Pod people untouched by Zen
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Faced with developing serious competition to the powerhouse that is Apple&#39;s iPod, Creative&#39;s Zen Touch Player takes aim at several of the iPod&#39;s features and frailties.
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In the coming weeks and months you'll probably see me writing about issues of podcatchers here, because I'm working on one. It's the third one I've written, so this time maybe I'll get it right.  A lot of things have changed since I wrote my first podcatcher back in 2001. 1. Back then there were no podcasts, so it was a proof of concept, a chicken without an egg (or an egg with no chicken), a step in a bootstrap. Today there are lots of podcasts. An embarassment of riches. 2. Back then implementing a podcatcher was simple, there was exactly one format to support, RSS 2.0 with enclosures. Today, luckily, it's still fairly simple, as far as the format goes. The only variability is the iTunes namespace, which complicates things, just a little.  3. Today there are enough users to make it possible to support lists of podcasts published by fans, and instead of just subscribing to the podcast feeds, you can subscribe to lists of feeds. I will publish one of these lists, in OPML 2.0 format, as a proof of concept.  4. The first version of this new podcatcher will run in the OPML Editor because that's where all my software runs at first. But the goal is to port it to run in other environments, some with millions of users. I want to provide a popular alternative to the one that Apple publishes which currently dominates the market. (Note: I'm generally pleased with the way Apple dominates, they've been very fair about allowing users to export their subscription lists. But if we want to create the opportunity for others to innovate in the area of podcast players, there has to be choice at the podcatcher level. That's my main motive for revisiting this area.) There probably are some other changes, and I'll write about them as the project moves forward. Now.... To people who say that Apple has the market sewn up, I say Bah! I think iPods are great, but they're designed to play music, not podcasts. Every bit of music is something you want to keep forever, a podcast loses almost all its value after you've listened to it once. You have to pay for music (in theory at least) but podcasts are free.  Podcasts beg to have a player that can download them without synching with a desktop computer. Okay that's something podcasts have in common with music.  I buy Apple products all the time. I've gone from resenting Apple so much that I wouldn't buy their products, as recently as 2005, to today when not only do I only use Macs, but I'm constantly telling people why they'd be better off using Macs. I can't help but evangelize the products, I think they're that much better than Windows PCs.  But as much as I love Apple (can't believe I actually said that) I still don't trust them with a whole medium. We need them to have competition. The rest of the tech industry seems to think they're immune to it, that creates a huge opportunity with someone with enough chutzpah to think they can do it. Yours truly, Dave Winer
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What does it take? A fireside chat from Nelson Mandela doesnt work. The pleas of pop icons like Bono fall on deaf ears.
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NEW YORK -- She was out there all alone. A few friends, some well-wishers, a scattering of the curious. But essentially Althea Gibson was soloing on the trail she blazed, and surely she was a curiosity. Her height and long limbs had something to do with it. More so, though, looking down on foes -- many of whom looked down ...
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The Zend Developer Zone has posted some information about some freelancing work that the International Press Association is looking to have done.   If you've got spare cycles and want to help a brother out, read on. I received this from Leonard Rapoport of the International Press Association, (Disclaimer: Zend is a member of the IPA) The IPA is looking for some help. As you can see from the email below, they need a PHP programmer to help them out on some small projects and know of some larger projects they could turn you on it.   Any interested parties should contact Leonard via email and get things started.
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Almost any iPod owner will tell the same   story: they wouldn't swap the iconic device for any   alternative. But the battle is wide open for the hearts -- and   pockets -- of the vast majority who still have no MP3 player.
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This new hidden-word  game shows from GSN is refreshing in that it has no seeming  reality agenda at all. We don&#39;t meet the families of the  contestants. There are no alliances. America doesn&#39;t get to  vote on who survives to play another day, and the players can&#39;t  call friends and relatives on the phone for assistance. How  utterly retro is that?
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I have been to zero gravity and flown like Superman. This is something that only astronauts and the stars of Apollo 13 have done before.
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The Zend Developer Zone has made some major announcements about this year's Zend/PHP Conference & Expo including the reveal of one of this year's keynote speakers.   Keynote - We have the name of the final keynote speaker. In case you canlt guess [from the picture], Cory Doctorow, blogger, author and co-editor of Boing-Boing will be speaking on Thursday morning at ZendCon. Speakers - We have a new speaker in the lineup. I'm pleased to announce that Chris Shiflett will be presenting his talk, "Security 2.0". Party 2.0 - Finally I'm excited to announce that at ZendCon this year, we will be hosting the very first "Happy Hour 2.0". In conjunction with Terry Chay and the Lunch 2.0 gang, we will open up the Exhibit Reception to everyone...for free.   You can get more information on the schedules and happenings (oh and register for the conference) over on the main conference website.
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The Zend Developer Zone has posted episode #32 of their popular PHP podcast series (PHP Abstract) - "Introduction to symfony" as hosted by Stefan Koopmanschap.   Today's special guest is Stefan Koopmanschap. Stefan is web application developer and professional services consultant for Ibuildings.nl. He is the initiator of the SymfonyCamp event in 2007, and is also trying to promote symfony in The Netherlands with his local website symfony-framework.nl. His own website can be found at www.leftontheweb.com   You know the drill - there's three ways to get this latest and greatest show:   listen on the web via the embeded player Download the mp3 for immediate satisfaction Subscribe to their feed in your aggregator of choice
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Creative has announced a new version of its feature-free Zen Stone music player -- the Zen Stone Plus. The MP3 player has a 2GB flash memory and will have a small circular blue display. This contrasts with the Stone, launched last month, which had no screen, aping Apple's tiny iPod Shuffle player.
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Gabe: This is a heads up for all our Omeganauts. I had originally told you all that the first round of the Omegathon would be Pac-Man. That game has actually been replaced with Jenga. Not the new Wii version of Jenga but actual wood blocks on a table Jenga. Sorry for the mix up.-Gabe out
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Okay I've been writing about OPML reading lists here for years. I'm now on my second implementation, so maybe this time I'll get it right.  But there's something cool that happens when (hypothetically) the entire installed base of podcatchers supports OPML reading lists. All of a sudden the subscription problem goes poof! Ask anyone who's worked on a RSS reader, for that matter, ask anyone who's used one, what a PITA it is to subscribe to a feed. All those little buttons, or copying and pasting, and looking at urls, and trying to figure out whether you want this format or that format. It's a miracle anyone actually subscribes to feeds it's so damned complicated. Before you blame anyone, it's not actually anyone's fault. It's a result of the market not being a monopoly. The only way to solve the problem is if everyone uses the same web app to manage subscriptions. And we know that's not going to happen any time soon. Or, if every reader supports OPML reading lists. Now that might actually happen, even though it's not very likely. But podcasting, that's a whole other story. According to many people there's only one podcatcher, iTunes. So that's simplified the problem. For example, look at this page of NY Times podcasts, and how they handle it.   See the Subscribe button? Nice. Except for one thing. It really should say "Subscribe in iTunes" because that's what it does. And it works, because in many people's minds, iTunes is the only way to subscribe to a podcast. And it could stay that simple if Apple would do one thing, offer the option of publishing the OPML automatically to a publicly accessible web address, so the user could continue to use Apple's server to handle subscriptions, even if they're using a different podcatcher (for example one that runs on a Nokia N800). It would be the mark of a truly great company if they did that. Maybe they are that great. Otheriwse at some point we're going to ask the NY TImes to change their page. And they may not be too happy about that. Wouldn't blame them if they were. Moral of the story: If we can centralize the subscription process, and move it out of one reader or another, and get the readers to all support subscription to reading lists, the awful ugly issue will go away for users. It's one of the oldest tradeoffs in the tech business, to make it simple for users, the vendors have to give up some power.
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Apple Computer's iPod remains the king of digital music players, but robust pretenders to the throne have begun to emerge in the Windows universe. One of them is the Zen Touch, from Creative Labs.
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The Brits finally move to let people use personal FM transmitters such as the Griffin iTrip to connect their iPods to car stereos. Plus: Zune Hack: Trade Any File, Quick In Listening Post.
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Yeah, theyâre saying Sonyâs two new players wonât make you deal with that ridiculous SonicStage MP3 to ATRAC converstion stuff anymore, and itâs being reported that the two new players will be among the first to natively support MP3.
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Has Creative capitulated to Apple and iTunes? If its new player is any indication, that answer may be yes. Its newest Zen player is the first from the company to support AAC music and iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes Music Store.