Here's what iTunes needs.

I've been posting this sort of thing a lot, lately, haven't I? Oh, well. What does iTunes need (outside of a complex podcast management system)? Keywords. À la iPhoto or GarageBand Loops. In other words, the ability to tag tracks with words which show up in a panel of buttons somewhere (optional, of course). Now you can search in the search bar or by clicking on all the keywords you want to match. I don't know enough about the iTunes library internals and ID3 tags to know if this is difficult to pull off, but with at least two iLife apps already implementing it I think there's actually hope for this one. Podcatching's next.

Oh. That's why Skype is so great.

A while back I noticed a big buzz over Skype, the increasingly ubiquitous VoIP client. Go-with-the-flow kind of guy that I am, I decided to mosey on over to Skype.com and see what the big deal was. Well, the client was free, not to mention cross-platform, and I had a few troubles with Apple's iChat AV, so what the hell. I downloaded it and installed it. I've never run the thing. Then, today, I heard Jimmy Jett mention Skype in his podcast, and on a whim I thought I'd poke around the net and see what I could get Skype to do that iChat couldn't. Being a poor firewalled college student, the first thing I needed to do was to get it to traverse a NAT. Otherwise, I'd be stuck talking to other people on campus—people I could see in person with less effort. This has been my biggest quarrel with iChat, and it's cost me hours of fruitless searching too get my computer IPv6 connectivity. That's not going to happen for a while. So why am I happy? Skype traverses NAT. And from what I hear, it does it pretty painlessly. I think I'm in love. Now if only I weren't home for Christmas break. I guess I can wait a month to try it out. Damn you, dial-up.

Why doesn't the iPod have this yet?

I'm home from school, which means dial-up. Don't be surprised if posts are few and far between for a little while. I've got a whole plan for a podcast-aware system that I'll post eventually, but for now, here's something that I just thought of on the way to the car at school:

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I'm heading home. The semester's over, thank god, and it's time to head home. I grabbed all my stuff from my girlfriend's room (which she had organized very kindly for me the day before—credit where credit is due) and headed out to the car listening to the Rant on my iPod. When I got there, my hands were full of stuff, and I had to get my keys out, open the car, put my keys in, take out my iPod, pause it (careful not to lose my place), put it back in my pocket, get in the car, and listen to some uninteresting mindless drivel that comes in on the radio. I'd much rather have been listening to the interesting mindless drivel I had on my iPod. Now, I could use a tape adapter. For this I'd have to take the earbuds out, plug in the adapter, put the tape part in the player, and put the iPod in a safe place. Not too troublesome. Except I only have a CD player. If I had a BMW, I could just plug my iPod directly into the car. For now, though, such things are relegated to the world of dreams, and dreaming of owning a BMW will get me no closer to hearing Jim and Esther in my car. I could use an iTrip. This would actually work for my setup. My friend has an iTrip, and handy as it is, I just don't like it. It's difficult to change the transmission frequency. The sound isn't very good. And it's expensive and easy to loose—a very bad combination in my life. I'll probably end up with one anyway, though I'll try to find a cheaper one that's not limited to iPod use (a very poor aspect of the iTrip's design). Ok, enough story. What's this wonderful idea I've had? What invention is the offspring of this necessity, to whose conception I bore witness? That metaphor took an odd turn... I apologize. Anyhow: Bluetooth. Blue-freaking-tooth. On an iPod. Have you seen the new Bluetooth Volvos? Bring your cellphone into the car, and the car speakers and a built-in microphone act as a giant, gasoline-powered, self-propelled Bluetooth headset. If we can get that tiny cellphone to send out wireless audio (not to mention receive it), why not an iPod? Let's replay the scenario, shall we?

When I got there, I smiled, remembering my Bluetooth-enabled car was totally worth it. I put down my stuff, opened the car, and turned on the car radio. With a push of a button, the car speakers were playing the Rant I was still hearing. I took out my earbuds and stuffed them in my pocket. Then I cranked the show so I could hear it while I loaded my belongings, and in a few moments I was headed back to my room, Jim still yelling away. When I got out, I just reversed the process. Seamless.

Remember the BMW coolness? The other cool part is having the iPod controls on the steering wheel. Works here too. As with the BMW setup, you can keep the iPod in the glove compartment for safekeeping and not have to take it out to use it in the car. Unlike the BMW, though, you can keep it wherever you want in the car, even in your pocket. Seamless integration. It's a good thing. </marthastewart>

Internet framed for the murder of the radio star?

JimmyJett » IPods, Podcasting and Radio? Haven't heard all of this, just a clip though Whole Wheat Radio's Muffin News. He basically went on for a while about the rise and fall of the radio personallity. He's right. Absolutely right. I never liked the idea of satelite radio, and this is why. Because when you have 1000 channels, each with its own genre, all you have is a robot playing a playlist. I don't care about that. Honestly, it's mostly because I can do that myself on my computer. It's not the music that I tune in for. It's the DJ. Other people I listen with tend to stop listening when the DJ comes on, and I don't understand why. That's what I tuned in to hear. Sure, the latest music in a genre I like is nice, but I'd hear it eventually. I want to hear a familiar voice, someone with personality, a friend. At home, I listen to WRNX because its a small hometown radio station run by real people who I know and listen to everyday. I miss it while I'm here at college. But podcasting has changed that. See, that personality is always out there, but most stations won't pay for it. Trouble is, personality wants to be heard, and if that means doing it for free, so be it. It's sad that I can't hear John Allen and Don Moorehouse from back home while I'm here, but I can hear Adam Curry, Jimbob & Esther, Dawn & Drew, Phil Terrone, and a slew of other new friends. The global village is my hometown. Internet didn't kill the radio star. Radio did. Viva la revolución.

UMass: College Fails in Bid to Grow Marijuana

College Fails in Bid to Grow Marijuana Home sweet home.

The Enderle Who Stole Macworld

The Enderle Who Stole Macworld I know I shouldn't just blog every great page I see...but come on. I can't resist.

One more tally mark on the headboard of Apple's marketing department...

iPod My Photo Oh. My. God. So cool. So sad. So almost but not really worth 20 bucks. Thanks to David Pogue.

iTablet - <biggrin>

iTablet Oh, wow. Oh, wowy-wow-wow-wow. (</christopherwalken>) I want one.

Contestant, please define "technology for technology's sake."

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000360023250/ Oh, dear. Idiots. Sigh. As always, thank you Engadget for rooting out mind-boggling stupidity. I don't know how they find these things, but I sure am glad they do.

The Theory of Everything

I've been changing around my podcast lineup. I have to blog this. Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything. Get it. Listen to it. Particularly "Holy War" (actually from TOE's predecessor, Your Radio Nightlight). I'm not sure I understand the title, but it might be corrupted in the podcast process, since I don't think it's actually in the audio. If it sounds a little disturbing at first, don't worry, it doesn't go down that path much. I'm not sure if it's prophecy or warning or just good fiction, but listen to it. It will speak for itself. In other news, I'm thinking of starting my own podcast consumer. Adam Curry has inspired my with some of his dreams, and I think I may just be able to live up to them. We'll see. More to come.

New features in NewsFire

Woke up this morning to the new version of NewsFire (0.32). Just a few new features, but a kick-ass few. Now, I sent the author, David Watanabe, an email on Nov. 26 with some ideas for new features. I'm not saying I'm responsible for any of the changes, but here's what I wrote:

Ok, first off, total props on an incredibly excellent piece of software. For me, UI is king, both in beauty and interaction, and your apps score big on both counts.

I can't resist giving credit where credit is due. If you use a Mac and you consume RSS feeds (or read sites with RSS feeds), try it out. You owe it to yourself. Continuing...

So, hoping I can help out, here are a few things I'd like to see in future versions of NewsFire: Mark as Unread: Sometimes I want to read my items when I'm offline so that when I'm online again I can look up the stories I found interesting without going through the whole list. Trouble is, there's no way to mark an item as unread again. I'd like to see that.

Well, the new version still doesn't let you do this. It does, however, let you flag items. This way you know it's read, but you also know you wanted to go check it out. Plus, the flag doesn't disappear every time you look at the item like the unread mark does. Nicely done.

Chronological-spacebar option: Right now, the spacebar goes through my new items in reverse-chronological order. I'd rather go the other way.

There's still no way to do this in NewsFire, and I think it's a shame. I much prefer chronological order, particularly in personal/journal type blogs. I don't subscribe to many of these right now, so I don't care too much, but I still think it's a worthwhile option.

Feed grouping: Here's a tricky one. I've found that news sites (NYT, Wired, Yahoo) tend to have have hierarchical categories of news feeds. For instance, Wired.com has a Daily Top Stories feed, and under that a Technology Stories feed. Below that are Gadgets & Gizmos, IS/IT Infrastructure, etc. Trouble is, I want the Daily Top Stories AND the top Technology Stories AND Gadgets & Gizmos (I like other tech, but only if it's big enough to go in Technology Stories). I'd rather not get really important Gadgets & Gizmos stories three times over, though. What I'd really like to be able to do is group them into a single "logical" feed which collapses multiple copies of an item. And as long as I'm dreaming...I'd like a pony...

He didn't really implement this one either. What he did implement is smart groups (sometimes referred to as smart feeds). Following a common Apple trend, smart groups sit in the sidebar like feeds, but contain items from your feeds matching certain criteria. In this case, I could make a smart group (and I have) which contains any feed in any of the Wired News feeds I get. This is almost like what I was asking for. It misses a few things though:

• The original feeds are still there. Obviously, in most cases of using smart groups you want the original feeds to show up separately, since you might not show every item in them. In this case, I don't care about them. It's not so bad, though, since reading an item in the smart group marks it read in the original feed, so once I've read the smart group the feeds will sink to the bottom.
• The items don't collapse. This is what I really wanted to begin with. For instance, the Wired News smart group currently has 4 copies of the item "A Gift Guide for Geeks" because they came from different feeds. I want NewesFire to detect that they are exactly the same and just display them as one. When I've read it anywhere, I should have read it everywhere. To NewsFire's credit, they may not be exactly the same; that is, Wired news might do something funny that makes they look slightly different. I'm typing this offline right now, but I'll check when I'm connected again. (Damn you random nice person who used to run but has now turned off a WiFi access point! No wait, it's there again. Agh! Damn you random error message! Oh, well. Later, then.)

Back to my email...

Full-story caching: Another big one. Again, I sometimes read my news when I'm offline. I'd really like a per-feed option to cache the page (plus images) at the item's link address. Then, if I try to go to the link while offline, NewsFire would point my browser to the cached copy instead.

Ok, so now I'm getting greedy. Maybe this isn't really a great idea, but I figured it was worth throwing out there. Needless to say, this feature did not make it into this release. I plan on writing David another message, though, and this time I'll ask for the ability to pre-cache inline images in the actual items. That way I can read Engadget offline without seeing that confounded broken image placeholder (and I can flag things I want to read more on). Plus, I'll have my comics offline. Excellent.

Anyhow, I figure suggestions can only help. Keep up the good work! Peter

That's my philosophy. So, stay tuned, because I'll be sending David my next set of feature requests soon.

Meet Peter: blogger

Watching my life turn slowly from Adam Carolla to Adam Curry Well, consider me a blogger. I have now slipped entirely into the blogosphere with absolutely no regrets. What got me it this far? Glad you asked. 1. The aggregator. I always had a few blogs I liked to keep an eye on, but while I have always like the idea of RSS, a few bad experiences with poor aggregator interfaces had put me off the idea entirely. No more. enter NewsFire, by David Watanabe, the absolute king of Aqua. Anyone who's fileshared on a Mac ought to be familiar with his Acquisition Gnutella client, and David doesn't let us down with take on RSS. BTW, David's got another nice app that's in beta called Inquisitor (site down). This little baby's a nifty stand-alone web search interface. Remember Sherlock? Rather not? Me too. Have no fear, Inquisitor is nothing like it. As usual, David's approach is simple, elegant, and anything but clunky. Sadly, though, Inquisitor's beta test has expired and David hasn't put up a new version yet. Keep your fingers crossed. With a good aggregator in place, I can read all sorts of blogs and blogoids—that is, anything that can be logically syndicated via RSS, including comics, Dave Barry, news, and Wikipedia's Featured Articles. So what more could I want? 2. Podcasts. It's a new age, people, and I'm jumping in head first. A podcast, if you don't know, is an RSS feed with audio enclosures, typically taking the form of a radio show. Using an app like iPodder or iPodderX (which I use), users download the enclosures as they're posted to the feed. Podcasts clients usually have a mechanism for moving audio files into your media player library of choice—iPodderX is good at this simplistically (it only handles iTunes), while iPodder can run any script on a file after it downloads, if you know how to write the script. Once it's in your library, you just sync up your player, such as an iPod (hence "Podcasting") and you've got content. BTW, enclosures in RSS feeds are each associated with an item, just as plain text or HTML is in a normal feed. Usually, the items in a podcast feed have a summary of the podcast. You can read these summaries by consuming the feed with an ordinary aggregator (since it'll just ignore the enclosures). So what am I listening to? Here are my current podcast subscriptions:

• The Engadget Podcast - This was the first podcast I got. I really only found it because Engadget's RSS feed came preset in NewsFire as an example. I never unsubscribed. If you like gadgets, if you like Macs, if you like PCs, if you like Linux, or if you like blogging and podcasting (ie, if you've read this far), you'll like Engadget. Be sure to check out the blog too.
• Future Tense - This comes from MPR (Minnesota). It's a 5min technology piece, and I'm not sure yet how often it comes out. It's one of those short pieces that public radio stations syndicate to put between or in shows, like Word for the Wise and the Writer's Almanac. Haven't heard much, but it sounds like it's worth 5 minutes. And the Dec. 7 show is about Wikinews. This one's sticking around.
• PRX: The Public Radio Exchange - More public radio. I miss WAMC, even though I'm closer to it at college than I was at home. I just don't have time to listen, usually. These pieces tend to be This American Life / Next Big Thing -style bits about just about anything. Try it out, see what you think. For me, it's a keeper.
• The Super Smart Radio Whore Sex Show - Quite the name, huh? I missed Loveline, so I thought I'd give this a try. Not too impressed yet, but I'm still giving it a shot.
• RPGMP3.com: World's Largest Dungeon Podcast - This is just funny. It seems to be just a recording of a D&D campaign. I've only managed to listen to about 5 seconds. Hey, if it's your thing, go for it. Frankly, as much as I love gaming, this bores me. I'll be unsubscribing as soon as I get around to it.
• Adam Curry: Daily Source Code - The godfather of podcasting himself, Adam Curry, podcasts straight from the Curry Cottage in Guilford. He, collaborating with Dave Winer who is mostly credited for RSS's popularity, pretty much invented podcasting, and he has truly made it what it is. Definitely check out his show. He's just a really entertaining guy who knows how to run a good podcast. He likes to play promos for other podcasts, so it's also a great way to stay in the podcast loop.

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Note from later on: I actually wrote this post offline before I created the blog. And never finished it. There were more feeds I didn't get to at the time. I'll post an update soon.