podcast

The podcast feed generated by my Drupal audio_playlist module made it through the iTunes Music Store gauntlet. This is the link to my podcast (audio only) in iTunes. I was unsuccessful in submitting a feedburner feed and the main site feed generated by the site. While either feed will work just fine within the iTunes podcast aggregator (at Advanced / Subscribe to Podcast on the iTunes toolbar), they were not "accepted" as a podcast "submission" within the Music Store. It appears iTunes is much "fussier" about the feed when you submit it through the Music Store. Now, I just have to improve my podcasting skills! (Update: I just received a late e-mail response from iTunes that the main site feed was accepted - just delayed, I guess. This is the link to my podcast (all audio, video and .pdf content) in iTunes.)

• US News.com Graduate School Reviews
• AECT: Curricula Data of Degree Programs in Educational Communications and Technology
• GSU: Instructional Technology Research Online - Collection of information on the field (from late '90s), including "Acedemic Departments in IT" roundup

Playing around with iTunes podcasts today, I noticed that iTunes recognizes .pdf file enclosures in podcasts and allows you to add .pdf files to your iTunes Library. I guess this may be old news to some, but it was news to me. Cool idea for distributing class bulletins and notes, turning in assignments, responding to peer reviews, etc. I attached a .pdf file here just to test it out and I was able to download the .pdf file from within iTunes podcasts and then go back to it in the iTunes library for later viewing. I also double checked it on the Apple site and here is a list of iTunes supported file formats: .m4a, .mp3, .mov, .mp4, .m4v, and .pdf.

Well, I guess my problem with drupal earlier today was a stupid one ... I put spaces in my file name and drupal gagged on it. So, I took out the spaces and away we go! My blog feed also works in iTunes, so I wonder why you need the audio module? Just a "fancier" player maybe?

Download Audio

It is day one of my "summer" break between the summer and fall terms at IU, so I'm going into full geek mode to try out both some old school and new school free podcasting tools. Today, I dusted off Audacity and created a quick little ditty. My plan was to come up with a quick, painless and (as always) free way to record and upload audio into my Drupal site as a podcast and test to see if it could be read in iTunes using the RSS feed generated by my site. While I have iLife for my Mac, that doesn't count - not free! Fortunately (or unfortunately - however you look at it), things didn't quite work out the way I had planned. Here are the crazy paths I took this afternoon to create and then finally upload some audio (see more below):