Historical blog post resurfaces

• In January 2001, Adam Curry wrote a blog post discussing how an always-on connection could download entertainment to “have the show ready for me when I am”. It was the blog post that turned into a meeting with Dave Winer, which turned into podcasting; but it’s been lost for years: until now. Read ”The Last Yard” - the blog post that started it all.

  • Hear the early days of podcasting in a special documentary, just added to Podnews Extra.

• Disctopia and Alby have added integration with “value 4 value” payments. The tool enables a pay-what-you-want system to allow people to reward the podcasters they listen to.

• Transistor can now automatically add chapter timestamps into episode notes.

• Plink is running a 50% discount for their pro plan for smart podcast links. The special pricing ends tomorrow.

• In Dubai, UAE, the second annual Podfest took place at the Dubai Press Club. The club has launched an Arab Podcasters program to grow podcasters in the region. This news release covers what was said; including the mention of Podcasting 2.0.

• The Jerusalem Post covers English-language podcasters from Israel.

Tips and tricks

• The death of Twitter: what does it mean for podcasters?

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Fun fact: ART19's RSS feed for The Tim Ferriss Show is 22.4 MB. It contains 640 shows.

• A new release of podping cloud, the hosted front-end to the Podping notification system, is being tested.

Last week, Samsung Free's new auto-play feature, which kicks in as soon as a user hits the “Listen” tab in the app (here’s a quick screen capture), meant significant extra traffic for podcasts.

The audio useragent contains not just Dalvik/2.1.0 but also, later in the string, SM-**** Build/ (an identifier of the Samsung Mobile model being used). Dalvik is standard code used within Android - much like AppleCoreMedia has been for Apple.

Some podcast hosting companies have blocked the “Dalvik” useragent entirely. However, blocking Dalvik - even with the Samsung model numbers - will also block, among other things, Google News’s audio player, which uses an identical audio useragent. At least one app powered by Podcast Index also uses this generic Dalvik useragent along with PodcastAddict, and Indian podcast app Gaana also retains Dalvik in its useragent.

As we covered on Friday, these downloads are coming from RSS feeds scraped using feedparser/6.0.8; for our own data, we’re not seeing this scraper used for anything else. Marking the audio download with a code for the RSS useragent, as we do, could allow more accurate filtering of this traffic.

Podcast News - with CBC Podcasts

From CBC Podcasts #2 is: Uncover. Our award-winning true crime umbrella brings you deep into a new investigation each season, with a host deeply connected. Get exclusive access to the heart of the story.

Wanted to hear the first steps of podcasting? Podnews Extra has a short documentary showing how podcasting got started and who gave podcasting its name.

The Confidence Chronicles has been named Podcast Of The Year at the Roar Success Awards in Brisbane QLD, Australia. This is the second award it has won in the last two months, as it was also named Podcast Of The Year at the AusMumpreneur Awards.

Tortoise Media and Podimo have launched a multi-show partnership. Their first show, a weekly, is called The News Meeting.

Finding Beautiful Strangers may be an example of 'the third thing’ that Tom Webster wrote about recently; not entirely a podcast, but not entirely an audiobook; not entirely a 12-part story, but not entirely a set of individual stories either. Abby Wallach shares her inspirations and her journey as a serial entrepreneur, with experiences, listener tips and insights. It was produced by Marc Raco.

You’re watching the news on TV, when all of a sudden the picture wobbles and a strange alien voice, calling himself Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command, starts giving orders to live in peace or leave the galaxy. That happened 45 years ago this week in the South of England. The Interruption looks at the mysterious voice, and what it could have been. It’s new today from Stak.