Apple Developing iNews Service Based On Podcasting
Feb 21st, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Audio Podcasting, Corporate Podcasts, Digital Video Downloads, General, Internet TV, iPods & Portable Media Players, Making Money with Podcasts, Podcasting Services, Video, Video PodcastsAn Apple patent reveals that the company is working on a podcast aggregator that would dynamically collect the news that you are interested in and deliver a personalized news podcast, according to a report at AppleInsider.
In other words – Apple wants to be your news and information station.
The system would allow you to:
- Subscribe to and personalize a podcast with software like iTunes;
- Select news segments selected from a variety of categories; and
- Automatically download the personalized podcast to your Apple TV, iPod or iPhone.
The custom news show could consist of a 5 minute segment from CNN on the day’s national news, a 5 minute segment from a local news station, and a 10 minute segment on sports highlights from ESPN.
In addition to offering mainstream content, the iNews service may let you integrate other podcast content:
“Upon selection of the custom button, a user can be assisted with another dialog screen to create a category of content, namely, media content, that is to be included within the custom podcast.
For example, the user may request to receive sports highlights from the weekend during the NFL season regarding specific teams or teams in the Eastern division. As another example, the user may desire to receive statistics regarding games played during the past week in the NFL.”
Once you select the playlist of content that you’re interested in, Apple’s servers would request the latest podcast content from content creators, stitch the segments together and then deliver the personalized podcast to iTunes or other podcast software. As part of this process, Apple could insert targeted advertising dynamically.
I wonder if they would be interested in serving up some weather information in that mix too *grin*
[…] I say this because Podcasting News brought to my attention a patent being profiled over at Apple Insider today on something called PodMaps. […]
This is pretty interesting – it’s a roll you own radio show. This would be fantastic when WiMax or the 700 Mhz ban is up and flying.
[…] I’ve written a few times about how impressed I am with the Apple TV and how they have effectively killed the subscription paradigm. Ever wondered what else they’re looking to kill? This little patent for custom Podcasts and general excitement from the industry could be means by which Podcasters who once screamed for the rights to own their feeds give up control for that "download is finally a watch" metric that eveyone who thinks the real strength of this tv/radio killer is the ability to insert ads just like radio/tv. Yes, this paragraph contains a lot of juice and wasn’t perfectly written but read it again. New media is dangerously close to giving up something they once held very dear. […]
[…] I say this because Podcasting News brought to my attention a patent being profiled over at Apple Insider today on something called PodMaps. […]