Podcasts...is there anything they can't do? Wait, that's donuts. But podcasts are perfectly useful in their own right, particularly when combined with an iPod and headphones. But with a growing iTunes library, I sometimes find it hard to shoehorn everything onto an 8GB iPod touch, so only the most recent podcast episodes make it onto ol' "Ruby." Lucky for me, iTunes 8 now lets me adjust settings for each podcasts instead of a "one size sort of fits all" method.
Instead of messing with podcast settings within iTunes's preference panes, just click the "settings" button at the bottom of the "Podcasts" section of iTunes. Up pops a nifty little box with options for how often iTunes should search for a new podcast episode--for each podcast in your iTunes library. Hee, cool! For instance, I've told iTunes to only check for new episodes of "Apple Keynotes" manually since they don't come as often as say, NPR's Fresh Air.
With these new settings, it's also possible for iTunes to keep only the most recent episodes of one podcast, while keeping all episodes of a second podcast. Sweet.
It is election season here in the good old US of A, and iTunes is there to help you catch up on any convention moments you might have missed. The store has free podcasts and videos from both the 2008 Democratic Convention (iTunes link), where Barack Obama was officially named the Democratic nominee, and the 2008 Republican Convention (iTunes Link), where presumptive Republican nominee John McCain will become less presumptive and more official tomorrow.
Thrill as American politicians make speeches! Marvel as they… continue to make speeches. At the moment the Democratic Convention section has more content since it wrapped up last week. The Republican convention is happening as I type this, so look for more goodies from the GOP in the coming days.
Friend of the blog Daniel Jalkut has started a new podcast named Core Intuition with fellow developer Manton Reece. You may know Reece as the man behind Wii Transfer, a complete must application for Wii playing Mac users.
It’s aimed primarily at indie Mac developers (we’ve suckered a few in with promises of candy), but if you’ve got a little geek in you, it may be something you’ll want to listen to regularly. I would say a listen is warranted. Choke their web servers with your downloads.
We’ve been remiss in bringing you a fresh episode of the MacUser Podcast. I know. Mea culpa. Please accept my most sincere apologies. But in its lieu, please accept the closest thing we have to a replacement: the most recent episode of the MacJury podcast, which features both myself and MacUser contributor Cyrus Farivar, alongside moderator Chuck Joiner of MacNotables fame, Matt Neuburg of TidBITS, and Friend of the Blog John Moltz, who really needs no introduction—not even that one right there.
On the docket was primarily a discussion of the ongoing battle between sophistication and simplicity in the Mac OS. But we, like General Zod, cannot be contained, and so we veered over to the future of digital media, launching from recent comments by NBC executives about Apple and iTunes, and then on to the diverse uses and joys of Twitter.
I certainly enjoyed my time on the panel quite a bit—I’m listening to it in full now, because I really need that morning ego-boost, and I look forward to participating in future episodes. Next time, perhaps I’ll remember not to nod in agreement quite so much.
This being our twenty-fifth podcast (break out the silver, baby!), we decided that we needed to take things up a notch. To that ends, we've assembled an all-star cast, featuring not only regulars such as myself, Derik, and Mr. Pourhadi, but also former MacUser contributor Pat Nakajima and our Special Guest, former Crazy Apple Rumors Site maven John Moltz. That's right, Mr. Moltz joins us to discuss the week in Mac news, the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, and, of course, the little matter of CARS's hiatus.
Along the way, learn about John's plans for solving mysteries in his retirement, Dan P.'s brand new shiny MacBook Air, and just what Mr. Nakajima's been up to recently (well, the declassified stuff, anyway). So hit the download link below, or subscribe to our feed (there's always the iTunes link too).
AAC version (14.4 MB, 60 minutes)
Comments and feedback on the show are always welcome, so feel free to share your thoughts below, or in an email to macuser [at] macuser [dot] com.
They said it couldn't be done! At the academy, they laughed in our faces when we proposed a secret worldwide organization entirely of people named Dan. But we showed them—oh, we showed them indeed. If you weren't satisfied with our own latest MacUser Podcast, you can head over to the Mothership and catch the MacUser Dans (myself and Mr. Pourhadi), along with Macworld editors Dan Frakes and Dan Miller, on the inaugural Macworld DanCast.
The Secret League of Dans discusses a number of topics, including the preponderance of iPhones, the ModBook, speech recognition software from MacSpeech, and so much more. How did it go? I think I give nothing away when I say it was dantastic, featuring 400% of your Danly Recommended Allowance. And, if you listen very hard, you can hear David Pogue shouting in the background, trying to be heard over the merriment and joy the DanCast brings with it. Sorry, man, but I believe you'll find that in a round of Macworld Hold 'Em, a hand of four Dans beats one David every single time.
Will there be another DanCast? I make no promises, but I think I can say that if Dans the world over have anything to say about it, we'll be back again next year—or perhaps even sooner.
We were on the floor at the Macworld Expo for most of last week, so it was only logical that while we were there we avail ourselves of the resources our illustrious parent company could bring to bear. So Derik, Dan P., and myself ventured into the Macworld fish tank podcast studio, where we were roundly ridiculed, taunted, and outright mocked by passersby.
Joining us for this installment is the man, the myth, the legend, Paul Kafasis. You might know Paul best as the illustrious CEO of Rogue Amoeba, developers of fine products like Audio Hijack Pro, Fission, and the indispensable Sound Source. But far, far more important than that is Paul's official status as a Friend of the Blog, a title coveted by many a person in the (Mac)world over, but bestowed on a select few. We were thrilled to have him on the show, where he regaled us with stories of his eight foot tall inflatable amoeba. No, that's not a euphemism.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the dulcet tones of the MacUser crew in this, our twenty-fourth podcast.
AAC version (12.1 MB, 51 minutes)
Comments and feedback on the show are always welcome, so feel free to share your thoughts below, or in an email to macuser [at] macuser [dot] com.
Your most burning question—and perhaps you should have someone take a look at that, I don't know; a doctor, maybe?—will not be answered by this latest edition of the MacUser Podcast. And that is: where the hell have you guys been for four and a half months?
Now, there are certainly all sorts of things I could tell you: things that would turn your stomach and chill you to the very bone. But those things are patently untrue, so I would feel bad. The truth of the matter is nothing more exciting than this: we've been busy. And we've, as you've no doubt noticed, had some changes in staff, so it's been tricky getting a group together. But we're back, baby (I'm just not one of those people who can pull off saying the word "baby") and we're making up for lost time with this 1 hour+ installment.
Derik and our newest member of the MacUser family, Mr. Pourhadi, join me as we marvel at Stacks in slow motion, discuss the implications of Apple's relationship with third-party developers, and thoroughly explore all there is to know about temporal mechanics. I hope you're as excited as we are. Actually, I hope you're way more excited than we are.
AAC version (15.5 MB, 64 minutes)
Comments and feedback on the show are always welcome, so feel free to share your thoughts below, or in an email to macuser [at] macuser [dot] com.
Show notes after the jump...
Continue reading "MacUser Podcast #23: Leapin' Leopards"
Here's a belated birthday wish: for Media Rights Technologies to stop pestering companies who don't use its product. Seriously, it's just not funny anymore and while I will tolerate headaches caused by SEPTA, lack of caffeine, and sinus pressure, I will not tolerate maladies induced by pushy companies who've pulled this kind of stunt before. Yes, after tossing a Cease and Desist letter to Apple and others, MRT is now petitioning a Dr. James H. Billington -also known as the Librarian of Congress. MRT now wants Dr. Billington to, "revoke all statutory internet broadcasting licenses granted under Section 114 of U.S. Copyright law for webcasters who are in violation of that section by willfully distributing their content as an interactive service," according to its press release.
Thus, we are back to the same old song-and-dance again:
These webcasters, including Yahoo, Clear Channel, iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, MSN Music, Pandora, and Live 365, all enable the public to receive program transmissions that can be unlawfully recorded and deaggregated for purposes of redistribution. CEO Hank Risan, states: "Every broadcast delivered from these services can easily be stream-ripped by the public, downloaded to a user's hard drive on a song by song basis and uploaded onto iPhones and P2P networks. This type of piracy is in clear violation of the performance rights granted to these distributors of copyrighted material under Section 114.
I swear, there have been X-Files episodes that made more sense than this mess.
