Poetry Bug Bites Podcast 'ers
Poetry is one of the oldest forms of the written word. In preliterate societies, poetry was frequently employed as a means of transcribing centuries of oral history, giving us great poetic / epic works like The Ramayana or the works of Homer (like the Iliad).
There is something powerfully visceral about the written word, and while I have always been more adept at writting prose than poetry there is something that calls to me and forces me to pick up a new poetry book on a regular basis.
A good author of prose knows that sometimes, hinting at a thing will draw more emotion from a reader than glorying in all the gory details. A good Poet will master this same tool much more effectively, and be able to wield it like a sword to draw the emotion out of his reader. More than that, a good Poet will use the whitespace of the page as effeciently as the written word to heighten the tension and feelings of the reader.
Why am I talking about the universal power and draw of poetry on the my Blog which is generally devoted to Podcast News?
You guessed it, several
Poetry Podcasts have now been added to our
Podcast Directory!
Our directory is growing quickly and we now have a Poetry section thanks to the feedback from some of our visitors!
If you are new to Podcasting and found us while searching for something to do with Poetry, you should definately check out this incredible use of the Podcast medium by these poets!
Click here to learn more about Podcasting, so you can take advantage of this resource!
If you know of any other poetry podcasts,
add them to our podcast directory, or contact the podcaster and ask them to do it!
Video iPod a Successor to the iPod Nano?
Apple will be holding a press event in San Jose on Oct. 12, and emailed out invitations to the Press world that included the words "One more thing..." printed over a background photo that appears to depict theatre curtains.
Although Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple crew are mum on the purpose of the Press event, analysts expect that apple will be unveiling a new, video-enabled iPod.
Even given the fact that 'analysts' tend to be way off base when anticipating what will happen at Apple press events, there is high expectation for a video-enabled iPod.
Apple does have competitors who have already released video iPod-competitors, so it would certainly be a logical release.
Maybe I will have to hold off on purchasing my black iPod Nano... Although, since I work 5 and a half minutes from home, I may not have much time to enjoy watching movies on a wee-video iPod screen :)
Here is another
Apple /Steve Jobs article I found that touches on the topic:
Steve Jobs discusses music labels, iPods and Intel Macs
By Jim Dalrymple
jdalrymple@maccentral.comApple Computer CEO Steve Jobs and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller met with media today at Apple Expo Paris to discuss the
iPod, music and the
Macintosh. While the company was without any blockbuster announcements at the show, they did
upgrade their .Mac online service with higher capacity and new features.
The chat with media today replaced a Jobs keynote presentation, which usually opens the event in Paris. Apple
announced earlier this month that while Jobs would attend the show, there would be no formal keynote.
iTunes and the Motorola Rokr phoneJobs answered questions about
Apple’s recent partnership with Motorola to release the Rokr phone, which is capable of downloading music from Apple’s iTunes application. Jobs said that overall the work with Motorola was a learning experience for his engineers. (Also see Macworld’s
Motorola Rokr review).
“We wrote the iTunes software for that phone,” said Jobs. “We see it as something we can learn from. It was a way to put our toe in the water and learn something,” he said.
While the Motorola phone will work with iTunes purchased music, some service providers may be considering launching their own music service. In doing this, they would own the network and the music store, but Jobs isn’t sure that this type of service would work for consumers.
“I’m not convinced that it will be successful,” said Jobs. “The network providers will charge a lot to download music to a mobile — maybe US$3.”
Jobs also reasoned that a computer would still be required even if a mobile user downloaded music directly onto their mobile phone.
“You will have to backup the music on your phone up using your PC,” said Jobs. “If you lose a phone then you lose all your music. If you get a new phone you have to transfer it all. It’s not clear that buying music over the air makes economic sense.”
iPod and video
Jobs took some time to discuss video on personal devices, like the much-rumored Video iPod. While some companies are making moves in the video market, Jobs said that the market isn’t yet right for personal video devices.
“You can already download movies on the iTunes Music Store, and some albums offer video as an incentive to buy the music,” said Jobs. “We also offer video podcasts, but will people buy a video device just to watch this video? So far they haven’t. No one has been successful with that yet.”
Microsoft and others are focusing some effort on creating PCs for the living room, but Jobs warned of such plans. He also described Intel’s recently introduced Viiv range of PCs as “just an experiment.”
“Making a component for the living room is easy to do, but it is the go to market strategy that is difficult,” said Jobs. “It’s not a technical problem, it’s a go to market problem. I don’t think the convergence of television and computer is going to happen.”
Earlier this month
Apple held an event in San Francisco, Calif. where the company dropped its top-selling iPod mini in favor of the redesigned iPod nano. Jobs described the transition to the nano as “having a heart transplant right before the holiday.”
While many other companies would be inclined to keep a device like the iPod mini and continued to update it with more colors and higher capacity, Apple instead replaced it. Jobs said, “anyone would think we were crazy,” but
early reports from analysts indicate the transition was a smart move for Apple’s long term domination in the market.
Many wondered why Apple would hold an event to launch a new iPod just a couple of weeks before Apple Expo Paris. With the holiday shopping season approaching, Jobs was very clear in his response.
“We launched the iPod nano two weeks ago rather than at the Apple Expo because in the run-up to Christmas every week counts,” said Jobs. “The launch had been planned for over a year.”
Jobs also addressed questions on features that some of Apple’s competitors are offering in their MP3 players, like having a radio tuner built-in. While many see adding a radio to an iPod as a useful extra feature, Apple’s feedback is less vociferous than the noise generated by the company’s critics, Jobs confirmed.
“We don’t get a lot of customers asking for it,” he said.
Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller pointed out that iPods now offer radio on demand. “Thanks to podcasting you can listen to radio shows whenever you want to,” he said.
Jobs also warned of the challenge of offering extra features just for the sake of it, saying. “We are very careful about what features we add because we can’t take them away.”
Looking at other technologies like Bluetooth — often referred to as Wireless USB — Jobs called it a “technology in search of a problem.”
“Frankly music is very big,” said Jobs. “We tend to forget how big it is. With Bluetooth, songs take a while to download. And if you have Bluetooth headphones you have to charge them as well as the iPod. People don’t want to do that. Also the sound isn’t good enough.”
Apple and secrecyApple is well known as being one of the most secretive companies in the entire industry. While many companies lay out their product roadmaps and openly discuss their products, Apple instead keeps its cards close, declining to comment on any rumor or speculation.
This, in part, has fueled the creation of many popular rumor sites and articles that openly speculate on upcoming products. This, in turn, has led to
several lawsuits and letters from lawyers demanding that Web sites remove stories from.
Jobs explained the company’s motivation in not discussing future products.“Microsoft is copying our operating system, Dell is copying our hardware. They just have to follow our tail lights,” said Jobs smiling.
Taking the opportunity to take another slight jab at Microsoft, Jobs responded to a question about why Apple doesn’t make iChat for Windows systems.
“Microsoft has to earn a living too,” said Jobs.
Music labels getting greedyRecent reports have revealed some labels have been attempting to force Apple to change the prices it charges on the iTunes Music Store. Calling the labels “greedy,” Jobs confirmed that one label wants higher prices — Jobs is putting up a fight.
“The problem is we are still competing with piracy,” said Jobs. “The labels make more money from selling tracks on iTunes than when they sell a CD. There are no marketing costs for them. We are competing with piracy, so it needs to be a fair price — if the price goes up people will go back to piracy,” he warned.
Jobs said that about 75 percent of the iTunes Music Store catalogue is selling at least once a month, giving copyright holders money.
“If they want to raise prices they are getting greedy,” said Jobs.
The Macintosh continues to growApple continues to enjoy growth in the Macintosh market, which many feel is a result of the so-called “halo effect” caused by the incredible demand for the company’s iPod MP3 player. Jobs said that Apple’s US market share is at 4.5 percent, while the global share is at 3 percent. Apple’s Vice President and General Manager Europe Pascal Cagni gave similar good news.
“In Europe in the last quarter Apple saw the fastest ever growth — 6-7 percent year-on-year,” said Cagni. “We have done very well in the UK, and fantastically with the iPod, and in Russia and Turkey too.”
In June Apple confirmed that the company would move from PowerPC based processors to Intel. Jobs said that the company would “find out” if the transition would impact its Mac unit sales, but said they remain on schedule, saying.
“We said we’d be shipping by next June and we are on track to have that be a true statement,” said Jobs.
Apple has long held that the best thing about a Macintosh is its modern operating system. That, says Apple, will not change when the company moves to Intel.
“Why do people buy a Mac? It’s not because of the processor. Its because of the operating system, OS X,” said Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller. “Intel Macs will feel the same. The transition can be one that is very easy for customers.”
Multiple reports confirm that hardcore advanced PC users have been downloading illegally distributed copies of Apple’s developer version of OS X for Intel processors. They have been hacking the system to make it install on all manner of PC processors, including those from Intel and AMD. Jobs confirmed that while they might be able to do that now, they won’t allow that to happen in the future.
“We don’t know how having OS X available for PCs would affect Macs,” said Jobs. “We will have technology in OS X for Intel so that it cannot be installed in other PCs.”
Jonny Evans and Karen Haslam from
Macworld.co.uk contributed to this story.
Everything Else You Need to Know About An iPod Nano
(and some stuff about other iPods)
Well, our last iPod article seems to have been a big hit and we appreciate all of the emailed comments.
To answer some of the questions, we have returned to the subject. As we mentioned in the previous article, the Cracked Display problem that some people experienced was a minor problem with less than 1% of all units sold, Apple will replace them for free and no, this should not be a problem you experience with any units bought now.
And with 14 hours of battery life, the unit holds 25 thousand photos or over 1 thousand songs, I think it is time that I went and bought myself one. I think I will buy the black model... My wife is gonna kill me, but I will be able to drown out the guilt trip 14 hours at a time :)
The official site. And don't forget all of the sporty
accessories that Apple has put out... I think I will have to pick up the armband holder for another 30 bucks (gray of course, I don't hold with all those other pastel colors!) so I can listen to my tunes when I walk to work every morning. For days when I am feeling a little lazy I will also need to pick up a
Car-oriented accessories for my Ferrari... um, sorry, I meant Honda, but that Ferrari Spider draws my eye like a beacon everytime I visit that page...
If you would like some more information, you should definately check out the
wikipedia iPod page which is full of great links.
If you are ready for some after market goodies, check out
Everything iPod.
Hope that carries you through!
Till Next Time,
Michael Valiant
Everything You Need To Know About The IPod Nano
We have been debating whether or not to jump on the boat... or bandwagon... and go out any buy an iPod nano. I thought the mini was small enough but hey! Apple proved me wrong. As long as my thick fingers don't have any problems with the reduced size I am all for it.
Anyway, we are still on the fence with the nano, but I thought I would share a site we came across with a great review of the new iPod. This
site has a really good review and explanation! so if you are on the fence with some of the rest of us, maybe this will help you!
And the only problems that we have heard regarding the nano's, are regarding all of the broken and scratched screens. The nano uses exactly the same material for the display screen as all of their previous iPod models and the problem is a small "vendor-quality issue'' that affects less than 1% of all units sold, according to Apple spokesman Steve Dowling.
After the uproar online over the past month, Apple has declared that they will replace all faulty units free of charge.
Some more details:
The iPod is Apple's fastest-selling product and the latest version of its iPod was released on Sept. 7.
Chief executive Steve Jobs is counting on the Nano, a pencil-thin device the size of a business card, to boost revenue despite the fact that sales of the iPod more than quadrupled to US$1.1 billion last quarter.
Apple has shipped 21.8 million iPods since their introduction in 2001, with 18.1 million sold in the past year alone.
Somebody is definatley getting rich off of the whole Podcasting phenomenon.
Michael Valiant
How Do YOU Charge Your iPod When the Power Goes Out?
Last week the power went out across the north east after a series of storms swept across the great lakes. Now, I am not one to complain about happenstance, so I grabbed at the silver lining.
I BBQ'd a nice dinner, set out some candles, plugged in my iPod to some portable speakers I have, and sat down with my wife for a nice romantic dinner.
Unfortunately, half way through the meal the iPod died. There goes the Podcast we were listening to, to set the mood :) Well... It was still a good evening, but I hate losing my music. No TV, no lights, no problem. No music for a few hours and I start to go a little funny.
So I did a little searching and came across '
Geek Technique'. This ingenious fella has gone and created a
hand crank to power his iPod. Great Stuff.
Now, I am a pretty handy guy all around, but still, I am no electrical engineer; so I will wait until I purchase my next iPod before I try this just in case :) It is always good to have a spare when fixin' stuff. But it would be pretty cool to be able to charge up your iPod and listend to a Podcast wherever you are! even if people to stop and point at you...
Check out this picture:
He has used one of those hand crank flashlights to get the job done.
This is definately the most creative modification that we have seen to an iPod to date!
Thanks to Mark at
Geek Technique for this!
Michael V
P.S. Have you seen any other great mods to an iPod or other MP3 device? Let us know!
