I notice iTunes has extended customer reviews in the iTunes Music Store to podcasts in the last couple of weeks (although they didn’t seem to be working at first). This is something I mentioned was missing before.

Currently there is no way to see the the top-rated podcasts in one place, but it’s better than the “Today’s Top Podcasts” for getting an idea of what’s good and what’s not.

I know many podcasters think it would be better still to replace that chart with something that keeps track of subscriptions over time, and I agree. That is where stuff like Podcast Alley‘s voting system works better, requiring listeners to make their views known on a monthly basis in quick and easy fashion.

But anyway, it’s good to see this addition in iTunes.

Virgin Atlantic are to offer podcasts as part of the 21st anniversary celebrations of their inaugural flight to New York. They are also offering a branded podcatcher. The podcasts are guides to Virgin Altantic destinations, currently including New York, Cuba, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Las Vegas and Cape Town.

However, what they don’t seem to be doing, as far as I can make out, is offering podcasts on their flights. They already have this V.Port entertainment system, which lets you watch movies, TV shows, play games, listen to radio programmes and even whole music albums on demand, so podcasts would be an ideal extension to that.

Sure, their own podcasts help people plan for their trips, but offering these and other podcasts on their flights would raise awareness of their own podcasts, as well as podcasting in general, and would be cool. Podcasts are already time-shifted, so they’ll make more sense than traditional radio. It’s probably only a matter of time.

via Blogging from the Alley.

So what’s more significant – that “podcast” has been declared 2005 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, or that Ricky Gervais has started podcasting?

“Podcast” is certainly my word of the year, since it has kept me in food and cigarettes, but I still have to explain it to anyone foolish enough to ask.

However, for the wider world of podcasting, at least from a UK perspective, having Ricky Gervais podcasting is going to attract a lot more attention (with any luck, anyway). I’ve yet to listen to his show, so I’ll check it out later. I’ve heard mixed reports.

I look forward to the day when I don’t have to explain podcasting. But my mother understands it. Sort of.

Anyone who runs a recent Omni Group application will know (because they make it very clear) that their software update process sends some information along when it checks for new versions. For transparency’s sake you can see what is sent, etc, so there is no personal information and nothing evil going on. If there were, users of Little Snitch could soon blow the whistle.

Anyway, Omni make this information visible on their site at http://update.omnigroup.com/ and as a developer this is not only interesting but very useful. It seems most people are using Tiger, with only around 10% on Panther (Mac OS X 10.3.x) and under 1% on Jaguar (10.2.x). It also shows things like CPU type and speed, number of processors, installed memory, etc.

Of course this is limited to people who use Omni Group’s software at a version that reports this information, all of which only runs on Mac OS X, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were roughly representative of Mac OS X’s user base as a whole. As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to continue to support Panther and later with my apps until their next major versions (i.e. 2.0), both of which are a while off, unless something technical means I can’t do that.

Both KIT and Feeder get mentioned by Allison Sheridan on Show 18 of NosillaCast. Allison also talks about Feeder’s 1.2.5 update on Show 19.

Feeder often gets podcast exposure, but I think this is KIT’s first mention on a podcast and that’s really cool. 😀

I *almost* met Allison at Podcast Expo, she emailed me just as I was leaving the hotel for the Bay Area. I should probably make a list of the people I meant to meet at the Expo to try again next year (well, if I go again next year – hope so!), it would be quite long. Anyway, Allison does an interesting tech podcast and is great to listen to. Thanks Allison!