Podcasting

Tabletblog recently reported about an episode of TWiT which featured Dave Winer which not surprisingly had gone off course over RSS, iTunes and podcasting.

In it, Dave Winer expressed frustration about the lack of a proper podcast device — that while iPods are well known as podcast players, they weren’t the perfect device. For example, such a device would be wireless and download episodes even when away from the desktop.

Tabletblog naturally responded with “Did that TWiT ever hear of Nokia Internet Tablets?”, and other users chimed in to agree.

However, Dave Winer is talking about having a device that is formulated around the experience of podcasting. It’s a platform design challenge that most people aren’t interested in facing because podcasting isn’t that technically complicated on its surface.

He’s not just thinking about the iPods, he’s thinking more about specialty devices like the Kindle, where the platform itself is optimized for how people read, bookmark, annotate and reference books. There are hardware features implemented (like the e-paper screen) to aid users with those tasks, and there are business partnerships (such as Sprint’s EVDO) designed to help connect users to content faster, but the very design of the interface, both input systems (e.g., the Kindle’s scroll wheel) and underlying software, speaks to the device’s primary purpose.

The Kindle also plays audio files and browses the web. These features are downplayed for a reason. Mostly, it is because the Kindle does not welcome you with a general purpose desktop of files and applications, it leads you immediately into consuming existing book content or new book content, and then subsequently lets you explore other supported content types.

So “just installing an application” — like Video Center or the S60 Podcasting app — doesn’t get us to critical mass. It’s when those apps are installed by default, and promoted in the operating system appropriately, and work with other devices or applications intelligently that we being to make real progress. The real irony is that many users install Video Center to download audio podcasts. “Podcast” isn’t even in the application’s name. Not very intuitive, is it?

When Daniel puts his analysis to the post, he says this:

I think they want a device with an open SDK, expandable storage, flexible Internet connectivity options, a microphone and speakers, Voice over IP support (preferably with recording,) and perhaps even a webcam.

A nice list of hardware, but nothing that isn’t already in many devices today. What’s missing is that coherent use of those features together, that is evident in those devices’ design. Podcasting is a process, it is not a single technology: an RSS file syndicates, an aggregator auto-downloads, etc. When looked at this way, podcasting is usually delegated to sub-features of applications. That built-in RSS reader could support auto-downloading of attachments, for example.

However, the experience of consuming podcasts does not equal “auto-downloading of attachments in an RSS file.” It is much more conversational, TiVo-like and, dare I say, magical.

One could have the same argument about about the perfect mobile gaming platform — knowing the successes of cellphone gaming and the various 3D-accelerated models of phones out there — but the leaders in development and user mind-share continues to be the Nintendo DS and the PSP, products that have made design decisions and trade-offs in order to better support their primary purpose.

What would a perfect podcast device do?:

• Download & stream podcasts over the air
• Allow full management of subscriptions on the device
• Allow advanced discovery (by popularity, by editors, etc.) on the device
• Provide a desktop client for subscription and file management
• Synchronize between desktop and device, wirelessly even
• Recommendations based on activity or other users as an option
• Support both cellular and wi-fi data connections in the device
• Have dedicated media player controls
• Large screen for video playback
• Support feedback mechanisms (comments, etc.) to the show itself
• Run third-party apps that extend the subscription and playback experience (such as a Last.fm-style service)
• Maybe even be a podcast producing device as well

All these elements would need to be the device’s primary experience, not something buried within a phone or handheld computer.

The value in today’s devices is no longer what they are capable of — our culture is at the point where we know almost everything can be done with them, given the right horsepower, or the right hackers — but how immediately the technology lets you do things.

Or to put it hypothetically, in a world where every gadget plays MP3s, why do people still buy dedicated MP3 players?