Friday, we reported on Almerica Podcaster, a podcast client for the iPhone that Apple banned from the store because it duplicates features offered by the iPhone’s native software. 

We said:

Rejecting an app because it competes with Apple’s own software, though, sends the signal that people shouldn’t develop podcast-related applications for the iPhone.

This is bad for podcast fans, obviously, because they won’t have Almerica’s software available to them. But it’s also bad for the state of podcasting. Almerica or someone else could could have great ideas for mobile podcast software, and you’ll probably never see it because of this.

It’s also bad for iPhone owners, because it means that you’ll probably have fewer options available in other categories of apps that overlap with what Apple offers. Developers don’t want to spend time developing software that Apple is likely to reject.

Ultimately, it’s also bad for the iPhone platform. If developers aren’t clear on what they can and can’t offer through the App Store, they’ll put their resources elsewhere.

Now a lot of others have picked up this story, and it’s even been Slashdotted. 

Podcast pioneer Dave Winer says:

I wouldn’t invest in or develop an iPhone app because Apple could decide not to approve it, and if they don’t approve it you can’t sell it. You can’t even give it away. You don’t find out if you’ve been approved until the last step, after you’ve fully invested, so you could lose, totally, if Apple says no.

Yesterday it came out that they rejected an app called Podcaster because it competed with iTunes, an Apple product. Maybe it was better than iTunes in some way, or simpler, more focused, had features iTunes didn’t have? It doesn’t matter, it illustrates exactly why Apple shouldn’t assume this power, or if they insist on it, you’d have to be crazy to develop iPhone apps.

O’Reilly’s Paul Kafasis says:

Apple has gone too far. Rejecting an application because it might compete with Apple is simply indefensible. There’s so much wrong with it that I’m not even sure where to start. There are legal issues to consider, in terms of anti-competitive behavior. There’s the fact that Apple isn’t actually offering this functionality on the iPhone, so it’s not really competing at all. 

In the past I’ve stated my belief that Apple’s published restrictions are stifling innovation on the platform. However, that stifling is nothing compared to the chilling effect we’ll see from arbitrary rejections like this. The possibility of spending months on an application, only to never be able to get it to users because Apple decided not to let you in is an enormous risk and it will scare off talented developers. When that happens, everyone loses.

The decision is already stifling competition and innovation in iPhone podcasting software – but as this story picks up steam, it’s likely to keep all sorts of developers from building iPhone apps.

Almerica reports that Apple has rejected the hotly anticipated Podcaster iPhone application from the App Store:

Today I finally got a reply from Apple about the status of Podcaster.

Apple Rep says: Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.

That’s right folks, it duplicates the functionality of the desktop version of iTunes.

I find this a bit strange considering there are numerous apps that duplicate the functionality of other apps. For example, any calculator app is duplicating the functionality of Apples calculator app. Any app that tells you the weather is duplicating the Yahoo weather app. Any app that let’s you listen to music is duplicating the iPod portion of the iPhone.

There are also several apps that simply allow you to listen to a podcast (Diggnation and Mobility Today just to name a few) that are not denied from the app store.

This is exactly the sort of thing that the iPhone platform doesn’t need.

There’s a huge amount of interest in developing for the iPhone, and the iPhone already has the most interesting ecosystem of any mobile device.

Rejecting an app because it competes with Apple’s own software, though, sends the signal that people shouldn’t develop podcast-related applications for the iPhone.

This is bad for podcast fans, obviously, because they won’t have Almerica’s software available to them. But it’s also bad for the state of podcasting. Almerica or someone else could could have great ideas for mobile podcast software, and you’ll probably never see it because of this.

It’s also bad for iPhone owners, because it means that you’ll probably have fewer options available in other categories of apps that overlap with what Apple offers. Developers don’t want to spend time developing software that Apple is likely to reject.

Ultimately, it’s also bad for the iPhone platform. If developers aren’t clear on what they can and can’t offer through the App Store, they’ll put their resources elsewhere.

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KATA – a company that makes gear for photographers and filmmakers – has designed a backpack specifically for mobile media producers. 

Kata Multimedia Backpack Features:

 

• The top and bottom of the backpack are separated by a removable divider and can be opened individually.
• The divider can be removed should you need the full height of the backpack.
• A separate zip-pocket safely holds a 12 inch laptop in place.
• The side zip-pocket has a cable outlet so you can listen to music on the go. 
• Tear-resistant outer fabric, elastic foam padding in the middle, and soft inner lining to protect equipment against impacts and the weather.
• Rubber bumpers on the side provide additional protection. 

 Weighs 1,000g (2.2 lbs).

via Prylfeber

Apple’s iTunes 8 introduced a new feature, Genius, designed to help you find new music.

I was unimpressed with Genius – it’s not much more than a recommendation engine, designed to get you to buy more music. In other words, it’s a lot like the recommendation system Amazon has been offering online for a decade. 

Wired has taken a pre-release view at Microsoft’s new Zune software, though, and they are impressed with its new recommendation system, saying “what we saw made iTunes’ simple Genius feature look like a blast from digital music’s past”:

The new feature, called MixView (pictured above), displays a single album, artist or user in the center of the screen and surrounds it with related items in a graphical format (sort of reminiscent of MusicPlasma, although Microsoft says it developed MixView all on its own). You can start on an artist and instantly discover which bands influenced that artist and vice versa, by mousing over those surrounding elements in MixView. Double-clicking through to any song plays a 30-second sample, offers a chance to buy the track or, if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, plays the track in its entirety.

The same view shows Zune users who play the artist in heavy rotation and the albums that are associated with an artist. Clicking on any of these elements brings it to the center of the screen and reconfigures the relationships with new elements.

Granted, I’m not referring to the accuracy of one system’s algorithms versus the other’s; there will be plenty of time to compare them on those merits once the new Zune software is released. But in terms of breadth, layout and social utility, Zune sends Genius back to school.

Microsoft plans to release the new software Sept 16th.

HBO wants you to try “Hooking Up” on the web. 

It’s announced a new web video show, Hooking UP, that will feature microcelebrities Jessica Rose (lonelygirl15) and video bloggers sxePhil (Philip DeFranco) and KevJumba (Kevin Wu).

HBO hopes that, by using faces familiar to Internet viewers, they’ll be hooking up with the Internet video audience. 

“I think we’re going to see a lot more hits than had we cast a bunch of funny people you didn’t know,” said Fran Shea, head of HBOlab.

The web video show is an experiment from HBO’s HBOlab, and looks like it could be one of the smarter web video experiments coming from a mainstream media company.

The new features in iTunes 8 haven’t impressed me. Genius is mainly a way for Apple to sell you more music, and the new views in iTunes are very slow, compared to the older list views. 

Something that is very useful in iTunes 8, though, is its support for individual podcast settings:

This is a great feature, because it lets you keep your podcast subscriptions current, without filling up your hard drive or using up too much processor power. 

For example, I subscribe to a lot of news podcasts, so I’ve set iTunes to keep the most recent episode. But I also listen to some great music podcasts that I like to keep copies of. Now iTunes lets me set those podcasts to keep all the podcasts. 

To access the Podcast Settings dialog:

• Click the podcast icon in the left navigation, under Library
• Select the podcast to update
• Click the Settings button at the bottom of the iTunes window.

New media is the most effective ad channel, according to new research in the UK by Redshift Research. 

In fact, companies now prefer digital media to radio and TV, 15 to 1. 

Key facts:

• 74% of organizations surveyed feel internet or email advertising is the most effective channel for connecting with consumers.
• 8% feel SMS and MMS are the most effective channels.
• Only 5% felt radio or TV were the most effective channels.

Other findings:

• Digital media now accounts for almost 50% of daily media consumption and is the preferred medium for receiving marketing messages
• 41% of consumers chose the Internet as the medium they could not live without
• Only 62% of TV is now watched in real-time
• 75% of the UK population rarely watch TV adverts when viewing recorded programs

While Redshift found that companies now recognize that new media is the most effective platform for advertising, companies are failing to make the most of it:

• Two thirds of organizations recognise that consumers are less receptive to traditional advertising
• Budget (40%) and lack of skill and experience (28%) are quoted as the main barriers to using digital media more frequently. 
• While 60 percent of companies think it would be very or extremely useful to have one single CRM system/database combining traditional and digital media campaigns, 65 per cent collect and analyse campaign data in separate systems, thus rendering them unable to gain a full view into any cross media campaigns’ performance.

Home Movie Day, a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held annually at many local venues worldwide, is Saturday October 18, 2008. 

Home Movie Day events provide the opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience of their community, and to see their neighbors’ in turn. It’s a chance to discover why to care about these films and to learn how best to care for them.

Information on events around the world is available at the HMD site. 

via BoingBoing

 

More people are watching video online than ever, with the percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewing online video now topping 75%. 

What’s this mean to you?

In  a few years, your television will be more like your computer than a traditional television. 

comScore today released July 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during the month. 

Other notable findings from July 2008 include:

• Americans spent a total of 558 million hours watching online video during the month.
• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.
• 91 million viewers watched 5 billion videos on YouTube.com (54.8 videos per viewer).
• 51.4 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (7.8 videos per viewer).
• The duration of the average online video was 2.9 minutes.

Google Sites Maintains Dominant Position

Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 5 billion videos viewed (representing a 44 percent share of the online video market), with YouTube.com accounting for more than 98 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 446 million videos (3.9 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 282 million (2.5 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 269 million (2.4 percent). Hulu ranked eighth with 119 million videos, representing 1 percent of all videos viewed.