nobody reads this …
Rumours of a Zune -like phone device. Also here on TechCrunch
I say wait for the forthcoming ChocoNokiSonyRolaSon 😉
It will no doubt have a SIM card welded into it, allowing you to make calls to people within a ten metre radius. 😉 Woo!
According this post with a snippet from someone working on the Zune team for Microsoft, they will be adding support for podcasting.
Good idea!! Lets make sure it supports OPML (with inclusion), RSS feeds – and the manual adding of each of these.
As long as Microsoft listen to the community about the issues surrounding podcasting, then they’ll be a LOT further down the road than Apple could ever wish to be. Apple have proven they can make nice devices, but they are clearly not experts in the basic technology AND ‘openness’ around podcasting.
Nokia have a competent first stab at a podcasting app on their N91 and you can bet that other mobile manafacturers will be hot on their heels with their own applications.
I think this looks like a great product.
I hope it can read an RSS feed directly over that WiFi (like a PSP can)! So I can download podcasts too, over the connection (like PSP can).
As well as wifi connectivity (for download) the killer app, for me, would be the ability to record AND upload too. This could be based on something like Nokias old uploader api (which was very easy to implement in any scripting language). Or a simple/simplified ftp client.
If they (MS) offered storage too, along with their desktop client/shop/aggregator based on the account, then they would have it all wrapped up.
Location agnostic consuming and publishing – desktop or mobile device – listening, viewing, subscribing etc. All synced up the next time the device links to the desktop. Full of real statistics, linkage and relevance.
Bingo! You’d have it all.
THEN if your reading AND writing/publishing tools support the core content and organisation XML standards for podcasts of RSS and OPML, PLUS additional support for microformats such as FOAF etc AND OTHER community APIS (though this could be done by any developer community or group of widgetwelders)
If Microsoft did this, they would win – imho
By ‘closing the content loop’ (by effectively flipping one end and connecting it to the other) – publish to receive : AND discover/navigate : subscribe , it would be like APple where things ‘seem’ to be locked in, they wuold have the opportunity to turn the whole network inside out, exposing all the data needed – all the ‘neural’ connections – all the paths, all the people and all the content.
This would ‘connect’ the owners of such devices to eachother, creating the community feel, but also prove they are not going to create a ‘walled garden’ of content – for devices that don’t know (much) about anything else.
[given that i am talking about ‘open’ podcasts here – user generated (argh) – as opposed to music/video/protected shopping/purchases with their own DRM.]
You don’t have to be able to read the ZUNESTONES to see it. Do you?
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ps: When are Google or Yahoo! going to produce a device? They should! 😉
pps: people who know me personally, will know that I am a huge love love and passionate user of gadgets. I have been on this crusade for a while. 😉
