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Yahoo Launches New Podcasting Service
sdirrim writes to tell us Reuters is reporting that Yahoo! has just released a test version of its new podcasting service From the (short) article: "Yahoo's new service will allow users to download shows from National Public Radio, the weekly presidential address, and independent shows with subjects ranging from sports to knitting." Additionally Yahoo! Podcast users have the ability to rate shows.
According to Slashdot, "Yahoo! Podcast users have the ability to rate shows."
For more information, click here.
goof
I should have clarified what I meant...
Something beyond 1-5 stars and some reviews would be nice. Something along the lines of rating the audio quality, how often there are new episodes, how long people stay subscribed on average, etc...
Click the name of a podcast on Yahoo! Podcasts. There is a link called "User Reviews" where people can leave blurbs about (among other things) the audio quality, new episode frequency, etc. It's not entirely what you wanted, but it's something.
For more information, click here.
Well, fundamentally, you still have to download it, so this is just getting the whole thing at once. The other option is to not get an iPod, but just get iTunes or Windows Media Player (they have links on Yahoo! podcasts). No need for the actual iPod, unless you want to carry it with you.
i-podder http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php
Is a nice OSS program for downloading podcasts too. No need for spyware/bloatware/crapware from the big guys.
I don't think its that hard to register your RSS feed at multiple sites. It only takes about 10 seconds.
...and saving and/or playing them in the player of my choice. Despite owning a portable music player (a gift), I never did quite understand all the excitement of podcast time/placeshifting. When do people find the time to listen to all this stuff anyway? (commutes, I suppose, but beyond that...?)
Anyway, the idea of a podcast directory is nice, and I'm neither surprised nor unhappy that Y! has stepped up to the plate. However, some of the whizbang stuff they've tacked on isn't, well, very user-friendly.
For instance, clicking on "listen" under a listed podcast brings up a little window with a mini-player... which (at least on Firefox) doesn't even let you skip forward or back in a broadcast. Huh?!
The integration with Y!'s player -- Yahoo! Music Engine -- is, however, pretty useful and generally well-done.
Only the truly shameless shill their blog in a Slashdot sig
Podcast novels? Do you mean something like this? Or this? Not to mention this and this.
I wish we had something like this in New Mexico.
There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
There's some complete NPR shows. For example, On The Media, Living On Earth, Justice Talking, Latino USA, and Talk of the Nation Science Friday are all NPR shows avaliable in their entirety by podcast.
There's also complete PRI (Public Radio International) shows like To The Point, Le Show, and Pacific Time also avaliable in their entirety by podcast.
What you don't have is Morning Edition or All Things Considered avaliable by podcast. Instead, NPR takes stories from ME and ATC and puts them into different formats, like "Most E-Mailed Stories" and "Story of the Day" that aggregate most popular stories, and podcasts like "NPR: Technology" and "NPR: Health & Science" that aggregate by topic.
Considering ME and ATC are both two hours long each day, some would probably find it more convenient to get these in a repackaged format, and the radio stations probably feel less threatened by this tactic. Unfortunately, NPR could have done a better job of organizing things -- there's no "NPR: Politics" category, for example.