All that being said, the iPhone is not ideal, nor flawless. The PIM features are, in my opinion, incomplete. I am referring to the fact that you can’t enter new data into the Notes, Contacts or Calendar apps, except by syncing the device to a Mac running Stickies, iCal and Apple Address Book. I hope Apple starts to see the potential market this has with more PIM features. Maybe they were pressed for release, and cut the features out for now to add them later. We’ll have to wait and see on that.

Apple could also open the device for third party development. According to Apple, it’s just Mac OS X Tiger inside. Perhaps someone will figure out how to hack Safari to download Mac OS X apps on to it. Or at least let us install Dashboard widgets on the thing.

But this being an Apple product whose name begins with I and P, it is a great media player. Strong Bad Emails, Ask A Ninja, and Tiki Bar TV rule! They’re my favorite videoblogs. Evil Genius Chronicles, Coverville, Raven n Blues, and Bandana Blues, are among my favorite podcasts. Since the iPhone is essentially a phone with 8GB video iPod features, we’ll be able to access all our new media on it, with a better interface than anyone has ever produced. I predict Apple will bring the iPhone UI (without the phone features) to the rest of the iPod family within the year. They’ll be stupid not to. MultiTouch rocks!

Of course, the iPhone’s price has to come down for it to be really mainstream. I predict (you heard it here first, folks, LOL) that next year, the 8GB model will be the low end, and a higher capacity (16GB?) model will be the $600 high end.

In order for the iPhone to be really successful and mainstream, it should also be sold unlocked, free of carrier lock-in. Not everyone wants to be Cingular subscriber. The whole carrier lock-in thing is bone headed anyway. It surely has been demonstrated in Europe that expensive carrier-exclusive phones are not necessary to retain customers. And the practice isn’t that effective for that purpose either anyway. Carrier chickenshits, if you ain’t got good service, an expensive locked-in phone won’t help you keep any subscribers you’ve pissed off. They’ll just sell it on eBay and move on.

In conclusion, the iPhone is a great innovative cellphone/media player with some PIM functionality. The crux of its innovation rests on the MultiTouch touchscreen interface and wide screen media playback. It has a few flaws, namely the lack of smartphone PIM features and a closed development model. To really hit it big, it has to come down in price a bit, and be available at more than one carrier in the US. In any case, Apple has essentially raised the bar way up in the user interface front, making the competition look ancient in comparison.

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technology, gadgets, iphone, podcast, personal.media, videoblogs, mac.os.x

I checked his site, and everything is alright. He is still putting new blog content out, and the Thing A Week podcast had a new song and all. Hmm, maybe I’m supposed to signup to the weekly donation again? Maybe I’m making a big deal out of nothing?

PS – This was in my drafts folder for a few days. I just noticed and published it. But it’s now moot, Jonathan and Thing A Week are doing fine.

In other They Might Be Giants (TMBG) news, they are promoting a new DVD bundle of their Venue Songs. What is Venue Songs, you ask? On their site, they explain: “At each stop of their 2004 tour, TMBG wrote, arranged and performed a brand new song, dedicated to that evening’s venue. Hence the name, Venue Songs. Each song came together in one day, as a surprise for the audience.”

The Venue Songs DVD features original videos of the Venue Songs, and a weird story about a deranged millionaire that wants to lock up the Venue Songs forever. It makes for some silly watching, TMBG style!

TMBG are releasing the original Venue Songs videos, compressed for the web, on their website every week, one video for each “venue” in the album. There are also three bonus videos from the DVD on the site. They’re funny and goofy, just like the songs. I like them a lot!

The Venue Songs DVD also features a DVD-quality video of Homestarrunner’s “Experimental Film” Flash cartoon episode, for which TMBG wrote an original song. ( If you don’t know Homestarrunner, it’s the best Flash cartoon, ever! ) This video is not available on TMBG’s website, although you can see the original web-quality-sound Flash cartoon at the URL above.

Go check out They Might Be Giant’s podcast, and go check out Homestar Runner. They’re silly, zany, web-powered fun!

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personal media, podcast, they might be giants, homestar runner, web cartoon

But my tastes were not changing. I was simply choosing to only watch and listen to that which was within my tastes. I now see TV and radio channel surfing as wasting my time looking for mainstream media to put something on that I might like. Instead, I pick out podcasts and videoblogs with content I really care about, TiVo or download those TV shows I know I enjoy, and spend my time consuming that. And best of all, I don’t have to fast-forward through commercials.

This has resulted in my gaining several hours in my week, which were previously spent bored to death flipping channels. And by moving my pre-selected video watching to the weekend, my weeknights are now totally open. I now have more time for friends and family.

Every two to three months, I switch on the car radio to see if there’s anything new, but I find the exact same songs as two or three months ago! Even the radio commercials haven’t changed! Meanwhile, I get a dozen different artists’ songs in a single day from Indiefeed and Music 4 iPods, with no annoying, repetitive, boring, commercials. It’s not that the commercials on Indiefeed and Music 4 iPods are better. These podcasts have no commercials at all. Update: I am not against commercials in personal media, I’m just glad there are no commercials in these feeds right now. I am more of a believer in listener support, through donations, of the podcasts I really enjoy.

I am not the only one that is noticing this change in how we increasingly engage with media. Established radio and TV producers that have turned to podcasters and videobloggers themselves have noticed, that the people that watch and listen to their online productions “talk back” a lot more than mainstream media consumers used to.

Dave Raven, of BFBS Radio 2, has been in mainstream radio for many decades. He produces and hosts a one hour blues radio program that is broadcast weekly in the UK, Raven ‘n’ the Blues (RnB). He started podcasting RnB in late 2004. He has noticed that he has a more engaging audience in the podcast listeners, than in the millions he ostensibly reaches through the radio waves.

There already is a large number of podcasts and videoblogs out there, and the growth doesn’t seem to be abating. There is clearly a market for personal media. Personal media not only challenges, but improves on what the mainstream media offers. Personal media does this by either filling a niche that mainstream media choses not to fill (i.e. podcasts and videoblogs about hacking and open source software), or by doing a better job (as in the case of the indie music shows.)

As mainstream media continues to throw away their money on DRM and in lawsuits, trying to defend their business models, personal media will continue to grow and attract more people by being open. I find it hilarious, that in trying to defend their business, they are only marginalizing themselves in a world growing daily with more open media choices.

The smart producers and artists will jump ship and start producing and creating personal media before the mainstream media boat completely sinks. Those remaining will be the incompetent, lazy, and money grubbing. They will sink with the Titanic. Hopefully they’ll take with them more than a few corporate IP lawyers for good measure.

I say, good riddance.

Technorati Tags:
personal media, creative commons