I have really started to like the Apple Matters series, “This Day in Apple History.”  So many of them crack me up only because I remember most of them.  I honestly haven’t always been as plugged into the Apple news thing, but I was always aware of it – somehow.  I mean, for the most part I knew when big things happened; we did have MacWorld and MacUser to keep us up to date.  Funny thing is that before the web, it was hard getting the info in the moment.  Once a month I would get my dose … and read that thing over and over again.  Come to think of it, maybe the web has driven more of a change in things then I give it credit for 😉 … at any rate, I remember when Apple picked up Next very well.

When it happened, the web was around, but I was still getting MacWeek down at Cogence Media outside of Philly.  The real rumors of the day included Be and was I psyched when I finally talked my boss into letting me have a Mac clone — can you say PowerComputing 210?  It came with a build of Be that you could actually run.  That was cool … I thought I was looking at my future platform.  Then Apple turned around and bought Next.  Blew my mind … but man, Next was cool.  Remember those black cubes from back in the day.  Oh and by the way, that’s why Apple built the new cube … just because they had a guy with some experience in that space.

At any rate, here’s to surprises and solid choices.  Buying Steve Jobs, err Next, was the best move the fruit company had made in a long time.

Now that I have spent a couple of weeks producing podcasts for my IST 110 class this semester I am realizing this isn’t as easy as it should be. Don’t get me wrong, the podcasting studio in GarageBand has been a quantum leap forward, but at the end of the day it still feels a hell of a lot more like a pro application than a consumer one. When I look at the podcast value chain (excuse my use of that term here), I see Apple really wanting to own the whole thing — inbound right through outbound. In my mind there are three pieces to the podcasting chain:

1. Creation – the art of putting one of these things together … even though GarageBand is easy, it is still hard for normal people. Try asking a typical teacher/faculty member to get all that gear ready, hook up a mic, handle the post production, and everything in between … just not going happen. Maybe a couple of the steps, but not all of them.
2. Storage and Indexing – The ability to move the raw podcast to a server to be served to the masses. This means not only getting it up to a space, but also making sure all the meta data is accurate and that it has some sort of searchable context associated with it. It is one of the reasons why I love using the blog as a vehicle for this. Each post can act as the holder of the podcast episode (if its a class, talk, whatever). iTunes U does this.
3. Delivery – Once you’ve gotten through the whole creation, storage, and indexing you can now deliver these things via some sort of RSS enclosure. Again, the blog works perfectly for this as the RSS gets written for you and your audience can easily get these things using any pod catching software … again iTunes U or even just iTunes does this well.

So in my world, the last two are actually a hell of a lot easier to overcome than the first. Sort of strange that what appears to be the most technically challenging aspects of this are handled either by really easy to use open source tools (blogs) or by Apple’s new iTunes U service. Now, back to creation …

When I do a podcast for class, I record as I present in GarageBand … easy enough, but I do a ton of editing after the fact … by a ton I mean it is taking me at least 1.5 times as long to edit as it did for me to record it. I take my Keynote slides and export them to the desktop, import them into iPhoto, pull them onto the GarageBand timeline, do my mix down, share it to iTunes, upload the file, write the blog post, and link it all up … the software handles the feed for me.

It sort of dawned on me today that Apple might be missing the boat with one of its killer apps — Keynote. If Keynote had the podcast studio in it I would be done the second class ended … It would be amazing if, since my presentation is built around a set of slides, Keynote itself managed the recording and syncing of all that stuff. I could walk in, put on my mic, click a “Play and Record Keynote” button in the app itself, do my presentation, and when finished, just click publish. In our classrooms, there isn’t any time after the class to mess with stuff at the podium … the next class is on its way in and the next professor is anxiously waiting to log into the machine … if you make it all happen with a click to start and a click to publish it is a no-brainer. Value chain complete.

Anyone out there want to comment on that? Am I missing something or are we missing one of the biggest pieces to this whole podcasting from the podium revolution? I know here at Penn State we are struggling most with how to capture that event … not the publishing and sharing part … just the first step. Damn, and they just revved Keynote … maybe in iWork ’07?

Update: Could ProfCast be the answer?  We shall see this weekend.

So, after my crying and bullshit I did end up “getting” a copy of iLife 06.  I still think the Apple Store should honor educational discounts, but at the end of the day, Apple did come through.  I just saw some amazing things with the new podcasting capabilities in GarageBand … it is going to be a good solution.  The whole iChat integration is sick … get on iChat with a couple people and watch what happens … all I can say is that it is flat out cool.  Alright, more later … I’ll put it all through the paces tomorrow on the plane, but all in all it is a major upgrade — even if its just the GarageBand podcasting stuff you are looking at.  The other apps are also very nicely done.  Sorry for the bark earlier!

I went over to the Apple Store here in San Fran today to grab a copy of iLife 06. That store is so nice … the glass stairs, the endless amount of time you can chill at the machines, and the theatre are all just so sweet. They had like a trillion copies of iLife 06 so I grabbed one along with an educational game for my little girl. I must have spent an hour deciding on buying some other stuff I really didn’t need and then finally headed over to the counter to get my software. I asked the lady behind the counter if I could use my faculty/staff PSU ID to get my education discount and she said, “sure!” So she went through the whole thing and then proceeded to tell me that they do not offer educational discounts on software in the store. What a kick in ass.

I know there will be one back in State College for me either as a departmental purchase or as a freebie from the Apple Distinguished Educator program, but I have an eight hour day tomorrow moving between airplanes, gates, and airports that would have given me a really nice chance to discover the new features.

Speaking of features, I did get to try the new podcasting studio in GarageBand down on the MacWorld show floor and it seems very capable. It is a little overkill for the typical facculty member to use to capture their lectures in the front of a class, but for those who want to do a “real” podcast it looks like there is finally a solution that just works. I just wish I could’ve posted a podcast review of my new software today using my new software. Again, what a kick in the ass. BTW, I didn’t buy anything at the store … I just said no thanks and walked out.