This is the fourth in a series of posts exploring the new functionality in Feeder 1.3.

Publishing Improvements

Feeder is now much more flexible about where and how you upload your feed, images and enclosure files.

• Feeder can upload different kinds of files to different servers when publishing your feed. To set default servers for different kinds of files, select the feed in the sidebar and choose File > Publish Settings from the menu and choose the servers to use for different kinds of files.
• All kinds of servers can now be created and edited in the Servers window. To see this choose View > Servers from the menu.
• Each server can have its own default locations for different kinds of files. These can be set in the File Locations tab of the Servers window.
• Default servers and locations can also be overridden on an individual basis for files such as enclosures and images. For enclosure files, click the Edit button next to the enclosure file’s name. For images, click on the artwork view and choose Upload Settings from the menu.
• After publishing your feed, Feeder can ping services such as iTunes, Yahoo and FeedBurner to notify them of changes to your feed. These can be set on a per-feed basis in the Ping Services section of the Settings tab in the Info drawer.
• You can create, remove and edit ping servers in Feeder’s Ping preferences panel. Choose Feeder > Preferences from the menu and click Ping.

Have you ever wanted to put a gallery of photos on your site for people to see? InstantGallery, a new app from ThinkMac Software, makes it easy – just drag and drop images and in an instant you have a gallery to publish on the web.

What’s more, InstantGallery can generate photocast feeds, comes bundled with a collection of elegant themes and has all sorts of other thoughtful touches.

I’ve been lucky enough to play around with InstantGallery prior to its release and think it’s a really cool little app just dripping in potential. And at only $15, it’s a bargain too.

Check out the screenshots, sample galleries and demo movie on the InstantGallery page and good luck to Rory with this new application!

Update: Don’t just take my word for it, check out this great review at Tera and Bambi’s Mac360!

This is the third in a series of posts exploring the new features in Feeder 1.3.

Media File Tagging

Feeder can tag audio and video files with values from your feed to match what iTunes does when it downloads podcast episodes. This ensures that everyone who receives your podcast, whether using iTunes or another application, has a consistent experience.

Feeder will also set the artwork on your media files using your feed’s artwork as a default.

The tagging changes happen automatically when you save an item in your feed that has a compatible enclosure file set to be uploaded. Feeder can tag files in MP3, M4A, M4V, MP4 and QuickTime movie formats.

• To have Feeder tag and upload a media file (or any kind of file), drag the file to the expanded Enclosure part of the item’s edit window.
• To fetch the appropriate tags from in a media file, click on the artwork box, a menu will be shown and choose Fetch Tags from File.
• You can also create new items with enclosures in your feed by dragging files onto the feed in the sidebar or to the list of items. If the file already contains tags, Feeder will pre-populate the item with with those tags.
• If you don’t want Feeder to automatically tag media files, you can switch this off in the preferences panel. Choose Preferences from the Feeder menu and click Podcast, then uncheck “Automatically Update Media File Tags”.

I have resisted posting something about Boot Camp because what can I write that hasn’t already been written?

I’ve been Windows-clean now for almost 3 years, apart from the PC you use to find stuff in Borders bookstore and those temperamental touchscreen kiosks with messages saying “The file C:\whatever\something32.dll cannot be found”.

I’m more interested in Parallels because it keeps Windows in its own window and goes along with what I wrote when the whole Intel transition was announced in the first place (last but one paragraph).

There are lots of debates going on about whether Boot Camp is a good or bad thing, but let’s face it, it was inevitable that we should have Windows running on Macs after the transition to Intel, whether or not that was endorsed by Apple.

I see it as being very good for Apple’s market share just because it will make the transition a lot less daunting for some people and that must be good for all of us.

Technorati Tags:
boot camp, parallels, mactel, apple

This is the second in a series of posts exploring the new features in Feeder 1.3.

Image Uploading

Feeder can upload an image for your feed, artwork for your podcast’s listing in the iTunes Music Store and shows a preview of these in the Info drawer.

• To have Feeder upload an image when the feed is published, drag an image file to the appropriate artwork view.
• Clicking on the artwork brings up a menu with a number of options. These vary slightly between the RSS and iTunes artwork views.
• There are restrictions on the maximum size and file format for both standard RSS and iTunes images. If the image is not the correct size or format, Feeder will create a resized version in JPEG format to upload when the feed is published.
  • The maximum size for an RSS image is fixed at 144 pixels wide by 400 pixels high.
  • The maximum size for iTunes images is 300 pixels square by default, but can be between 170 and 300 pixels to be valid. This can be set in Feeder’s Podcast preferences.
• For iTunes artwork, you can choose whether Feeder should crop the images to a square size or scale the image to fit. To do this, click on the iTunes artwork view and choose either Crop to Fit or Scale to Fit from the menu. Apple recommends using square images.
• If you already have an appropriate image on your web server, Feeder can use that too. Just click on the artwork view, choose Open from URL from the menu and enter the URL of the image.
• If you need the URL of an already published image for use in a podcast directory or web page, you can get this at any time by clicking on the artwork view and choosing Copy Image URL from the menu.
• Finally, you can customize where Feeder uploads the image and the name of the file on the server by clicking on the artwork view and choosing Upload Settings from the menu.