who coined the phrase 'podcast'? its a bit like the mp3 player market - 'ipod' has simply become the defacto term for all players amongst a generation... podcast seems like a fair enough term to me... and it seems that all the makers of them from the bedroom dj's to the majors are happy to call them such...

...another example would be coca cola / coke - everything of its ilk is generally called 'coke'...

also - there have been over one million subscriptions of podcasts since the launch of itunes 4.9 - thats subscriptions - not the 'get episode' method...

http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/06/30/podcast.subscriptions/


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## cfleck (Jun 30, 2005)

> ...another example would be coca cola / coke - everything of its ilk is generally called 'coke'...



No, I think its more like coke being called soda distribution


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## CreativeEye (Jun 30, 2005)

ah - ok, soda isnt really a word used in the uk. the only time it is used is in reference to baking soda!


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## fjdouse (Jun 30, 2005)

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._


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## adambyte (Jun 30, 2005)

Robn Kester said:
			
		

> 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.


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## fjdouse (Jun 30, 2005)

adambyte said:
			
		

> 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 



			
				adambyte said:
			
		

> 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..


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## Shookster (Jul 1, 2005)

adambyte said:
			
		

> 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


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## fryke (Jul 1, 2005)

"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.


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## Shookster (Jul 1, 2005)

"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


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## fryke (Jul 1, 2005)

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.


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## Reality (Jul 1, 2005)

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.


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## Shookster (Jul 1, 2005)

Reality said:
			
		

> 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.



Yep, same here. They may, however, opt to play adverts like some radio stations do. I wouldn't object to that as long as they're not too long or frequent. I wouldn't object to a "sponsored by" message at the beginning either.

Although on second thoughts, that might affect the quality of the content (i.e. they try to keep advertisers happy rather than listeners).


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## HomunQlus (Jul 4, 2005)

Quick and painless:

Podcasting is nothing more than Webradio. Don't need that, already have my Webradios bookmarked. Podcasting isn't as nice to me as I thought it'd be.


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## Randman (Jul 4, 2005)

It's better than I expected. Some good stuff if you search through some of the detritus.


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## Stridder44 (Jul 8, 2005)

parb.johal@ante said:
			
		

> you're right - podcasts are exactly like radio shows you can download...
> 
> to the people who like podcasts it great wooby-jooby that itunes supports them...
> 
> to the people who don't care about podcast its wooby-jooby over nothing...



Amen!


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## Carlo (Jul 11, 2005)

I love it.

I miss out on some radio shows during the day so getting them automatically on the ipod is great. Also means I can listen to radio from other countries.

Its very cool..


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## Randman (Jul 11, 2005)

Agree with Carlo.


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## mseydel (Jul 16, 2005)

check out:

http://www.itconversations.com/index.html


very good informational Podcast site...Tech Nation is my fave series here.




yes, they're geeky; but we're Mac enthusiasts, right?


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## Gambit (Aug 15, 2005)

Wow, what a lot of wining over something that's free. I say, take it or leave it!

I like some of the podcastings that one can download and listen to "on the go". There are more that I do *not* want to listen to so....what's the big deal?
There are worse things to rant about, imv. 

Cheers!


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## cfleck (Aug 15, 2005)

You know what, I've converted.  I'm actually enjoying some of them.  Actually 4.  

ESPN Radio 
ESPN Mix
Living on Earth
Science Friday

I wish NPR would put out All Things Considered though.

I find just about every independent show unlistenable (is that a word) due to sound quality and lack of radio voice/proper scripting.  The tech shows are aplenty, but I don't need them as I get nearly all the tech news I can handle via RSS throughout the day.

All said, I'm liking it, but wish there were more "pro-level" selections.


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