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Apple Launches Video Podcasting For iTunes
phaedo00 writes "Apple has launched support for video podcasting in the Podcast section of the iTMS. Ars Technica has a decent write up of the news along with speculation on what this means in the way of a video iPod and Apple's recent application for a patent on the phrase 'iPodcast.'" From the article: "The quiet, fanfare-less launch (in fact, it's not even clear when it was launched) is a bit surprising for the company, but there may be a reason: there's not too many video podcasts out there in the wild. Furthermore, video podcasts are currently only playable on your computer, although it seems clear enough that a video iPod is on the way. If you didn't believe it before, you should definitely believe it now. For now, it looks like video podcasting support is limited."
It's a freaking trademark that they used. You can't patent a word.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Obviously, as the Ars Technica article correctly reads, they applied for a trademark on "iPodcast".
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I know the idea of a video capable iPod hasn't been too enticing around here as users complain of small screen areas. I have to say, however, that after purchasing an iRiver H340 and flashing the Korean firmware I love the ability to play video if the fancy strikes me. The screen is big enough to make it worth it to watch movies or tv shows on a flight (or on my lunch break).
I'd be really interested to see what Apple can do for video on a portable jukebox. iRiver's implementation, while nice, seems a bit 'after the fact' so I know there is potential.
I find that some video podcasts are actually quite good. For example, Diggnation is quite good: http://revision3.com/diggnation
as is Systm:
http://revision3.com/systm
It will be interesting to see, with the current amount of media emphasis (especially in the BBC) on camera and video phones being used in reporting stories and being "first on the scene", whether the podcast will rival the mobile phone with regards to use in media. Although the mobile phone is now ubiquitous, the ipod may be capable of recording better quality video and broadcasting it for everyone without the use of a new corporation.
Matthew Grint Midnight Artists
why read or write when you can listen or speak?
TV was made for losers like this.
Trolling is a art,
This is nothing new. I've been watching Prem Rawat's "Peace is Possible" on iTunes for a while.
The Dawn and Drew show even had a little video as part of their iTunes rss feed.
Apple already has a specialized "ipod videocasting" application - it's called iMovie.
The "news" will be an iPod designed to support video playback right out of the box.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
I bet they're surpirised to hear of this "new" functionality....
First of all, let's have a quick chuckle over "Apple's recent application for a patent on the phrase 'iPodcast.'" and move on :)
h ow-to-find-and-add-media-to-your-itunes-library-wi th-delicious-110812.php
I noticed that iTunes could handle "video podcasts" in the last version (4.7?) and there's a little writeup of the capability paired with del.ici.us over at lifehacker:
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/entertainment/
Does it mean that a video iPod is "on the way"? Not neccesarily. iTunes has had the ability to play video for a while, and podcasting video is not much different from podcasting audio. Parse
the rss, download the associated media, add to a special playlist. I think the feature was added as an afterthought or experiment: "hey, we can add a couple lines and support this!".
The video iPod remains the white whale of Apple enthusiasts. Often speculated about, never seen.
The overall discussion was about Intel/Apple, but it seems he called this one (at least the first part) right.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Well, Sony PSP can play h.264 video format. Okay maybe need some simple tweaking with the container format.
Maybe this is something Sony would like to collaborate with Apple on?
there's not too many video podcasts out there in the wild.
Actually, there is a very interesting graph in this month's Technology Review concerning podcasts. The graph shows the percentage of podcasts available by subject, versus the percentage of podcasts viewed by subject. Music is, of course, the genre that most podcasts are in, and the genre that most people view. However, erotica is one of the smallest genres by availablilty, and one of the largest by viewership. Porn driving technology again, it seems. :)
I know the article says that video podcasting support in iTunes has been around for a while, but why on earth have we not heard about this before? I follow most of the rumor sites, and this hasn't been addressed, and yet it seems like the best evidence for the video iPod. This is the first I've head of this.
I have to wonder if Apple isn't promoting this feature because they're not sure how to bill it. Without a video iPod, it doesn't fit well within their "package deal" of the iTMS, iPod, and iTunes.
They would release a firmware update that would enable video playback on all current Ipod models. This would boost customer loyalty, satisfaction, and increase sales of Ipods across the board.
Then, Apple could simultaniously release a new "accessory" for the Ipod. It would be a line of larger portable screens. The screens could have some sort of dock(maybe on the side) that the Ipod could snap into and feed video out to the portable screen while letting you use the clickwheel for control.
Doing something like this would give ipod owners a new "item" to purchase if they so chose. And, I imagine it would sell very well because now, in addition to entire music collections, you could have entire movie collections with an optional screen to get good viewing off of.
Of course, later apple could release a "video ipod" model as well with improved video out quality and perhaps a larger built in screen for ipod owners to "upgrade" to when their old ipods finally wear out.
It would be a win win situation for everyone and boost apple's hardware sales across the board.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
I've been noticing all the podcasting cognoscenti in Silicon Valley are simultaneously doing their podcast and shooting video of it. What do they know or suspect that we don't?
- Former TechTV ScreenSavers host Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. "I get no spam" Dvorak and others are doing TWIT and just announced video is next.
- Former ScreenSavers hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose at Diggnation are shooting video while they podcast and Kevin Rose is doing SYSTM
- Robert X. Cringley's NerdTV debuts. Now you may be wondering, "So what?". It's IPTV...that's what. There aren't a lot of great examples out there yet, but most of the smart podcasters -- who are mini-celebrities or have something people would like to see -- are simultaneously podcasting and shooting video (many in high definition just in case). Read an article about a new report here.
- Silicon Valley podcaster John Furrier from Podtech is embarking on video to augment his podcasting.
Wired magazine has a great article discussing blogging + video = vlogging. While everyone's attention is on podcasting, vlogging is the next hot trend that has almost taken off. This Apple announcement oughta help.It's so hard to believe in anything anymore. If it weren't for my lucky astrology mood watch, I wouldn't believe in anything.
Steve Martin, Comedian
I don't think video podcasting will take off in the same way as audio podcasting.
It's technically pretty easy to make a decent sounding audio podcast (are we going to have to call it that from now on?). All you need is a decent microphone to record it on, a piece of software to edit it with and you're good. Recording voice so that it sounds good and natural is easy.
Making a decent video podcast is more demanding. I know good video cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper but no matter the quality of the camera you're still looking at somebody's home video unless the lighting is done properly, the sound is recorded by someone who knows what they're doing[1] and you're looking at a person who does not look like he's living in his mom's basement.
In short, a lot more can go wrong when you're moving from just sound to sound and video.
Commercial video podcasting may be interesting. It would be cool to get the news to put on your video iPod. But I think that will be made obsolete pretty quickly with some sort of wireless broadband and mobile phones.
[1] Recording sound for an audio podcast is easy. You speak directly into the microphone. If you have to film the damn thing you'd better move the microphone out of the picture or get a contact mic. Otherwise it will look extremely bad.
Noise Is Music Podcast.
Make better use of our home broadband connectivity?. I'm seeing few people addressing the costs and practicality of hosting all this new content.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
You can subscribe to video podcasts in iTunes, but I kind of prefer having a separate application to do it with...
.torrent form initially, and automatically download the videos via bittorrent.
The best one so far is DTV (mac-only beta right now). The biggest feature this has that iTunes doesn't have is the ability to receive the video podcasts in
Unless iTunes provides some kind of automatic caching for the video files, having just a moderate amount of popularity could kill aspiring video podcasters.
Another app is FireANT, which without the bittorrent feature makes me hate it.
DTV also has a built-in directory to find video podcasts, which is pretty cool. They do a good job of making the process easy to use, although their beta is still a little wonky at times.
"What thou shalt not, I shalt did!" -Bart Simpson