Time-Shifting For The iPod

depechemodem writes "This story at ExtremeiPod talks about a new piece of software from Adam Curry called iPodder (now at Sourceforge) which uses RSS feeds with MP3 enclosures to stream audio to iTunes. The best part is that those streams can be saved as clips automatically on to your iPod or other MP3 player for later listening making this the first portable time-shifted Internet audio application. The code is alse being ported to Windows."

Comments

Wow, Adam Curry

[krog]

Good to see he's still in the music business. Does he still have that outrageous hair? And the acid-washed jeans?

Re:Wow, Adam Curry

[GeorgeMcBay]

The thing that makes this really funny is that unlike the Matt Dillon jokes that pop up every time the BSD Matt Dillon is mentioned, this really is "that" Adam Curry. The one from MTV. Same guy...

Re:Wow, Adam Curry

[AssFace]

Not sure about the jeans, but his hair is still relatively long and still blonde. He has been living in the Netherlands although I think is moving (to England I think) soon.

I have his blog in my RSS feed - he occasionally posts up photos of him and various people.

He has been doing radio shows (even wen to Iraq and did some coverage there), has owned a series of tech start ups that apparently did fairly well (at least for him), and he also flies planes/helicopters.

What a load of garbage

[Anonymous Coward]

I constantly timeshift radio using Audiohijack Pro. Every morning, NPR's Morning Edition is recorded and waiting for iTunes to transfer it to my iPod for my morning commute.

Re:What a load of garbage

[Deekin_Scalesinger]

Er, if it is recording NPR's Morning Edition, and you are listening to it on your morning commute, can't you, I don't know, turn on your radio like Grandpa used to and listen to it live?

Re:What a load of garbage

[Colazar]

Just a guess, but:

Morning Edition begins broadcasting at ~5AM Pacific time, and repeats its programming several times during its timeslot. (At least here in Seattle.)

Many people's morning commute does not involve a car. The radio reception I got on the bus was always really crappy, so I've given up listening to a lot of radio. This might be a solution.

Trademarks and copyrights

[tepples]

Won't Apple get upset about the use of the "iPod" trademark in the product's name?

And won't the NMPA and RIAA start to female-dog about it being a copyright infringement tool? No, sharing your own songs may not be a substantial non-infringing use under Betamax because what you call "your own songs" could likely be either covers or subconscious infringements.

I smell cease and desist.

Re:Trademarks and copyrights

[BizidyDizidy]

You probably raise some good points in this post, but it's impossible for me to know because everytime I try to read it, an avalanche of vomit destroys my computer upon reading the phrase "female dog about it"

(posting without reading from my third computer)

Re:huh?

[garcia]

It downloads Internet Radio streams and lets you play them back as MP3s later. Just like Tivo does for TV (allowing you to skip commercials with a slider bar) you can now do that with your favorite MP3 player (including the ever so popularly advertised iPod).

a whoosawhats it now?

[Delphix]

time-shifted Internet audio application

So basically, using an RSS and MP3 wrapper, they've created the 21st century equivalent of a tape recorder hooked up to a radio...

Re:a whoosawhats it now?

[garcia]

So basically, using an RSS and MP3 wrapper, they've created the 21st century equivalent of a tape recorder hooked up to a radio...

More like a crippled DAT hooked up to a digital tuner with an Internet connection. You couldn't exactly tell your tape recorder to only record such and such a show on this, this, and that station without manual intervention. You also wouldn't exactly have digital audio.

"Timeshifted"

[ARRRLovin]

"Timeshifted" is the new "previously recorded".

So basically, if I understand this right, it's an app that records audio from the internet then automagically siphons it off to an iPod. Clever....even without the jargon and catchphrases.

Re:"Timeshifted"

[badasscat]

"Timeshifted" is the new "previously recorded".

Uh, well, it's not really all that new. It came about with the inital advent of VCRs.

Well, not really. "Time-shifting", as a term, came about because there was something new about it, namely that you could watch what was being recorded while it was being recorded, but at a different point in time than what was recording at that moment. Obviously, that's a mouthful to say, hence the term "time-shifting". It was new to the digital world, and it's a big deal because it lets you, say, pause live TV and go make a sandwich, or start watching an 8 PM program at 8:03 without missing anything, or whatever. A VCR can't do that. (You'd have to record the entire show, then start watching at the beginning once it's over.)

"Time-shifting" is different than just recording and watching/listening later. So this iPodder thing may be a bit of a misnomer; it may not do true time-shifting. It has to be able to play the clips you're recording as you're recording them, at any point in the stream. Just "saving clips" to listen to later is not time-shifting.

wowser, so much more than an mp3 player!

[Chuck Bucket]

and I thought the iPod was just an mp3 player! ;) Seriously, if you watch the development of the device, and consider all of the software being developed for it, it's no wonder Apple isn't running about making another Neuton...in effect, they almost have! I look for the iPod to do a ton more things come January 2005. I for one plan on playing with Linux on mine, then seeing what else I can do with that's cool and new.

DCVLB&*DFS

Re:Firefix extension

[garcia]

So how about having this as a browser independent plugin?

Re:huh?

[jargoone]

It's transferring a file. From an RSS feed to another folder (iPod). It downloads the RSS file (WOW!), extracts the content (Double WOW!), and moves it. Pure genius.

Anything with iPod in the description apparently bypasses the submission queue.

What can't the iPod do?

[Chuck Bucket]

Amazing what a little opening of the hardware allows for people to do with this little thing that was originally meant to just play music and be a modern day Walkman. Now it's this swiss army knife of the 21st century. With success like this it still boggles the mind that Apple computers don't catch on the same way. Flame me if you will, but if Apple just sold a computer for 600$ I think it would catch fire like the iPod has.

CB*(#$@@!@

Re:What can't the iPod do?

[Paulrothrock]

Many current switchers, according to chatter heard in Apple's Support Forums, have switched because of their experience with the iPod. Whether it was from walking into an Apple Store to buy an iPod and getting a chance to actually *use* a Mac, or seeing how much thought was put into the iPod, from how the scroll wheel accelerates to how rugged the design is to the neat way the backlight fades on and off.

If iTMS is a loss-leader for the iPod, then the iPod is a leader for Macs. I'm all for Apple making a headless eMac. But until they do the eMac, which is itself an incredibly capable machine for its price, will probably be the first Mac many people own.

Re:What can't the iPod do?

[BoneFlower]

What can't it do?

Pitch control and cue points. Add those two features, and apple will find a large market of DJs that will buy them. Hell, I'd put off upgrading my mixer if Apple added those two features. I'd have a good portable music player for the bus and whatnot, and a small device I can hook up to my mixer so I can use digital music files, stuff I rip off CD or my own productions that I can't afford to press to vinyl in my sets. And it would open up a large amount of music, especially futurepop, that is disgustingly difficult to find in any quantity on vinyl.

Re:What can't the iPod do?

[radish]

if Apple just sold a computer for 600$ I think it would catch fire like the iPod has.


What makes you say that? The iPod follows Apple's other products in being (a) nicely designed (b) well built (c) very expensive. There are many competitors to the iPod, most of which offer additional features (of varying usefulness), and are cheaper (often very significantly). This is just like the PC market - Windows boxes are more numerous, usually not as well built/designed, but a lot cheaper. What surprises me is how the market seems to tolerate Apple's premium pricing for mp3 players but not for computers.

Re:A little bit offtopic : Some help needed.

[mhollis]

If you go to Versiontracker you will find lots of cool software for the iPod and for iTunes if you enter iPod in their search box.

Adam Curry / Neal Stephenson connection

[kraksmokr]

This may be a bit offtopic, but does anyone remember Adam Curry's metaverse.com web site? He got that one after MTV took away mtv.com from him. This was way back in like 1993 or 1994. I believe he had just read 'Snow Crash'. Anyway, it's neat to see a celebrity become a geek (kind of like the pr0n star Asia Carerra!), but of course she looks better naked.

Correct me if I'm wrong ...

[e1en0r]

... and I'm sure you all will, but I was under the impression that iPodder was a fancy automatic way of downloading MP3s, not converting streaming radio to MP3s and then storing on your iPod which is what this story seems to imply. It is not " the first portable time-shifted Internet audio application", it just "raises the prospect of truly portable time-shifted audio programming on the Internet". I believe Audio Hijack Pro will let you record streaming music, but iPodder looks like it just downloads MP3s.

Don't I Already Do This With MPlayer?

[Chaotic Evil Cleric]

How is this different from

mplayer -dumpaudio /stream/address

?

What about Replay Radio

[chrisspurgeon]

Not taking anything away from iPodder, but I've been using a great little app called Replay Radio for a year or so to grab my favorite web radio programs and save them as MP3s, which I then dump into my iPod. Product details here

Time-shifting?

[Chuck Bucket]

When I first read that I got ideas of a Hitchhiker's Guide show. Who needs a towel anymore if you have an iPod!

(it's funny, try to laugh! ;))

CB%^&*()

Let me get this straight

[HarveyBirdman]

So "time-shifting" with my iPod does not imply time travel?

Shit.

I thought I could just hit the button and turn the volume control to skip back a few minutes.

Yes.. TimeShifting!

[scrubmuffin]

Another fricking buzzword. Gotta love 'em.

My website is now rendering multi tiered aggregate content to strategize user-centric metrics while orchestrating scalable synergies utilizing virtual timeshifted content.

Somebody buy me..
Please?

Re:Yes.. TimeShifting!

[scrubmuffin]

Credit where credit is due, I used
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html to generate some of the description.

Re:If ever there was a time

[Colonel Cholling]

Click away people, I need an iPod!

Dude, if you want a free iPod, just send me your bank account number and SSN. When I forward it my buddy the Prime Minister of Nigeria, he'll send you more than enough money to cover the cost of an iPod.

Non-revolutionary?

[rasterboy]

Yeah, I know, it's nothing new, the whole automating the pulling down of content. What's really important is that a framework is being established. RSS is getting more and more popular by the day, and if producers of audio content get it together, and produce RSS feeds with enclosures pointing to the audio files, it becomes *extremely easy* for developers to write apps to handle that content, and *extremely easy* for users to get that content - automatically!

Adam knows he's not a brilliant programmer. He's a frustrated developer, who is really trying to kickstart this whole thing by enticing others to write better code than his, which is happening. It made me release my crappy perl code, and prompted others to start similar projects.

Heck, this is the Apple section of /. right? Remember "easy of use" is somewhere near the top of the list for some people.

How Come?

[SomeOtherGuy]

How come whenever anyone does anything trivial that has anything to do with an Ipod...that it is reported like world peace?

Recording streams have been around as long as streams themselves....I guess it was not a big deal until someone with an Ipod started recording streams.

Next we will read about "Ipod owner creates Hello World" and a "tetris clone".

Streamers for OS X

[christor]

If you're interested in having various streamed radio programs (like BBC, NPR, etc.) on your iPod, you may want to check out Streamers for OS X. (Disclosure - I'm the author.) Using Ambrosia's WireTap, iCal, and iTunes, it allows you to keep a library of shows to be recorded and to schedule recordings. Just be sure to drag the app itself, and not the folder that contains it, into your Applications folder. The way I packaged the last build has caused a few users some confusion on this score.

It's freeware; source is included; and I've just put up a sourceforge site for it.

Missing the point

[xombo]

A lot of people aren't reading the site and realizing what this technology is about:

1) The program uses encapusization in RSS feeds to grab media from timely updated web sites.
2) The program stores the media and transfers it to the iPod by way of iTunes.

It does not "record broadcasts from streams" any more than using Kazaa to download videos allows you to fast-forward through the boring bits in porn.

Essentially it expands on new RSS tools that give media sites the ability to post recently updated media resources.

Content?

[LanMan04]

A neat tool, I got it working after some initial confusion (talk about lack of documentation, that is part of software development, you know), I found the content to be...err...lacking.

I mean, as much as I like listening to IT babble all day, I get enough of that at work, and after work, and with my friends, etc. Sure would be nice if NPR, or CNN, or any new site not related to hard-core IT or crazy eclectic blogging supported RSS 2.0 with enclosures....

What iPodder is!

[RaySl]

iPodder and like scripts is just a method of getting new content onto your iPod or MP3 playing device. Nothing more. Its not rocket science, just just a needed tool.

RSS is just an XML file, one of the tags is an enclosure tag, that tag specifies a link to an MP3 file of a new audio program that the author has posted online.

When the iPodder aggregator is run it checks for new MP3 files and downloads them into a playlist (Windows Media, iTunes, ect) that you can later sync up to a portable player.

Why is this needed? hell that should be simple for anyone using an aggregator at all. Its just easier to have this stuff come to you then for you to go out and be on the look out for new 'IT Conversations' or 'The Daily Source Code' episodes.

Yes the concept is simple, and very basic but it didn't exist before, so this fills a hole that a lot of listeners to these types of shows really needed.

After reading some of the comments about iPodder, I was more than a little confused on how so many people could wrap their heads around what iPodder does, I hope this helps (sorry that is late in coming)