6 posts tagged “podcasts”

PC Magazine has been a solid source of information since 1985, a good four years before I was even born. I've been a subscription holder for PC "Mag" for about 4 months, and a casual newsstand buyer for about a year before that. I'm noticing a startling trend.

In the February 13th issue, columnist Michael Miller announced that that issue's column would be his last, but he would still hold a 'columnist's blog' on the PC Mag site? The issue I got today, PC Mag's former editor-in-chief, Bill Machrone announced in his column that he also, was stepping now. However, he wasn't going to be given a blog and a link to it from the PC Mag columnist page, instead, all we know is that all his back-columns are going to be archived on PC Mag.com.

In Machrone's final column, he mentions the growing upset between internet tech media and print media. He's not alone. Ziff Davis, PC Mag's parent company, is attempting to sell the Game Group, which consists of two gaming magazines (Electronic Gaming Monthy and Games for Windows) and a "mega" website 1UP.com.

According to another blogger, 1UP.com is the crown jewel of the game group, with several hundred game-junkie teenagers who go there every day, and worship their editors with an almost cult-like following (which is only helped by 1UP's collection of weekly podcast and video podcasts, which, if intentional or not, promote the game journalists has hip, trendy, superstars).

However, the two print magazines, according to the blogger, are what is holding up MTV or a TelCo from grabbing up this lucrative "MySpace-meets-Gamespot" website. With PC Mag cutting down on its time-honored columnists, and ZD's game group being held down by two print magazines, is print media dead?

Don't forget, a few months ago I got all hot and bothered over 1UP's sale of the Official Playstation Magazine. It now appears, that ZD may have canceled that magazine to make the sale more lucrative to a potential buyer.

Is print media dead? Well, I don't think so. I enjoy reading magazines, and I currently get Ziff-Davis' Electronic Gaming Monthy and Future Publishing's PC Gamer, in addition to ZD's PC Mag. However, I appear to be in a majority.

Technology and gaming magazines are in a hard spot, because their target audience, is, quiet frankly, almost all high-end technology power users who spend most of their time on the internet. Why wait a month for a magazine to have old news when blogs, podcasts, and AJAX-powered headline RSS feeds can give you up to the minute information?

A few months back on an "EGM Live" podcast (on the 1UP Radio Network, a lovely name), Electronic Gaming Month's Dan "Shoe" Hsu said that he wanted to make his magazine's content more high-end. Maybe they'll have an exclusive interview with a rare Japanese video game developer, or have a special early review that even beats the internet.

However, Hsu was very honest, and admitted that the general stuff, like gaming news and most reviews, will be beat to consumers by the internet.

Hsu's not the only one that recognizes the advent of the internet age. PC Mag has almost ALL of its material that is in the magazine on its website, PCMag.com, even the highly-ancipated John C. Dvorak columns. And unlike the New York Times, the articles are printed in the whole, without the need to enter a subscription number, or register for their online service.

The only problem with PC Mag's strategy, is that, the information doesn't come up until the issue is published. So, its still a month-hold. The only thing worse than a magazine with old info, is a website with old info. Compared to CNET.com, PCMag.com might has well be from the stone ages.

I, personally, hope, this isn't the end of print media. No 24" LCD monitor or tablet PC can replicate the feel of that paper in your fingers. However, I think the battle is over. I am the only one of my gamer/tech junkie friends who pays for a tech or gaming magazine. The others wait for the info to hit the net.

In the case of exclusive interviews, my friends replied, "I'll just get the .pdf through BitTorrent."

Today was my first day back to school in 11 days (holiday break), and my eyes were really opened to two new tech revolutions. For the sake of entertainment, I've written them in skit-script style formatting. Both stories are true.

Morning Annoucement Lady: Mr. Hart is planning a school podcast to keep South students informed on activites and fun things to do in the school. If you would like to help in the podcast, please contact Mr. Hart at hart@school.edu.

Kid 1: Whats a podcast?

Me: Ah! The school finally has a podcast-...

Kid 2: Podwhat?

Girl: Pod...cast?

Teacher: Its some internet thing. I've seen it before in Newsweek.

Me: Ah, yes! Podcasts! Well, they're like internet radio. They're neat.

Girl: Podcast? Those dumb things in iTunes?

Kid 1: Whats a podcast?

Me: (sigh)

So, I guess podcasting isn't has mainstream has I hoped or thought. Has for helping with my school's podcast, I'm not really interested, even though it might be fun and provide good experience, plus I can play Leo and edit it up with some jazzy music. I'll have to give it thought.

The next one took place later. My friend Adam, carries around a CD player, and has always admired my iPod.

Adam: Hey Kev, guess what I got for Christmas.

Me: What? An iPod? Congrats man!

Adam: No, I got something better. Its called a Zune!

Me: Oh god, Adam, Zunes are....

Adam: No, its sweet. Its got 30 gigs, it has a big screen, and can play video.

Me: Yeah, but its ugly and big and-...

Adam: My brother has one too. We can trade songs!

Me: But, yeah, the DRM-...

Adam: They've even got this music store. I might buy some music instead of getting CD's.

I was very critical of the Zune when it came out, but now, I've changed my opinion. My friend Adam, who has never owned a MP3 player, buys CD's and rips them to MP3, and doesn't use iTunes, loves his Zune. Its fantastic for him. I think, in my power user mentality, I've written off the Zune. For me, getting a Zune would be horrible. I couldn't stand the DRM, I wouldn't use the URGE music store. However, my friend Adam, he loves it, and he talks about it the same way I talked about my iPod when I first got it.

This brings up a story, my Dad knows a commerical airline pilot. One time, at a football party, he complained and complained about flying an Airbus A320. He didn't like it, said the Airbus "handled like sh*t". But to us passengers, the Airbus A320 is no different from a Boeing 747. This must be what my friend Adam is experiancing. He loves his Zune, and can't tell the difference between the Zune and the iPod, but, his nerdy friend Kevin is going on and on about terms he doesn't know, like DRM, podcasting support, and other things.

To pilots and computer power users, the Airbus A320 and Zune are flawed. To passengers and my friend adam, they're just fine.

Short interlude from my opinions on tech...

It just snowed 10" here, and they've canceled the school day. My poor mom still has to go to work. For me, a day of laying around, playing my Xbox and listening to podcasts. Not a bad day at all.

In a much sadder and serious note, CNET (formerly of TechTV) personality James Kim and his family are missing after a trip to Oregon. They had some real nasty weather there this week, so hopefully his family and him are in a hotel somewhere, and his cell phone is drained and he forgot his charger or something. Real sad story. Here's the CNET link. CNET editor James Kim, family missing

Today, Leo Laporte, head of the TWIT Podcast... Netcast Network, (I personally, hate the word netcast, and I'll blog it in an upcoming entry, but I'll try to keep it on topic today), teased that This Week In Tech, the flagship of his TWIT network, and my favorite audio podcast, may be coming to an end. Here's what Leo said, to put it in context.

I'll decide what happens to TWiT, the show, when I come back, but at this point it looks like it's on life support and the heart monitor is flatlining.

Well, I agree with Leo that it doesn't look good, but I'm basing my comment on his comment. It appears that he is saying that because a lack of getting people on twit to talk.

This breaks my heart, I think twit is an amazing podcast, the best I've ever heard. It has just enough everything, and comes out to a great podcast. If I graded TWIT on the same scale I reviewed Windows Weekly on, then it would get a 10/10. Its just that damn good.

But, I can understand Leo's position, but I think he needs to reform TWIT. I love the current format, with Leo, Dvorak, Patrick Norton (or Wil Harris, my new favorite), and maybe Prager, Heron or somebody else thrown in for good mix, but I understand that the current format won't work for Leo, and probably not with the audience forever.

It seems, early in podcasting, many were simply people getting together around a mic (this is pre-Skype, mind you.) and blab on about a subject. Leo's other twit podcasts started (or maybe it all came about at the same time) a trend in podcasting where it became more like a radio show, a host and an expert, discussing a list of pre-planned topics, for a set peroid of time. The only one thats done it successful this far is Diggnation, and thats because the 17-year old open source Linux geeks love watching a drunk Kevin Rose almost spill beer all over his MacBook and talk about how he slept with an underage girl once (but mind you, the older podcast fans will not put up with it forever.)

So, I present, what I think twit will have to be to evolve. On Sundays, Leo gets one guest on the old Skype-a-phone and they discuss a list of the top stories of the week. Preferably a current twit-star. It would basically be Windows Weekly, or Inside the Net, except with a rotating guest, and I'd say only about 30 minutes.

Honestly, my suggested format isn't a path to success, and when I wrote it down just now it didn't seem to be perfect. If I was Leo, that is what I would do, however.

I just don't want twit to end, and I hope Leo finds a way to keep it in business. Only time will tell. Indeed

TheKevin's Note: This blog entry was orginally written for my Blogger blog on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006. Enjoy.

How true. Those words, spoken by Cory Doctorow, ring very true for me. Doctorow is a science-fiction writer and tech world journalist (and a socialist.... *gag*), and he was a guest on this week's edition of "This Week in Tech".

There has been a computer in my house since I was five years old (since I was born if you count my dad's Commodore 64 in the basement). I've always feel completely comfortable with a computer, and like Doctorow, I could type on a QWERTY keyboard before I could write curvisve.

Doctorow went on to say that he finds writing with pen and paper "painful". Well, I wouldn't say that writting with a pen (or more often, pencil) "painful" I do find it... unconfortable, maybe even difficult, but not painful, not yet anyway. I do find writting a list or something on paper unconvenent ("What do you mean I can't copy and paste?")

This makes me ponder... in the far, far future, will standard writing be replaced by everybody typing? Computers and becoming more and more common in schools, will writing be replaced forever? Just some things to ponder.

Until next time, I'm out.

Post-script: and the funny thing is, you can tell I dependent on word processors. Look at all thoes spelling mistakes. ;) Until next time...

Alright, I just listened to the second episode of Windows Weekly. Windows Weekly (or WW), is the latest podcast in Leo Laporte's "twit.tv" network, with a focus on Windows.

Alright, the first 'webisode' of WW was... um... uncomfortable. I don't know what it was, but just simply... odd. I've been reading Paul Thurrott's Windows Supersite for about five months, and so when he teamed up with one of my favorite podcasters netcasters, Leo Laporte, I was pretty excited. The 'atmosphere' between Leo and Paul was... odd, and sometimes the conversations got... cold. The two didn't seem to 'click' and I was pretty disappointed, it looks like WW might be a flop.

Well, the next week, Thurrott made an appearance on TWIT, and he was pretty good. I'm a bit of a TWIT traditionalist, I only like when its regulars on the 'cast (Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Robert Heron, Prager, etc. etc. etc.) but with Thurrott, he already felt like a regular, and the 'cast was a good listen.

This past weekend, Leo had a problem with his servers or something, so I didn't get webisode #2 of WW until this morning, so I popped it onto my iPod and listened to it on my walk home from school. First thing I noticed (and loved) is the Windows login and logoff sounds bookmarking the 'cast. Brilliant, just brilliant touch. I couldn't help but smile when I heard the sounds. Most positively a Laporte-like touch.

The actual 'meat' of the podcast was much better. Laporte and Thurrott clicked unlike the first episode. The topics were interesting, and the banter between them was enjoyable has well.

So, I'm going to give the Windows Weekly podcast 8 stars out of 10 stars.  I'm assuming the first episode's faults were simply just growing pains, it was the "pilot" of sorts. So, looks like another great podcast netcast from Leo and more great Windows info from Paul.

One more thing I'd like to touch one, more and more often, people are complaining about certain twit podcasts, calming that even though their taglines say "with Steve Gibson/Amber MacArthur/Paul Thurrott" that they are becoming more and more of Leo's podcast. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, and I don't think its necessarily true. Its a bit overblown, and I think Leo kind of like the Ed McMahon to Amber MacArthur's Johnny Carson... ok, maybe thats not the best example, but Leo just brings up topics and "drives the boat" while the respective "expert" discusses the topic with Leo. So, thats all I have to say on that.

The really really last thing, I just want to say that Leo is trementous netcaster/broadcaster. I'm listening to MacBreak Weekly right now, and he can switch between a Windows guy and a Mac guy flawlessly. Now, I think from listening to his little bits on twit that he is probably a Mac guy in his personal life, but on Windows Weekly, he didn't sound like a Mac guy playing a Windows guy, or a general computer guy playing a Windows guy. It probably is harder than that may seem.

OK, now I'm done.

External Links: Windows Weekly Homepage