I’ve just spent a few minutes at the UK Apple online store IMing with a guy called Paddy who was able to confirm that the new iPod touch can download podcasts over wifi but only if you create the subscription on the device. It would appear that the touch won’t import podcast subscriptions that you may already have setup in iTunes on your PC/Mac. Somewhat disappointing given that I’m going to have to create all my existing 42 podcast subscriptions all over again.

UPDATE (22.10.07): It seems pretty clear from the comments that the iPod touch DOES NOT download podcasts over wifi and I was mislead by the guy at the UK Apple online store. So, no iPod touch for me then!

Lifestreaming aggregates all your online activity into one place. A while back I discovered Tumblr (thanks to Leo Laporte) which is perfect for the task. Seems Steve Rubel thinks the same.

My lifestream.

I’m using Netvibes as a full-on media consumption and creation manager and as such it’s proving to be amazing.

I can upload, store and playback mp3s. I can do all my show preparation right up to recording (for which I use Castblaster) and then use it to manage all post recording managing and posting.

I also use it read all my RSS feeds as well as watch all the video content I subscribe to which it plays right in the page. I used to live in Google Reader but right now I can’t see me going outside Netvibes. Pageflakes is for geeks. Netvibes is for the rest of us.

Having been an avid user of Google Reader over the last few months I finally realised that it was controlling me rather that I controlling it. With over 100 feeds I became a slave to the RSS torrent.

The answer has proved to be Netvibes. I started to use Netvibes as an online manager for my new music show and has ended up being my preferred RSS reader. It forced me to strip out all the feeds I didn’t really read but thought I needed. Now I’m down to only 16 blog feeds. Much better.

Finally Google Reader embeds and plays videos from Google Video, YouTube and a few others. It only plays the video if it’s embedded in the original web page however and not if it’s an enclosure. Shame. I want Google Reader to play video podcasts in the same way it plays audio podcasts.

Now that my reading list is so large and unwieldly I have ditched just listing all the blogs I read in the side bar and replaced it with a link to the page of stories I read/share in Google Reader (my RSS feed reader of choice).
Robert Scoble does the same thing.
Google Reader is reinventing publishing, syndication and subscription in a fundamental way and it won’t be long before everyone else follows suit.

Technorati tags: blogroll, google, googlereader

All the mobile version needs now is for the Subscriptions page to only show updated feeds and not the entire list, which is completely pointless.

If I don’t hear back from Odeo Support soon I’m giving up on it. Again. I can’t remember why I did last time it was so long ago. This time the cause of my frustration is the way Odeo doesn’t update podcast feeds. There are podcasts which have been published for a week that Odeo still doesn’t think exist. My Odeo ‘inbox‘ should be full to brim with new podcasts. Instead, empty. Nothing. Nada. Unless Odeo can sort this out soon, I’m off. Forever probably.

Technorati tags: odeo, feeds

I read a live newspaper which is updated every minute. The content comes from hundreds sources all over the world including established media outlets as well as my friends and myself. It features news, photographs and video. I can enjoy it on my computer, my mobile and my iPod. The times they are a changing.

Technorati tags: newspaper, aggregation, rss

It's a measure of Flock's dedication to high quality user-centric development that the built in blogging interface with, in my case, WordPress is actually easier and more functional than the original WordPress.com posting page. It also let's me insert Technorati tags without having to touch any code.

The integration with Flickr is superb too. Flock's own photo uploader is far superior and less buggy than Flickr's own uploading tool. The RSS reader is excellent also. And while I will not be using it since my feed needs are more catered to by Newsgator's syncronised multiplatform offering, Flock have done the best job so far in this space of introducing RSS to the masses. The metaphor of creating your own newspaper is a powerful one and calling the homepage of your feeds the Front Page is a masterstroke.

Technorati tags: flock, wordpress, tags, technorati, flickr, rss, newsgator

If there was any incentive to move away from Firefox, Flock is it. Essentially Firefox by another name, Flock has a couple of nifty features right out of the box which I think are great.

Firstly blog integration with WordPress.com comes as standard and it’s Photos feature lets you upload and view Flickr or Photobucket pictures in the toolbar. It has a very usable RSS reader and built in integration with del.icio.us for sharing bookmarks/ favourites.

It has a very nice ‘chrome’ theme but no doubt more themes will become available. In fact the overall feel of Flock is one of elegance. It reminds me of my experiences with a Mac which were always good.

I've was tinkering and fiddling with the visual design of this site when it occurred to me - who cares? I'm only doing it for myself and my favourite themes wax and wane weekly. In an RSS/ subscription world how a site looks is virtually irrelevant when compared to the value of the content. Website themes are like clothes. Wear whatever takes your fancy on any given day. The person wearing them doesn't change and neither does the inherent value of the content of your website. Mmm, what shall I wear today?

Where indeed? While I admire and respect Rocketboom as one of the web's innovators helping bring about the reinvention of media, I just don't find it particularly funny. Amanda Congdon may be a skilled actress (I have no idea having never seen her act but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt) but she's no comedienne.

I've become addicted to a new website/ information source. Windguru provides up the minute information on wind speed and direction, water conditions and temperature for sailors, windsurfers and kitesurfers. Unfortunately the site has one major flaw. No RSS. Grrr. It feels so archaic to have to keep visiting a webpage to simply get an update.

Reading Steve Gillmor reminds me of reading Jean Baudrillard. On one level (the detail, perhaps) I have no idea what he's talking about and yet on another more vague and amorphous one he makes so much sense it hurts.

He writes just ahead of the beat. While most commentators speak eloquently on the present and most recent past, Gillmor inhabits the space just in front of now. Not the future. That's for theorists. Gillmor speaks and acts an exhilarating fraction ahead of the snare crack. Far enough in front to see what's coming and close enough to now to take us with him.

We won't know because it won't be advertising anymore. I can't remember the last time I endured an advertisement and yet I happily digest, in Dave Winer's words, commercial information, all day every day.

How does this work? Simple. I asked for/ subscribed to the information using RSS (Really Simple Syndication). I asked. It wasn't forced at me. I can turn it off whenever I please. I probably won't because the commercial information I consume isn't advertising. It's authoritative and high quality content, produced by passionate people. Why would I turn that off?