I'd like to make it clear that indeed the iPhoneCANdownload podcasts easily and efficiently; however this requires jailbreaking. There is little to no risk in jailbreaking an iPhone, since you can use Factory Restore in iTunes, which will unbrick it if anything happens. I have done this to my iPod Touch, and there is an application called MobileCast. This application lets you enter an RSS, and download the media files from it and has its own built-in player aside from the "Music" app that comes with the iPhone.
First off, I want to say that jailbreaking doesn't cut it. You say there is no risk, but that is not true. At any time Apple can push out a software update that bricks every jailbroken iPhone. If I'm paying $200+ and a monthly fee for a phone, I'm not taking any chance of it being bricked. They could force me to buy a new one at unsubsidized price, or worse. If I had an old iPhone and I was upgrading, sure jailbreaking is great. If it was an iPod Touch, I would also be likely to jailbreak. Not for an expensive new iPhone 3g. Who knows what the new software update will bring?
In addition to that, let me know if I am wrong, but the way you describe this wifi podcatcher called mobilecast does not sound like it does the job properly. Here are the features a wifi podcatcher must have. Missing even a single feature means that I am better off continuing to sync with iTunes via a wire.
1) Uses the iPod software to play the music, not some other software. Why am I paying all this money for a fancy Apple UI and then using a shitty hacker's UI? 2) I need to be able to subscribe to podcasts, not just download from them. 3) It needs to know which episodes are new, which are listened, which are half-listened, etc. 4) I need to be able to completely stop listening to a podcast, then pick up exactly where I left off at any point in the future. 5) It needs to be able to integrate with the browser on the device, or have a podcast directory of some sort. I am not going to sit there typing in URLs of RSS feeds. 6) The UI needs to be astonishingly good. It needs to be as good as iTunes or better. I do not want to sit there poking around different feeds for 10 minutes every morning. I want to push a button and start listening.
I tried out the iPhone and iTouch at the Apple store this evening... They both suck. I don't understand why everyone is going ga-ga over the interface.
The evolution news is epic. Finally I have something to point too directly to say "That is what evolution is. Observed, undeniable." I know the counter argument is going to be its a big leap from bacteria to monkey. But its a god of the margins, and things like this add a whole lot of ink to the book.
Watch out for the "microevolution" claptrap that might get thrown your way.
Also, this isn't that amazing. I mean, it's pretty damn neat, but of all bacteria, E. coli exhibit a ton of phenotypic variation. I find the merging of C. jejuni and C. coli to be more interesting.
First off, I want to say that jailbreaking doesn't cut it. You say there is no risk, but that is not true. At any time Apple can push out a software update that bricks every jailbroken iPhone. If I'm paying $200+ and a monthly fee for a phone, I'm not taking any chance of it being bricked. They could force me to buy a new one at unsubsidized price, or worse. If I had an old iPhone and I was upgrading, sure jailbreaking is great. If it was an iPod Touch, I would also be likely to jailbreak. Not for an expensive new iPhone 3g. Who knows what the new software update will bring?
Yea, I guess that's true about the 3g, with it will most likely come a new firmware update and whatnot. I'm not sure what they're looking to implement, but so far the only one is the January 5 app pack that comes with the weather, stocks, notes, maps, and mail applications. You can still use those even if it's jailbroken; however, it does seem Apple is looking to implement an "AppStore" which I expect will function much like, if not exactly, the Installer application used now. Until that comes out, I'm content with what I have on here as is. I guess I'm speaking from an iPod Touch user perspective, because that itself single-handedly freed up all of my pockets.
In addition to that, let me know if I am wrong, but the way you describe this wifi podcatcher called mobilecast does not sound like it does the job properly. Here are the features a wifi podcatcher must have. Missing even a single feature means that I am better off continuing to sync with iTunes via a wire.
1) Uses the iPod software to play the music, not some other software. Why am I paying all this money for a fancy Apple UI and then using a shitty hacker's UI? 2) I need to be able to subscribe to podcasts, not just download from them. 3) It needs to know which episodes are new, which are listened, which are half-listened, etc. 4) I need to be able to completely stop listening to a podcast, then pick up exactly where I left off at any point in the future. 5) It needs to be able to integrate with the browser on the device, or have a podcast directory of some sort. I am not going to sit there typing in URLs of RSS feeds. 6) The UI needs to be astonishingly good. It needs to be as good as iTunes or better. I do not want to sit there poking around different feeds for 10 minutes every morning. I want to push a button and start listening.
Does the MobileCast do all this?
More or less, yep.
1)It is the same user-interface, it just separates your downloaded podcasts from your music. You won't find your podcasts under "Music" like they have it now. Instead you'd find them all under MobileCast, but it's still the same features except album sorting. 2)No you cannot subscribe. You simply get a list and download what's on there. As it is, you can run download in the background, but there's a highly intrusive speed issue. I don't forsee the Touch getting a subscribe option any time soon, or ever. Also, if you're looking for the 8G, it'll take take up a lot of space subscribing to enough podcasts and music, video, whatever else you have on there. I find it much easier to batch-download files and delete them when I'm done, then grab a new set; but I only have an 8G myself, and that could very well only be an issue with that and not the 16/32. 3)There's indicators for which one's you've listened to, are in the middle of listening to, haven't listened to but downloaded, and haven't downloaded. 4)Yep, if you hit the pause button, you can leave and do something else, come back, and it'll be where you left off. 5)That is the only downfall I see of it, but the developer plans to integrate that in the future. Typing RSS feeds can be a hassle; but I believe the other features make up for it. 6)Yes, you press a button, download, and it's right there. When you jump on, all of the feeds are there, you can even drag and drop them and put your favorite/most-listened to podcasts at the top, and there's a Refresh button in the upper-left. I do this about thrice a week, and it takes about 30 seconds to refresh all the feeds. From there, you click the RSS feed you want, it goes to the next screen, there's a list of the episodes, and if you have it, you can listen to it or pick up where you left off, if you don't, you can download it. You can cancel downloads and batch-download too.
It's some great stuff in my opinion, and I don't see Apple bringing out a podcatcher any time soon, if only to promote the use of iTunes. They're ridiculous when it comes to syncing as is, so eliminating the feature entirely, eh, most likely not.
The pay-for-bits thing is absolute bullshit, especially for gamers.
The pay-per-gallon of water thing is absolute bullshit, especially for swimmers. The pay-per-kilowatt hour thing is bullshit, especially for solderers and hobbyists.
^_~
The only reason this is going on is that what you want - unlimited bandwidth - is not possible at the prices you're currently willing to pay. It never was. The only reason you could even get what you have now was that the majority of the other people on your ISP weren't using what they paid for.
Old ladies are subsidizing your connection. Old ladies were once the majority. They're quickly becoming the minority, and the links can't keep up.
I have a good connection for a good price for now but I agree with your point. However, that may change depending on the UHF wireless spectrum deal. And isn't there a lot of dark fibre buried in quite a few places? If nothing changes and broadband usage increases as expected then I fear that the two solutions our government will come up with are the following: Republicans: Raise prices on consumer. Democrats: Internet Tax. Bottom line: its the same freakin thing essentially.
I highly recommend the 2600 book. I've been reading their magazines since I was 12. I took over organizing the 2600 meetings in Roanoke, VA when I was 13. Fun times, back when I had a redbox made from the tone-dialer @ radio shack and a soldered 'crystal' chip. press # = 5 cents on payphones. PBX and voicemail hacking. Pranking small time phone companies like Pilgrim Telephone whose system we knew better than them. This stuff was grey area or legit during those days. Now you could get thrown in freakin gitmo as a terrorist according to the Patriot act.(Patriot Act defines hacking as cyber-terrorism fyi, its a good read)
If nothing changes and broadband usage increases as expected then I fear that the two solutions our government will come up with are the following: Republicans: Raise prices on consumer. Democrats: Internet Tax. Bottom line: its the same freakin thing essentially.
The government can tax the Internet (which companies will pass on to consumers) but how can you say the government will raise prices on consumers?
Japan is very small, geographically. It doesn't take long to wire it all up. The US is very large. It is very difficult to wire it all up. Sure, we could just wire up the cities and screw the boonies, but that's now how the US works. The symbiosis of the urban and the rural in the US is the cause of many of our biggest problems, but it is also the reason there are many problems we do not have to face.
So yes, we could have the best Internet service in the world if we didn't offer any service whatsoever outside of the largest metropolitan areas.
So yes, we could have the best Internet service in the world if we didn't offer any service whatsoever outside of the largest metropolitan areas.
Which quickly sums up the entirety of the Internet problem here in the US. By mandating that ISPs have to service everyone equally they do so, by giving us all shitty service.
Which quickly sums up the entirety of the Internet problem here in the US. By mandating that ISPs have to service everyone equally they do so, by giving us all shitty service.
I think we need to do a Thursday on the whole Rural/Urban divide in the US.
Which quickly sums up the entirety of the Internet problem here in the US. By mandating that ISPs have to service everyone equally they do so, by giving us all shitty service.
The same thing is true for transportation. Want airlines to not suck? Eliminate all but the most heavily trafficked flights. No more unprofitable flights out to the middle of nowhere. Want trains to be awesome bullet and maglevs instead of the crap we've got? Goodbye cross-country Amtrak. Want roads to be awesome with no traffic and no potholes? Dirt and gravel roads with no traffic control for everyone who isn't near a city. Did you want the levies and such in New Orleans to be as fancy and high tech as those in Northern Europe? What other infrastructure were you going to sacrifice to make it happen?
By spreading our infrastructure resources over a wide geographic area, any particular piece of the system will be lower quality. If you want something to be high quality, you have to sacrifice somewhere else.
It also doesn't help that everything in the US is already built. It's hard to have fancy roads in NY because we're still dealing with poor design decisions made by people centuries ago. Infrastructure in places that were settled more recently is much nicer because it wasn't limited by pre-existing infrastructure. This is why some countries with lots of land can still have fancy trains and such, because there aren't houses with NIMBYS and BANANAS living in or near them on the tracks. Also, some of them aren't very democratic, so they just knock down houses if they are in the way.
Can anyone recommend a good waterproof iPod case and ear phones? One of the main reasons I stopped swimming is that it's so boring going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... When you do around two thousand meters a work out that's a lot of laps! I need something that won't interfere with my strokes though...
Good luck with that. Your best bet is to get a underwater speaker that Marine biologist use for whale calls and stuff, and then drop the speaker in the water and the sound should echo through the water. but I bet the the old ladies doing water aerobics probably don't want to hear your death metal while they do there thing and I pretty sure podcast would be out of the question. Unless you kept your head under the entire time, until you would turn blue in the face and pass out, and then it would be fucking hilarious.
Comments
In addition to that, let me know if I am wrong, but the way you describe this wifi podcatcher called mobilecast does not sound like it does the job properly. Here are the features a wifi podcatcher must have. Missing even a single feature means that I am better off continuing to sync with iTunes via a wire.
1) Uses the iPod software to play the music, not some other software. Why am I paying all this money for a fancy Apple UI and then using a shitty hacker's UI?
2) I need to be able to subscribe to podcasts, not just download from them.
3) It needs to know which episodes are new, which are listened, which are half-listened, etc.
4) I need to be able to completely stop listening to a podcast, then pick up exactly where I left off at any point in the future.
5) It needs to be able to integrate with the browser on the device, or have a podcast directory of some sort. I am not going to sit there typing in URLs of RSS feeds.
6) The UI needs to be astonishingly good. It needs to be as good as iTunes or better. I do not want to sit there poking around different feeds for 10 minutes every morning. I want to push a button and start listening.
Does the MobileCast do all this?
Also, this isn't that amazing. I mean, it's pretty damn neat, but of all bacteria, E. coli exhibit a ton of phenotypic variation. I find the merging of C. jejuni and C. coli to be more interesting.
But it's still cool.
1)It is the same user-interface, it just separates your downloaded podcasts from your music. You won't find your podcasts under "Music" like they have it now. Instead you'd find them all under MobileCast, but it's still the same features except album sorting.
2)No you cannot subscribe. You simply get a list and download what's on there. As it is, you can run download in the background, but there's a highly intrusive speed issue. I don't forsee the Touch getting a subscribe option any time soon, or ever. Also, if you're looking for the 8G, it'll take take up a lot of space subscribing to enough podcasts and music, video, whatever else you have on there. I find it much easier to batch-download files and delete them when I'm done, then grab a new set; but I only have an 8G myself, and that could very well only be an issue with that and not the 16/32.
3)There's indicators for which one's you've listened to, are in the middle of listening to, haven't listened to but downloaded, and haven't downloaded.
4)Yep, if you hit the pause button, you can leave and do something else, come back, and it'll be where you left off.
5)That is the only downfall I see of it, but the developer plans to integrate that in the future. Typing RSS feeds can be a hassle; but I believe the other features make up for it.
6)Yes, you press a button, download, and it's right there. When you jump on, all of the feeds are there, you can even drag and drop them and put your favorite/most-listened to podcasts at the top, and there's a Refresh button in the upper-left. I do this about thrice a week, and it takes about 30 seconds to refresh all the feeds. From there, you click the RSS feed you want, it goes to the next screen, there's a list of the episodes, and if you have it, you can listen to it or pick up where you left off, if you don't, you can download it. You can cancel downloads and batch-download too.
It's some great stuff in my opinion, and I don't see Apple bringing out a podcatcher any time soon, if only to promote the use of iTunes. They're ridiculous when it comes to syncing as is, so eliminating the feature entirely, eh, most likely not.
If nothing changes and broadband usage increases as expected then I fear that the two solutions our government will come up with are the following:
Republicans: Raise prices on consumer.
Democrats: Internet Tax.
Bottom line: its the same freakin thing essentially.
PBX and voicemail hacking. Pranking small time phone companies like Pilgrim Telephone whose system we knew better than them.
This stuff was grey area or legit during those days. Now you could get thrown in freakin gitmo as a terrorist according to the Patriot act.(Patriot Act defines hacking as cyber-terrorism fyi, its a good read)
About 80% of Japan is covered with wi-fi service. The fee for that is about $5 per month. That's what T-Mobile charges for one day here in the States!
So if Japan can have better service for a cheaper prices, why can't we?
And we don't even have 1seg!
So yes, we could have the best Internet service in the world if we didn't offer any service whatsoever outside of the largest metropolitan areas.
By spreading our infrastructure resources over a wide geographic area, any particular piece of the system will be lower quality. If you want something to be high quality, you have to sacrifice somewhere else.
It also doesn't help that everything in the US is already built. It's hard to have fancy roads in NY because we're still dealing with poor design decisions made by people centuries ago. Infrastructure in places that were settled more recently is much nicer because it wasn't limited by pre-existing infrastructure. This is why some countries with lots of land can still have fancy trains and such, because there aren't houses with NIMBYS and BANANAS living in or near them on the tracks. Also, some of them aren't very democratic, so they just knock down houses if they are in the way.
Just joking about the drowning part.