iTunes 4.9

Apple released itunes 4.9 with integrated podcasting support today. Among the more interesting pieces i read on this so far are Dave Winer’s assessment, Edd Dumbill’s assessment and Brent Simmons’ take on this as an rss aggregator developer.
I had to bring my ibook back into repairs again (more on this later) so i couldn’t check out the ipod integration so far, but here’re a few thoughts from a quick testdrive of the windows version (as a bulleted list because it’s getting late and i need to get to bed):

  • Their implementation is pretty nice considering it’s their first try and it makes a lot of sense to integrate podcasting support with your digital music library.
  • The approach of separating your podcasts from regular audio in your library is great. I don’t wanna run into a podcast while shuffling and setting up a smart playlist just for excluding podcasts is a little tedious. Would be nice if there was something like this for audiobooks as well.
  • From what i’ve heard the latest ipod firmware implements this separation of podcasts and other audio as well. A welcome surprise, i just wonder how much longer it’ll take to get compilation grouping support in there as well… this has been missing for at least months and i’m slowly losing my hope.
  • I see no way to subscribe to podcasts outside their own, controlled directory. Perhaps i’m missing something obvious or this is actually hidden somewhere deep inside some half-forgotten menu, but if not this is bad. Nobody likes gate-keepers and walled gardens, it should be possible to subscribe to a podcast by specifying its rss-feed url.

I wonder (again) where this leaves odeo. For all i know they are still in invitation-only beta. Last numbers i heard they’ve handed out 11.000 accounts and now apple the goliath comes to market before them. I bet apple had more users on day one than odeo signed up in the weeks up to its launch.
I was lucky enough to get an odeo account recently and even though it’s really slick and one of the most polished web applications i’ve ever seen, they’ll still have a hard time competing with podcasting support directly built into your music player, no add-ons required. Honestly i wouldn’t bother to use another service that ultimately has to be more cumbersome to use by its own design and platform. On the other hand, i couldn’t find suicidegirls radio on itunes while odeo has it…

∞ Jun 29, 2005

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