I brought this idea up with Dan, and wanted to bring it up here for public discussion. I’ve been listening to various “podcasts” lately (even though I really hate that term), and thinking about doing one myself, just for fun, with the help of Dan and/or whoever else would want to be involved.
For those not familiar with them, at a high-level, they are basically just MP3 radio shows that you record yourself and publish a certain way, so that RSS-capable applications can “subscribe” to your show (among others) and have it automatically downloaded to their listening device whenever they want. In reality, I think Dan summed up their true nature pretty well: “just somebody speaking their blog, instead of writing it” or something to that effect.
If I did do it, it probably would be something like that for me - a lot of the same topics that I post about on here. It would probably lean more toward the technical stuff, specifically computer security related topics (or maybe what some would label “hacking”), and probably very little political-type discussions, just because I don’t think that format really supports the kind of open dialog that that type of subject requires. I was asking Dan if he could do reviews on all the tech stuff he buys all the time and then turns around and sells on ebay (just kidding) and also he could talk about any Mac-related issues, so that I can poke fun at them. It might be entertaining.
Of course, it wouldn’t be limited to that either, we could talk about anything that came up: blog culture and technology, movie & music reviews, showcasing free music artists, etc. (maybe we could get Nathan to do the music reviews) My main question is whether anyone would listen, and whether it would be worth the time. I suspect that it would actually end up drawing more traffic here, since (at least right now) podcasts (like blogs) always start small, but seem to get popular much more quickly than blogs, just because there are fewer of them out there. What do you think?
2 Trackbacks
[...]
Posted 0 minutes ago under General | Popularity: 1%
Originally found in this long list of comments: Apple will be releasing a phone with motorola soon that wi [...]
[...] usic (Dan’s music mix) but I could easily post some video. And then there is always this. Now all I need to do is create a podcast badge. :D.
[...]
42 Comments
You probably have this type of information. I get these emails on podcasting. Haven’t had time to read many.
Weekly Podcast Tips 0105 - 5/31/2005http://www.podcasttools.com
What about Video casting? that way we can show what we are doing.
Seems like that would be too much work; I think even the audio version would be hard enough to keep doing on a regular basis, but I don’t know, it might be a good idea.
The other thing is for the parts when we’re not showing an example of something, then I don’t want to sit there talking into the camera. There are definite possibilities for doing tutorials on setting up blogs, configuring your computer, etc. but I’m picturing some things where we would just be talking about something, and then what would you show on the video?
I was thinking of video because of tutorials and such. I wasn’t thinking of video of ourselves that’s stupid. Say we need to show how to use a mac (:D) for XP users then do a video screen capture and talk while we are working on the computer. It would really work for your hacking stuff. I am just worried about what to talk about, but I could find something, I first need to listen to some first. any recommendations.
Check out these flash demos. Seems like a good way to do a tutorial or a demo: http://sebgate.f2s.com/demos/
I’d give it a listen a couple of times at least, then let you know.
I don’t have any links off the top of my head, I’ve just been sampling random ones from podcastalley.com. I haven’t really seen any that do exactly the kind of thing I’m thinking of, which is probably good, although there are plenty of “tech” ones out there.
As for the “hacking” stuff, it would probably be more geared towards teaching people how to make their systems safe, etc. and maybe some other stuff that’s fun but still legal. You have to be careful with laws like the DMCA these days. I don’t know of any current shows on that specific topic, other than Off the Hook, out of WBAI in New York, but that’s more political than tech now. There are some others that have been around in the past that I haven’t listened to in a while (sorry I don’t have the links offhand) like In the Now, Hackermind, Default Radio, etc. If you do some searching around you wil find them.
The more I think about it, maybe the video thing would be pretty cool. Do you have apps to do video screen captures (avi or whatever)?
As for content, there are always fresh news stories in the tech area, new gadgets being released, new security vulnerabilities being discovered, etc. so I don’t think that would be an issue.
I was thinking of the surf report for content. It could be emailed out to a cheap subscription base. Or the news, stocks or even the weather or a rehash of Noaa weather radio.
Or do it as a production house for a ipodcasting service for anything that goes on cassette tapes like motivational speakers, company communications, hr orientation, instructional seminars, church tapes or no money down real estate jerky boys. The customers provide the content, production ipod formats and hangs it on the web site or emails it out to the lists.
I’m not sure where you were going with this, but the whole podcasting thing isn’t something I’m planning on marketing, or charging anyone for. It’s basically just like a blog, but with audio (or video in this case).
But since we’re on the subject, the efforts that are currently underway by corporations to make a buck out of the blogging scene (and I’m sure “podcasting” will be next) are flopping big time, as well they should.
I think blogs have taken great strides in the area of getting people to experience and enjoy non-commercial media, and hopefully that trend will continue to grow. Sure, you often have to filter through a lot of crap, but the gems you find are often very enjoyable, and even moreso because they’re free of someone’s agenda to sell something.
have you heard the ipod radio show in SF?
No
Just to clarify why I don’t like the term “podcasting” - it implies some sort of association with an iPod, which isn’t exactly accurate.
iPods are the best though.
Let’s not start that again.
Dave, I love how you think big. Trying to get into the next big thing so you can get rich. What a capatalist. My philosophy is to think of something original that I can actually do, something that big companies aren’t already doing or going to do easily because they have the assets, revenue or market to do so. So instead of thinking of getting into the mainstream market with another add-on, get in extremely early or create a niche market. Of course my philosophy has not been in use since I haven’t found anything but I am at least close. Also the internet is free, services are free, information is free, so your not going to make much money off the Internet unless you create some sort of application that no one else is doing, especially if it isn’t free already. I think advertising is the only way to go, but Google already has cornered the market. I talked to you about video streaming a while back and it is something I am going to do, when I have time, but it’s not going to make real money since big corps are going to have free services, like Google. But honestly, keep the ideas coming because when you actually have a good one, we can steal it.
Maybe we should start it up again because my 50 comment bumper between me and Stryker has dwindled.
OK, iPods suck!
Hey hey ho what do you know?
Anyway, It’s a hobby of mine to findand talk about different things and come up with ideas. The ” big idea ” is mostly for Entertainment discussion purposes and not really to start a company with(.Not looking to get rich quick.)
Although I thought of the ” long board Skateboard “two years before they came out on the market, got the right supplies and came up with a design and then let it sit while I did other things. And a friend of mine is putting down 10K for an office niche product that come out of a ” big idea ” discussion. We are buying it from china and will sell it to lawyers is LA. It is already being done and we will be 1/3 the retail cost. We’ll see if it works out to anything worthwhile.
Where I work right now they had a big idea to become a videoconferencing certified dealer of Tandberg and Polycom - it took some money and time but we did it.
You, from what you have said are in the ” Innovation” camp where you see innovation as the main way of having a product become popular, true enough. But there is also the side of making an existing product/service/tech easier to use, cheaper or tweaking it just a bit. The best example of that is SKy … of Earthlink. He stated that it took him 6 hours to get on the internet and the cost was stupid with compuserve charging by the minute so you could look at the news and weather, He streamlined it all, got funded and changed everything, or maybe he just became an alsoran behind AOL. What ever happened he reduced the cost and made it easier to use. He didnt innovate the internet or email. He did innovate the portal access but maybe not.
I have made money with some small marketing projects and still continue to do so with marketing of those products I have found out there. ie tv lifts. Cash that has come in handy. Ideas have to be tried out.
Your flash streaming is good, but to market it it has to be nailed down tighter and made to flow easier. Like you have done SoftCE. Good job on that btw. Streaming products out right NOW are too expensive for medium and small businesses.www.conferserv.com ( we are dealers of ). There is a need for a less expensive EAsier tech streaming app. priced about the same as an ad. not $ 20K to start with limited licenses, plus you need video equipment.
Maybe the reason why you aren’t making any money from the internet is due to fact of the way you think about it, You are in the tech business and know what is missing. I think you need to think outside of your current thoughts about ” it’s all done already and google has it all, and it’s all free yipee”
If yahoo didnt get money form stock sales and advertising it would not be what it is today. This post will bump up the comments if that is what you are looking for. .
I am for the El Rio MP3 - real cheap at the swap meet. Comes pre loaded with the last guys favorites.
Isnt your comment JB ‘ ipods suck ‘ blasphemous to the Apple Icon Steve Jobs?
Dave: I don’t think Steve Jobs designed or built the iPod, so it shouldn’t be.
Jared: The iPod does in fact rule every mp3 player out there. Why do you think they name everything else that comes out the “iPod killer”. And I haven’t seen one triumph, so there. And don’t say its marketing, because it’s not entirely true.
maybe not but he is Steve Jobs and even what he had for breakfast is important to the macsters.
Steve is the marketing guru.
And this is why I didn’t really want to talk about the iPod again - I’ve said it all before.
I’ve already illustrated the fact that the iPod is in no way an “innovation” by Apple. There were MP3 players (even mini-hard drive based ones) years before the first iPod came out, so nothing new there.
I guess you could argue that their UI is “innovative”, but personally I’ve used it and I think it sucks. Yes, that’s my personal opinion; I’m not saying anyone has to agree with me.
I play MP3s on my PDA using a (free) player that has a Winamp-style interface, which can do a lot more than the iPod’s, and is just as easy (if not easier) to use.
I don’t know whether Steve is a “marketing guru”, I think he’s probably just a good businessman, but I still believe that marketing is the primary reason for the iPod’s success, since it doesn’t really have that much else going for it.
PS - Apparently Apple isn’t the only one that can take a pre-existing idea and improve on it. The “Super Tangent” is basically a Shuffle that also has an FM tuner, MP3 voice recorder, and plays other formats (like WMA) in addition to MP3.
It’s funny cause I just saw the Ipod at costco and never have seen a diamond rio there.
I live the ipod commercials and billboards down near LAX, from an advertising appreciation standing.
I think you are Steve Jobs.
Sorry this is so long, I dont know how to do the short link thing. Cut it if you want.
From Yahoo -
Here are BW Online’s top picks for the new genre of Net radio, with profiles and links to where you can listen in and hear for yourself.
1. Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code
2. Dave Winer’s Morning Coffee Notes
3. One America Committee Podcast
4. IndieFeed
5. Insomnia Radio
6. In Our Time
7. Voices from the Vault
8. IT Conversations
More from about the ipod vs cell phone mp3 capabilities.
The telecom approach has several strengths Apple can’t match. For starters, a quarter of the world’s population already has a mobile phone. That’s 1.4 billion people, compared with 10 million iPods sold to date. Most of those cell-phone toters pay a monthly phone bill, making it a snap to add a music charge. Perhaps most important, wireless technology could provide access anytime, anywhere to millions of songs. “You don’t have to be a genius to see that the phone will be your own portable stereo that’s with you wherever you go,”
Apple is already working with motorola on an iTunes compatible phone.
You know that out of those 1.4 billion phones (you sure on that number) only 10 million can play songs and about 1 million have a headphone jack (speculative numbers, like the 1.4 billion number).
To make a link you wrap it with code, like this:
click hereJared I guess you can fix that.
Here is an example on
another page.
As of today only 10 million can play songs, it’s posible that everyone will/could upgrade within a few years.
With 1.4 B users if only 21% go with cells with song capability on their new phone they get next year that is still a huge number world wide.
Bill Gates said something about getting in on that action recently. He might make another 50 billion if this happens( Microsoft will take over the world.)
Can he design an operating system that will be the microsoft standard for 300 million plus new cell/song users thus pushing aside the ipod into semi obscurity?
I have had three cells within three years.
Dan haven’t had you almost 10 different cell phones?
More fudgey numbers.
I don’t think I have had 10 phones in the last 3 years but close. I generally change phones every 6 months, but currently I don’t see myself moving away from my treo 650 anytime soon unless the cobalt version comes out and I can’t upgrade the OS for some reason.
Even if the numbers are way off it’s still a huge trend shift towards the cell away from ipod.
As much as I hate to be on the side of the iPod, cell phones are not currently taking any market share (much less a “big trend”) away from MP3 players, because most phones don’t play MP3s. Sure, that may change in the future, but not real soon.
I’m thinking of a not too distant future( 2 yrs, it’s speculation on my part, but if I’m right then you can buy me an Americano ) where the os for some type of cell mp3 songs will have Bill Gates behind it.
OK, in two years it’s probably realistic to say that everyone (in America) who wants some sort of portable music player device will probably have one. Probably quite a bit sooner in Europe and a lot longer for the majority of the rest of the 1.4 billion (if that figure was accurate).
Whether it’s a part of their cell phones or not is up for debate, but I don’t see it moving in that direction right now.
I also don’t see Microsoft making any big moves in the area of cell phone OS’s. They historically don’t have a lot of “minimalist” software systems, and their cell phone offerings are no different. Their current push in the cell phone arena (”smart phones”) run basically their PDA operating system (currently called “windows mobile” (I think), with just a few extra features to manage the phone part of it.
The bottom line is that kind of OS is too high-end for the average cell phone user, who just wants a small (and relatively cheap) device to make calls on, and maybe in the future play music on. I think MS’s current strategy seems to be just waiting until the hardware in the phones that most people have catches up with being able to handle their more advanced OS, which may take longer than 2 years.
Do you read my comments at all? I am probably the most read up on this topic then either one of you, this is practically my job to know these things.
Apple will be releasing a phone with motorola soon that will incorporate iTunes within it. For all the iPod/PMP3P user out there that want an mp3 player/phone will most likely go this route. iTunes is still the best music service and if it syncs with it, I can’t see anyone not want to go with this phone. Branding goes a long way with Apple.
Apple has been specualted for releasing their own phone. Something feature rich, but only specualtion.
Why did you bring Microsoft into it? As Jared said they most likely will not go into this type of thing since they are motivated for office use. Windows Mobile is very clucky and not easy to use, as Jared said its Pocket Pc for a phone and the only reason they have sold any is because origianlly those phones were the only phones to sync with their own exchange server. Exchange rulls the corporate world and I would assume that microsoft say the need for cell users to sync there data with thier phone, that is why we see the smart phone, not because people wanted a phone and a PocketPC in one. how could I speculate this? because the ealry smart phones advertised this to the extreme and they didn’t have querty keypads or touch screens to enter data. Although recently this has changed with Microsoft exchange allowing the Treo 650 to sync with the exchange server 2003, I don’t know who or how they got that going but they, I think, are the only phones that sync nativily (out of the box) with exchange.
I will not tell you how popular exchange is or what it even does you will have to look that up. But alsmot every large company uses it, at least of what I have been exposed to.
So, to make it short. Microsoft will not have a simple MP3/phone, never, they do not have the need to do so. 1. They fasion to the business folks not the hipsters 2. They dont have the drive to do so either since they no longer have a music service (that is noticable).
Apple will release a MP3/phone, this year. It will sell to the hipsters and be a good cool gadget that will sell but will not revolutionize shi…crap.
In the next two years there will most likely be three types of phones/devices.
1. Treo/Smart Phone
2. small little phone that does nothing except call and recieve; small like the iPod shuffle
3. The hybrid. A good camera/phone. A good mp3 player/phone. A good handheld gaming device/phone. I do not think anyone will pull off the ultimate phone that does all of this in one, not saying noone will try but it will flop just like every other all in one out there to date.
As an Tech Outsider looking at a much broader picture than of what is available right now or in 6 months, I bring the SPECULATION of Microsoft into it in Some Form ( dont think I said MS will have their phone but that they might have the killer de facto standard for a cell mp3 )for two reasons - 1. Bill Gates is talking about it. 2. There is so much money at stake and that phrase ” follow the money” fits for our friends at MS.
MS will probably partner with someone or the cell will have evolved way beyond, yes D dont blow a vein, the Treo 650. Or maybe they could buy one of the companies that currently offers downloads or buy a major label and control the rights to songs, there are many posibilities.
Speculation that’s all, discussion, talking about it that’s all.
You sound pissed off, please dont take all this personally.
Microsoft partnering with Treo? No, you have blown your lid. That is like Apple and Microsoft partnering. That’s obscene.
You know Palm makes the Treo right? Actually it’s two companies but I won’t go there. And Microsoft makes the PocketPC both compete for the market share of PDA’s. After saying that Palm is so much like Apple. Making their own PDA’s and OS. Oh, well.
Bill Gates is talking about it? Where did you get this little bit of info? Since MS mostly makes OS’s and not devices how did he say he would come into the market? Very interesting, indeed.
I don’t think it is that big of a business as you think. In a couple years everything will change with consumers needs. And I do not see this as being a staple or a necessity for MS to get into.
I could be wrong though, MS did screw up in the whole web searching arena.
Did you read my post? I stated that MS & the cell ( in general ) will have evolved Past the present Treo not MS partner with them.
Re: gates - I read it on the news, maybe google can find it. I dont remember him saying what he would do just that mp3 songs would be switched to the cell phone. He usually doesnt talk about things he isnt thinking of getting into.
Is it really that farfetched …?
If apple is a huge success with 10 million users than anything over 100 million ( less than 10% of the world cell users Today ) cell users would be a 1000 % increase and blow away the ipod.
The numbers are there and MS has the cash in the bank ( 50 Bil.+ ) to play in the arena with Motorola and Nokia, becoming a cell startup is dumb so maybe they will partner with them or someone else in some FORM to gain a wide footprint with the OS or some other way or type of service or buy whomever is selling songs - like what happened to napster? who jsut bought them?
The following is in general terms and I dont have time to make sure every detail is accurate but the content is there.
Think outside of OS for this( yes Apple is very great and should be running the computer world ). Talking about MS taking over the cell industry by Posibly obtaining a new OS was a speculation on my part and because that is what they did with the pc and ousted many from the large generic os bus. pc world - apple, unix, many others I cant remember. Everyone was thinking of something else and using DOS 3.whatever until Gates made the deal with IBM and it was a killer app. Everyone could get onboard with MS or fall by the wayside.
The guy has a great business mind now surround by more brillant people than before who are talking about this in some form I’m sure.
Is it some form of this so unreasonable - like Apple and Intel?
I think you need to read what you write
Did someone buy Napster?
like what happened to napster? who jsut bought them?
I don’t recall that.
Unreasonable, Yes. MS already has a cell OS. And they do not have any products other then software, except the XBOX which could still be an OS.
So you are saying MS will make a phone and get in with the mp3 phone stuff and I say no way.
I think this post has run it’s “coarse”, :-D.
are you trying to limit the posts now?
No, I was making fun of you.
I guess that is a good strategy when you lost the discussion.