Another piece of the puzzle comes into place. Democracy Player 0.9.5 RC0 works nicely with Vista!
Archive for the 'Podcasting' Category
The only way I have been able to get some usefulness out of my second gen iPod Nano in Vista was like this:
- Hook it up to a Windows XP PC with the latest iTunes.
- Restore the iPod to factory settings and do a clean format.
- Once complete don’t sync anything, just check the manually manage iPod box.
- Plug into Vista PC with clean iTunes installation.
- Try and sync podcasts. This works but attempting to do so with any music playlists doesn’t. You can however drag over the playlists you need manually.
This should tide us over till Apple release an update.
People have been asking so here it is.
Watched the keynote last night. Love the iPhone and I definitely want one. It’s far and away the best UI I have seen on a phone and it must terrify their new rivals. I could go on and on about how good it is but instead here are a few of my initial concerns:
- UK pricing. If I sign up to a 12 month contract I am used to getting discounted phones. Can’t see that happening.
- Storage. This is the widescreen, touch screen iPod we have been waiting for but there will not be enough space for all our music and a collection of movies.
- Openness. Can I install my own software? It doesn’t look that way, strange really - if Apple threw us some APIs for that touch screen we’d have a DS rival on our hands in no time.
- Scratchability (look it up kids). Big screen = big scratches. I smell third party love.
- Wireless sync. It’s got WiFi. The Apple TV can sync via WiFi so why can’t this?
So there you have it. It would be nice to see these issues addressed soon but we are a long way from launch and as we get closer I’m sure we shall hear more.
I’d buy one. Especially if Dave Winer and company design it the way it’s meant to be - which I know they can. On the software side I think something could come of hooking up with Songbird, the free, open source, cross platform player. It would probably be much easier to adapt the source, develop an extension or work directly with the Songbird team to provide the software needed to manage subscriptions on the device. So how about it Dave?
This week’s 1-UP show has the most credible and positive discussion I have seen/heard/read on the PS3 yet. Aside from the lackluster keynote this is probablly the best week SCE have had in a long time and they certainly proved they have no intentions of losing the Japanese market just yet. As for the West, that’s shaping up to be a completely different battleground.
Strange I know but there is a huge similarity between Company of Heroes and Knights of the Old Republic. As Gillen puts it in today’s Eurogamer review of Company of Heroes, both World War 2 and Star Wars had been ran into the ground before these games rejuvenated their respective universes and made it fun again.
We are all sick to death of World War 2, I cannot see myself playing the next Call of Duty or Medal of Honour games (I’d had enough after Brothers in Arms 2), but Company of Heroes is simply on another level. It does for its setting and genre what KOTOR did for Star Wars and RPGs.
I have never had this much fun playing an RTS, I constantly feel challenged and every time I play it’s different. I just hope those who feel nauseous at the prospect of more WW2 don’t miss this stellar title.
Incidentally it’s good too see they weren’t afraid to awarded it a 10 over at EG. This week’s PC Gamer podcast (should I use that term?) had an outstanding discussion on the topic of scoring games in reviews if the intricacies of games journalism interest you. Definitely their best show to date.
Anyway back to COH.
Finally caved in this week and bought an iPod, more specifically the brand spanking new 8GB nano you see on the right. Once I finally got over the fact I dont actually want to watch videos or need the extra space there was only one choice. The new ‘pods’ coming out and my new commute starting just happend to cross paths on the same week :-D.
Much better than the old nano due to its scratch resistance but sadly that doesn’t extend to the click wheel which is already showing some damage. From what I have seen of other ipods that goes virtually smooth after heavy use so it may be an inevitable problem.
In my opinion this is THE device for podcasts. I got so used to the way I used to do things (nomad/phone) I had no idea how the iPod handled podcasts. The fact I can listen to something then whack it in the dock and carry on listening in iTunes from where I left off is a godsend.
iTunes 7 has come a long way but it’s still handling video like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s fine for audio but I’m sticking with Democracy for that side of things now.
All in all highly recommended and a good update to the range.
Songbird has finally hit the net in very early version 0.1 form. It’s looking very promising from my use of it today and certainly handles web based audio excellently. As for the library and jukebox functionality I have had a number of stability issues which should probablly be expected considering the size of the library and the early version of the software. It can get about half way through my music folder then it falls over but I am not supprised really.
Once the niggles are sorted out this player will be well on it’s way to being the iTunes rival it sorely deserves to be. I am just glad the team got this release out there so we can see what they are up to and how we can help. Roll on summer for a full release candidate!
BTW if you having trouble getting hold of it Xeni has posted some mirrors up on BoingBoing.
Although still in an early stage of development the Songbird project looks like it has a load of potential. It’s essentially an open source alternative to iTunes built on the same platform as Mozilla Firefox. I am one of the biggest critics of iTunes but also one of it’s biggest users so the idea of this really appeals to me. If they can nail streaming, podcasting and stability (something iTunes sorely lacks) then we could be in for a winner.
Of course being open source and extension friendly means the sooner they get this app out into the world the sooner we can all start tweaking and making it better. Even if podcast support isn’t there initially it can be bolted on with minimal effort for the average Mozilla developer. This bird might just fly.
Apple have gone too far now, caching is a big bad no no in RSS and they are actively caching podcasts for redistribution (via Scripting News). The more centralised the worse hit the users get if something goes wrong, just look at what happend to Podshow this week. Looks like I am going back to Doppler Radio, it’s fast, imports and exports OPML and doesn’t get inbetween podcasters and their listeners.
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