Petentials Reviewed by Amber and Leo June 8, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Markteting, Podcasts, Links, Reviews, Web Sites, Entrepreneurship, itunes, Petentials, Social Networking , 4 comments
Hooray for Google Alerts, and my media habits. A few days ago, I got an email from the google (now with a new and un-improved favicon…blech). This email linked to a blog post that linked to a podcast, and that was exciting.
The blogger was Kym Huynh, one of the hosts of a brand-new podcast called Best of the Net. In their first episode, The Google Bar, the topic was Pets, and the first story was Petentials, which is just amazing.
Then as I’m listening to some of my weekly podcasts, I noticed something even more amazing.
Every week, Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte sit down to talk about the latest happenings on the Internet. A few weeks ago, they were complaining about not having any guests, so they solicited the audience to email in if they had a web startup. Being the faithful listener that I am, I had to tell them about Petentials. I really thought they’d have thousands of suggestions like this every week, so I didn’t exactly expect to hear anything too soon, but…
I was listening to this week’s Net @ Night, “Tiffany Roll”, and when Amber got to the letters, I heard her say “This week’s letter is from Ryan Price in Orlando…”
Excuse me?
…and then they talked about Petentials for the next several minutes. I stopped right where I was standing and smiled the biggest smile. Right after that I called Darren and told him the good news.
Let’s keep the good vibes going - I know lots of you folks out there have podcasts and blogs - how would you like to feature a new social network that has been covered by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur? Yeah, I thought so…!
Listen to net@night 55: Tiffany Roll (RSS, iTunes)
Listen to Best of the Net 1: The Google Bar (RSS, iTunes)
Looking at the dates that these were released, I almost wonder if the Best of the Net show heard about us via the live stream that Amber and Leo do over at TwitLive.TV while they are taping the show. If so, that makes for a great follow-up to my previous post.
BarCamp Orlando Podcasting Session October 3, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Podcasts, Orlando, Events, itunes, Teaching, BarCamp , add a comment
This was a session I presented at BarCampOrlando at Taste in College Park. I used the same slides as my BlogOrlando session, but I got to say different stuff in half the time, and only Lee asked one question, so it’s a bit more of a lecture than I’d like. I’m hoping to get some practice presenting unconference style in the coming months. Lectures are easy enough to give, and good presentations are a bit harder. Good conversations are hardest of all, I think.
If you have any feedback about this particular session, I’d love to hear it.
BlogOrlando Podcasting Session 2007 September 14, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Career, Podcasts, Orlando, Links, HowTo, Events, itunes, Teaching , add a commentI will be leading a discussion at the 2nd Annual BlogOrlando Unconference on Friday, September 28th at about 3PM. Josh Hallet, who organizes the event, has asked the session leaders to give participants an idea of what we’ll be talking about, and get the discussion going beforehand. Please feel free to help me add/subtract/update this list. Some things I’ve been thinking about:
- You don’t need to be like Big Media
- Put your favorite NPR show, your favorite music and a show you created in your living room on your mom’s MP3 player
- Why the iTunes directory is king
- What’s with the “Pod” anyway? Is there a better word for it?
- Some podcasts are for your eyes only
- Think like the little guy - keep it real
- Just get past your first episode
- What’s in a name? SEO/Branding
- Promotional Tools & Community
- Episodes, shownotes, flash players, widgets
- Stereo vs. Mono, bitrates, filesizes, hosting
- Audio vs. video, text, photo, Internet TV vs. videoblogs
- How do I publish a feed? How do they subscribe?
- Networks vs. all-encompassing shows
- Skype is your best friend
- Playing music during shows
- Atmospherics - is the Air Conditioner a friend or foe?
- Enjoy it while it lasts - AKA “Podfading”
- ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE
That’s the list as of now. Josh is going to be linking to this from the BlogOrlando site somewhere, so keep checking back. This is also the post where I’ll be publishing any links, downloads, slides, samples, etc.
Update: I spoke about this subject using these slides at BarCampOrlando, and this is what Tim took away from it:
Hints: name it within the 1st 5 episodes. Keeping the same name and url helps retain viewers/ listeners. Episode numbers are not essential but paying attention to locations of listeners and content popularity helps focus on what is working. Make sure to keep it personal, an extension of you not a competition to real media which you will never beat. Show notes help a lot to keep subscribes connected and personalized.
“Make it something interesting for your audience”
Apple drops price of iPhone by $200, gives cookies to the losers September 7, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Podcasts, Trends, VOIP, itunes, open source, Miro, Songbird , 3 commentsI heard about this yesterday when Apple announced their new line of iPods, including a device that does almost everything the iPhone does except make calls, dubbed “iPod Touch”. Today, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter to everyone who’s already bought an iPhone that says “tough crap, I’ll give you $100 gift card, go away, you bother me.” Obviously, the tech bloggers have something to say about this.
Here’s my response to Jeremy Harrington’s Thoughts on iPhone Price Drop:
My personal opinion is that they lowered the price of the iPhone so they would sell FEWER Touch units… if they are the same price, but one makes calls and the other is a portable hard drive, which one is of more value to you? I bought a Sony Mylo a few weeks before the original iPhone announcement because it makes Skype calls, and it came with a free year of T-Mobile HotSpot… as far as I know, yesterday’s announcements didn’t mention anything about free access at Starbuck’s. For that reason alone, the Mylo was worth it and continues to be a superior device, because I can make VOIP calls with it. I’m sure the next rev of Mylo will have touch and lots of the things that make the iPhone so great right now. I waited on iPhone, and now I’ll wait for a touch/wifi device with a camera (does Touch have that?) that can make VOIP calls, and there will be another giveaway like a free year of wifi because they’ll have to keep up with Apple.
Granted, there are a lot of benefits with buying an iProduct. The synching, the media, the iTunes store, the podcasts… still, I will call attention to my post of a few days past about Miro and Songbird. If you don’t like to, how you say, “pay for media”, you’ll like that Miro and Songbird can do everything iTunes can with the same ease of use and the same download price… free. On top of that, you’ll know that if you want a new feature, you can send a message to the guys and girls that design the software and be heard.
Jeremy said it pretty well:
Apple has become a consumer product business, and the exemplary customer satisfaction they tout in their marketing and interviews took a hit yesterday. If they keep this up they will be a big consumer electronics business like they wish to be, the kind everyone hates.
I hope this doesn’t happen, but it looks like the way things are going.
Miro is stepping it up September 5, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Music, Quotes, Video, Reviews, TV, Browsers, Trends, itunes, open source, Miro, Songbird , 1 comment so farMiro player (formerly Democracy) is an internet TV application that works on a subscribe and download model. Some would call it a podcatcher. Others would say it’s ready to leave the other podcatchers in the dust.
Why would I say such things about a project that’s been around for so long? Because they changed their name and branding? Because they’re doing some nice user-friendly screencasts? Because of bittorrent support? No. Well, maybe bittorrent. But that’s not what I mean. Check this list of recent updates:
From the Miro Blog:
# OPML import and export allows lists of channels to be shared.
# The Windows Options panel has been reorganized into pretty tabs.
# Miro will return to the last place visited in the Miro Guide when you click away and return.
# If you add an alternate channel guide, Miro will display the name and icon for that site.
# Single file downloads are now supported.
# Mefeedia, Yahoo! and Yahoo! Video are added as search engines.
# Veoh has been temporarily removed due to compatibility problems.
OPML import and export allows lists of channels to be shared. Also, notice where it says an alternate channel guide… I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it sounds cool.
Why is OPML cool? Well, OPML is a way of describing a list, or a list of lists. Feeds are lists. I can make a list of all the feeds I’m watching (we are talking video here) and then share it with a friend. Or anyone who reads my blog. Or my pownce friends. Or people using the Share my OPML site, or even people on the NetVibes Ecosystem. How cool is that? You can’t do that in iTunes. Can’t.
Alternate Channel Guide? The CG is the screen that loads when you first start up Miro (Democracy). Here’s what the Miro blog has to say about new channel guides:
Use the Channels -> Add Channel Guide menu to add the likes of blip.tv, mefeedia and even digg. You can browse for videos and feeds. With the blip.tv subscribe button, you can add a channel directly into Miro.
You can’t do that in iTunes. I give iTunes a lot of credit for being the best (easiest to use) podcatcher out there, but combining Miro and a great audio browser like Songbird, you can duplicate and outgrow all the features of iTunes (especially since Songbird has a pluggable interface like Firefox) without having to use a proprietary system like iTunes, because these two systems are open-source. Now you can get your music and video from anywhere, even iTunes in the case of Songbird, and enjoy it alongside the best content streamed from around the web.
OrlandoScene.TV and BloggingFringe.com Video on Revver June 20, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Podcasts, Orlando, Video, Film, Trends, Fringe, Liberatr, Restaurants, Entrepreneurship, itunes, statistics, Revver, Contributors, OrlandoScene , 1 comment so farI’m posting this because there should be an 8th video in this widget by the time you see it. I wish this thing would show the videos in reverse order, and perhaps it will - the first video should be OrlandoScene.TV 03 Taste, the second Heart of Coal, etc.
I’ve learned through the very useful and very pretty Revver statistics that about 5% of people who see my video play it to the end, and of those about 8% click on the ad. I think 8.16% ain’t half bad at all - what I wonder is if the “views” includes people who see the player and don’t push play. I don’t think it does.
If you haven’t seen all 8 of these videos yet, they are more than worth watching. If you’re using a feedreader right now, I’m not sure if you can see the player because of JavaScript. You can find my videos on the web at Revver.
OrlandoScene.TV, BloggingFringe.com - that’s where these videos live.
Tech is Turning Over May 31, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Music, Links, Video, Reviews, Trends, Web Sites, itunes , 1 comment so farSo many things happened while I was “away”, or rather, while I was at Fringe. Here are some highlights:
- Apple, Inc: Watch YouTube videos on AppleTV, oh, and we really meant it when we said we want to sell music without DRM. Really.
- Microsoft: Hey! We’ve had multi-touch stuff in our labs for a while, but we don’t care about home users - we’re going after retail and enterprise with Surface! Whatever.
- Last.fm: Remember us? We’re one of those sites that lets you share your iTunes playlist on the web. Well, CBS thinks our 15M users are worth $280 million! Whoopie!
- MySpace: We got really pissed that everyone’s using Photobucket instead of our photo hosting, so we bought them for about $250Million!
- Google: You can now see a panorama of the place you’re trying to find in Google Maps (in 5 major cities). Aren’t we the best company ever?
More important than how cool Google is: the blog that brought me all of this news: Lost Remote. Technically, it’s a TV blog, but I find all the best stuff there. Seriously, check it out.
Orlando Scene TV 02: Enzian FILMSLAM March 12, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Podcasts, Orlando, Events, Video, Film, TV, Travel, Liberatr, Web Sites, itunes, Charity , add a commentATTENTION: All proceeds from clicks on the ads at the end of this video will be donated to the American Cancer Society for Relay for Life. No support is generated if you dont click, so make sure you watch all the way to the end and click to help us out.
Every second Sunday of the month, John Theisen and Brian Feldman host a program of short films at the Enzian Theater in Maitland by Florida Filmmakers. Winners are picked by the audience to advance to the Brouhaha Grand Slam in December. Michelle joined us and got a chance to talk with the organizers at the event.
At the January FILMSLAM, 6 Florida films were featured:
Security Deposit - Erica Matyas
Since September - Christopher Zawadzki (3rd Place)
The Blue Moon Pull (PART I) - Young Kim
Aging Imaginations - Kirk Murray
A Man in the Attic - Ali Imran Zaidi (1st Place)
SPEAKEASY - E.R. Jess
Orlando Scene appears courtesy of Liberatr.net
The February and March FILMSLAM events were also a great time, we highly recommend going out and supporting local film to the tune of a $5 bill. If you want to find out more about people producing video and film locally, our other blog, Orlando Video, allows creatives in Orlando to send us links to their video on the web. We have featured E.R. Jess’ group, Feedbag Films, several times now.
More videos coming out every week at Orlando Scene TV and on iTunes
Orlando Scene TV 01: Relay for Life Concert
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Markteting, Podcasts, Orlando, Music, Events, Video, TV, Liberatr, Web Sites, itunes, Charity , add a commentAll proceeds from clicks on the ads at the end of this video will be donated to the American Cancer Society for Relay for Life. No support is generated if you don’t click, so make sure you watch all the way to the end and click to help us out.
Austin’s Coffee hosted a Relay For Life benefit concert for the JOGGIN’ FOR JAY group of the University of Central Florida. Ryan Price talked to Marissa, the organizer of the group and the concert.
Bands appearing in this video: Dodger, Mumpsy, Sean Moore, Pandos
Relay For Life exists thanks to the American Cancer Society - www.ACS.org
Orlando Scene appears courtesy of Liberatr.net
More videos coming out every week at Orlando Scene TV and on iTunes
How does iTunes popularity work? March 4, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Podcasts, Music, Links, Video, Reviews, TV, Trends, Earth, Liberatr, Web Sites, itunes, statistics , add a commentDear iTunes:
Will you please tell me how many people clicked Subscribe inside of iTunes? I know you know, and since you know I know you know, you appear to tease me with the information. Why?
Is my podcast popular in relation to other Alternative Health shows, or simply compared to the other shows I searched for? Is it popular today, this week, this month, since the beginning of the year, or since Hallowe’en? Is there any way to find out? Please, please, please help me.
Footprint Podcast is Popular on iTunes Hosted on Zooomr
iTunes OCD Hosted on ZooomrYour podcast catching platform is regrettably the only software that works well for audio and video across 2 major platforms and also manages to keep people inside the program for hours a day, with a little number next to the “Podcasts” source that lets the OCD people know they have unfinished business with their podcast hosts. If someone else captured attention as well as iTunes, I would scream it from the rooftops. If all I do is video, Democracy Player is great! I wish Democracy did audio, or someone would write a hip, open-source podcatching/ music listening platform.
Wait a second… what about Songbird? Is their user experience too general? I can subscribe to a webpage with mp3 links, but not to a feed. Or if I can, they don’t make it obvious. Since they are still on version 0.2.5, does this mean I’m going to have to wait a few years for them to get it right, like I’m doing with Flock? Only you, iTunes, have the power to help me in my quest. How do I compare?
People don’t want to visit Podcast Alley, and they especially don’t want to be NPR’d to death with “Please vote for our podcast, so we can beat the Harry Potter kids!” all the live-long day. They just don’t. Most of them only tune in to about half an hour’s worth of material anyway, so unless we plug it at the beginning, which no self-respecting podcaster would do, there’s almost no way to get a decent comparison.
iTunes Related Subscriptions Hosted on ZooomrWhen I first saw these little gray bars, I was very excited - my podcast is popular! Hell, people even have related subscriptions… I think. Is this like the Amazon store, where they say “People who bought this product also bought…” because if it is, where are the comments from those kids? This large number of related podcasts leads me to believe that you are just pulling the stats from Alternative Health in general, or one very eco-friendly person’s list.
Gosh, iTunes. Even your screenshots look good in a blog post. I wish you weren’t the only major player. I guess all I can do now is start writing XUL plugins for Songbird, create BitTorrent friendly feeds for Democracy TV, and keep doing my shameless self promotions for Liberatr, Liberatr, Liberatr.net!
Thanks for… something, Uncle Steve.
Peace,
Ryan Price
iTunes User
Orlando, FL
