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Typical Mac User Podcast & Talkshoe
Last night I was on the Typical Mac User Podcast with Victor Cajiao, and it was great to be able to have a chat about some of the apps we love, and our predictions for this year’s Macworld. I’m hoping for a ultraportable laptop, and Victor has a crazy prediction that has to do with AppleTV (you’ll need to listen to get the full scoop!).
But the best part about the show was taking live calls from listeners via Talkshoe. This was my first time using their interface, and I think they’re definitely on the right track. It reminds me a lot of Stickam and Ustream, except without all the pesky video. Yes, sometimes it’s nice to not have to deal with video, it’s true. Users interact with the host over chat, phone, VoIP or not at all (just listening). The host can queue up questions and bring them into the discussion at will.
The chat interface could use a little improvement, but I heard from someone over Twitter that they’re planning on implementing an IRC-based chat interface sometime in the future. Despite that (and it’s a small issue — I got used to it after a couple of minutes) I really enjoyed the experience. I didn’t even mind downloading their small app, which usually drives me crazy.
I love that there are new services enabling podcasters to really engage with their audience. My favorite part of podcasting is interacting with users, whether it be via forums, emails, social networks, etc. Now we have to figure out how to do a live Mahalo Daily, and we’ll be all set!
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The ‘Keith and The Girl’ podcast tried them out for a while and liked a lot of it, but eventually dropped them for a few reasons. One of them being that they just couldn’t get the sound quality of the calls to be acceptable.
This is probably something which wouldn’t bother most podcasts and will eventually be fixed if it hasn’t been alreadt. -
I’ll tell you why you don’t want to do a live Mahalo Daily. Because it’ll suck.
The beauty of Mahalo Daily is its high production values, the fact you don’t have a studio, and the fact you never know if it’ll be a bizarre Dopplr faux-ad, a guest, or a wander around a fair.
Making it live will lose all of that; and make it predictable and possibly dull. Cranky Geeks is a good example of a “you know what you’ll get” type podcast; yours isn’t. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Cranky Geeks, it’s just not Mahalo Daily). So. There. Stop thinking about it.
Could you do a Mahalo Daily on how the hell the trams work in San Francisco? I understand the clampy-on-the-wire thing, but that doesn’t explain how it slows down and speeds up: surely it would just jerk off at the speed of the wire.
(You could also do one on how the London Underground works. But that would involve coming over here. And apparently it’s expensive.)
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I overcame the whole sound quality deal as I don’t use them for the sound at all. As you will hear when you listen to the show, I record locally and then upload to them. It takes care of the sound issues for me. Yes the callers still sound like “telephone” quality, because they are , however Veronica and I were on Skype and the sound is ok by my ears.
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Apple Cinema with TV sounds a little unrealistic. I hope Apple will come out with some type of media server, an adaptation of Apple Tv or a whole new product line. My wife and I have two Macbook Pros and way to much media to store locally. By not storing locally we are constantly dragging over watched television shows and movies to the network drive. It’s also an inconvenience when she purchases something or rips it that I then have to transfer it to my pc or vice versa. I want a product that stores all media on some-type of network device and then treats our notebook the same way our notebook treats my iPod when it gets plugged in. My MBC would then be able to sync with the network drive; I can create playlists and smart folders as well as stream the music, not currently on my MBC but on the network drive, over the local network when I am connected. With Apple’s push to have all our media digital it doesn’t make since that they don’t have some type of solution
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Well Veronica Apple Matters now reports…
“Meanwhile, the Apple TV is expected to see changes in 2008 that “could include an LCD display”. Other notes include scarce information about the long rumored sub-notebook from Apple with the possibility it may be delayed due to design issues.”
Could I be crazy like a fox . We will see.
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For a hobbiest system, TalkShoe does have the technology angle down. They have problems on a twitter-esque scale staying up and online sometimes, and their promise of sponsorship usually remains unfulfilled.
Other than that, they do have a decent community. I enjoyed most of the time I spent when I was an avid user of their system.