Casting the first pod

Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote address is available (and broadcast in H.264, making it a really gorgeous webcast). I was eager to hear the news straight from the horse’s mouth.

It’s the first time I heard a really good explanation of Podcasting. Maybe I’m behind the times, but the last person to explain this to me said “you can use it to broadcast to your friends!” Great. What a waste of bandwidth, right? But of course Steve nailed it on the head. Podcasting is “Tivo for radio.” It’s also about who is podcasting. The keynote included podcasts from NPR and KCRW. There are over 8,000 Podcast sources as of today. Now this is getting pretty cool — especially with the upcoming iTunes release. The next rev is going to integrate Podcasting and a huge Podcast directory right into iTunes. It makes finding and subscribing to Podcasts as easy as a single click. The subscribing part is what hooks me.

I love radio, but I never listen to it — what I want is never on. iTunes with Podcasting is going to solve that. I can subscribe to my favorite radio broadcasts and have them available to play, at my convenience. Just like, well, Tivo for radio.