On Podcasting and MiniMacs
I watched the MacWorld keynote speech this morning and got to see the unveiling of the new Apple MacMini which goes on sale from 22nd January 2005. For GBP339 this definitely looks like a great way to get into the world of Apple and MacOS. This little device is small and sexy enough to sit in the lounge and I really think that it's only a matter of time before Apple start getting into the media centre market.
They would really be able to give Microsoft a run for their money. No other devices out there running Media Centre 2005 seem to be this sexy at all. Apple has the design and just needs to go the extra mile. They've now proved that it is possible to get a cheap box out there for consumers to use so get some extra software and a TV tuner and then we will be talking! MacWorld 2006?
So much for Apple never getting into Flash based music devices huh? Now they've got a 512MB model for GBP69 which is quite good. Once again it looks sexy and even has accessories available to extend it's functionality. But why no LCD screen to show us whats going on? Maybe you'll have better battery life because of this but people should remember that the other devices out there are often able to display quite a bit of useful information on the screen.
Perhaps 70% of users play music in shuffle/random mode but I still want to be able to see what is playing. And then for the 30% of the time when you want to find a specific song - how do you go about it without having to listen to a couple of seconds of each track. Bit odd ... Anyway at Dixons one can get a 1GB mp3 player for GBP99 with a LCD screen! It may not be Apple style but sure it will work just as well.
Yesterday I began dabbling in PodCasting with iPodder SP for my Orange SPV C500. Seems to work quite well but my poor 16MB miniSD card was filled up in no time. I've since ordered a 256MB one from eBuyer for GBP20 which seems to be quite a good deal. Also on order is a 1GB CF Card for our Canon EOS 300D as on the highest res you would only get around 300 images for 1GB! But I digress...
So got some Mac audio feeds that I was listening to which was quite interesting. This would be really cool if I was walking to work every day (well I am now but not once we're in Cape Town) and had no one to talk to - could sync up in the morning and be off with the latest news.
Now as Bryn said, if only we could get all the articles from The Register, The Inquirer and such into an audio feed. PodCasting might also introduce people to a whole range of topics that they would otherwise not normally be interested in. Personally i would rather listen to something while travelling or on the way to work than nothing so would be more open to listening to some random feeds. Might even get me hooked on something! Next thing we will be having adverts in PodCasts ...