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Time-Shifting For The iPod 173

Posted by timothy from the tivo-needs-no-separate-pc dept.
depechemodem writes "This story at ExtremeiPod talks about a new piece of software from Adam Curry called iPodder (now at Sourceforge) which uses RSS feeds with MP3 enclosures to stream audio to iTunes. The best part is that those streams can be saved as clips automatically on to your iPod or other MP3 player for later listening making this the first portable time-shifted Internet audio application. The code is alse being ported to Windows."
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Time-Shifting For The iPod More

Time-Shifting For The iPod

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  • Wow, Adam Curry (Score:5, Funny)

    by krog ( 25663 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:22AM (#10257187) Homepage
    Good to see he's still in the music business. Does he still have that outrageous hair? And the acid-washed jeans?

  • huh? (Score:1)

    by ack154 ( 591432 ) *
    Does anyone have a good explaination of what this is doing? I read the site and all, but it sounds like the site and story are talking about different things. Or am I just the only one that's confused??

    (it's possible, i know)

    • Re:huh? (Score:5, Informative)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:25AM (#10257226)
      It downloads Internet Radio streams and lets you play them back as MP3s later. Just like Tivo does for TV (allowing you to skip commercials with a slider bar) you can now do that with your favorite MP3 player (including the ever so popularly advertised iPod).
    • who knows... the website is EXTREMEIPOD.COM for heavens sake.

    • Re:huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jargoone ( 166102 ) * on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:28AM (#10257262)
      It's transferring a file. From an RSS feed to another folder (iPod). It downloads the RSS file (WOW!), extracts the content (Double WOW!), and moves it. Pure genius.

      Anything with iPod in the description apparently bypasses the submission queue.

      • Re:huh? (Score:3, Funny)

        by GoRK ( 10018 )
        iPod by itself won't bypass the queue unless it also has the keywords 'Linux' or 'RSS' in it. Indeed this is some seriously lackluster stuff. It downloads a list of files and adds them to itunes. Presumably it will also sync it over to the iPod as well. An m3u could do the same thing if iTunes would support saving the URL. Still, sometimes simple apps like this can be among the most useful ones. At least they're not charging you $10 for it like most excessively tiny mac utilities.

  • What a load of garbage (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:22AM (#10257192)
    I constantly timeshift radio using Audiohijack Pro. Every morning, NPR's Morning Edition is recorded and waiting for iTunes to transfer it to my iPod for my morning commute.

  • Trademarks and copyrights (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tepples ( 727027 ) <.tepples. .at. .gmail.com.> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:24AM (#10257210) Homepage Journal

    Won't Apple get upset about the use of the "iPod" trademark in the product's name?

    And won't the NMPA and RIAA start to female-dog about it being a copyright infringement tool? No, sharing your own songs may not be a substantial non-infringing use under Betamax because what you call "your own songs" could likely be either covers or subconscious infringements.

    I smell cease and desist.

  • Is that like a DVR ipod?
    • More like a DA(udio)R as in the following sentence: Apple and the RIAA wouldn't DAR to let this project stand as is, with the name and stated goal of perfect copies of broadcasted music.

  • Firefix extension (Score:1, Interesting)

    by sometwo ( 53041 )
    So how about having this as a builtin Firefox extension?
  • How is this different than any other application for downloading music?
    • Well, I'd imagine this would be more useful for recording live events and non-musical programs - I could definately use this to record all of the NPR programs I miss during the day. They are available during for free with Real, but I spend little time in front of the PC, and lots of time on the bus - so something like this would be great. And yes, I am a member of two of my local NPR stations. :)

  • a whoosawhats it now? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Delphix ( 571159 ) * on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:26AM (#10257233)
    time-shifted Internet audio application

    So basically, using an RSS and MP3 wrapper, they've created the 21st century equivalent of a tape recorder hooked up to a radio...

    • Re:a whoosawhats it now? (Score:5, Informative)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:31AM (#10257278)
      So basically, using an RSS and MP3 wrapper, they've created the 21st century equivalent of a tape recorder hooked up to a radio...

      More like a crippled DAT hooked up to a digital tuner with an Internet connection. You couldn't exactly tell your tape recorder to only record such and such a show on this, this, and that station without manual intervention. You also wouldn't exactly have digital audio.
      • More like a crippled DAT hooked up to a digital tuner with an Internet connection. You couldn't exactly tell your tape recorder to only record such and such a show on this, this, and that station without manual intervention. You also wouldn't exactly have digital audio.

        Well, that's what the 21st century equivalent is all about. He didn't claim they had created the exact equivalent, did he?

    • Nope, they've created the 21st century equivalent of a global radio network where each user can decide the programming line-up for themselves, or defer to the judgement of others, rather being limited to the programming decisions of the program directors at a few national or regional media companies.
      • Nope, they've created the 21st century equivalent of a global radio network where each user can decide the programming line-up for themselves, or defer to the judgement of others, rather being limited to the programming decisions of the program directors at a few national or regional media companies.

        Well for it to be an equivilant, it would have to have existed before. It's a simple comparison.
    • What's more interesting is I've hooked up my ipod to a flux capaciter and by adding 15 Jigga-Watts (and a Delorian) I'm able to do some REAL Time-shifting!

  • "Timeshifted" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ARRRLovin ( 807926 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:26AM (#10257234)
    "Timeshifted" is the new "previously recorded".

    So basically, if I understand this right, it's an app that records audio from the internet then automagically siphons it off to an iPod. Clever....even without the jargon and catchphrases.
    • "Timeshifted" is the new "previously recorded".

      Uh, well, it's not really all that new. It came about with the inital advent of VCRs.

      • Re:"Timeshifted" (Score:5, Informative)

        by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @04:28PM (#10260289)
        "Timeshifted" is the new "previously recorded".

        Uh, well, it's not really all that new. It came about with the inital advent of VCRs.

        Well, not really. "Time-shifting", as a term, came about because there was something new about it, namely that you could watch what was being recorded while it was being recorded, but at a different point in time than what was recording at that moment. Obviously, that's a mouthful to say, hence the term "time-shifting". It was new to the digital world, and it's a big deal because it lets you, say, pause live TV and go make a sandwich, or start watching an 8 PM program at 8:03 without missing anything, or whatever. A VCR can't do that. (You'd have to record the entire show, then start watching at the beginning once it's over.)

        "Time-shifting" is different than just recording and watching/listening later. So this iPodder thing may be a bit of a misnomer; it may not do true time-shifting. It has to be able to play the clips you're recording as you're recording them, at any point in the stream. Just "saving clips" to listen to later is not time-shifting.
    • Thank you for de-buzzing the article for me.

      And here I was thinking that someone managed to combine RSS and MP3 to achieve some sort of quantum tunneling or space-time-woojie on an iPod.
    • "Timeshifted" is the new "previously recorded".

      Damn, dude. You sure ain't grokking the kool-aid.
      Timeshifting is a whole new PARADIGM, man.
      The process of timeshifting involves using an advanced digital interface to transfer real-time content onto a special digital medium that is capable of tunneling through the 4th dimension at the blazing rate of 1,000 ms per second. The digital medium is then capable of being deterministically mined for data by your eardrums on-demand at a later 4th dimensional coordi
    • As opposed to recording afterwards. Didn't George Carlin have a rant about "previously recorded"?

  • wowser, so much more than an mp3 player! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:27AM (#10257241) Homepage Journal
    and I thought the iPod was just an mp3 player! ;) Seriously, if you watch the development of the device, and consider all of the software being developed for it, it's no wonder Apple isn't running about making another Neuton...in effect, they almost have! I look for the iPod to do a ton more things come January 2005. I for one plan on playing with Linux on mine, then seeing what else I can do with that's cool and new.

    DCVLB&*DFS
    • Just try taking notes on your Ipod.. or trying to read a hand-drawn map on that tiny screen..

      Sure the Ipod is great, and does several things, but its not a replacement for the trusty newt..

      Now if could find a am/fm radio for mine.. i had to give that up when i finaly traded in my MD player for a 4G Ipod..
    • look for the iPod to do a ton more things come January 2005. I for one plan on playing with Linux on mine, then seeing what else I can do with that's cool and new

      try playing Linux on it!

      cat /* > output.mp3

  • What can't the iPod do? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:33AM (#10257306) Homepage Journal
    Amazing what a little opening of the hardware allows for people to do with this little thing that was originally meant to just play music and be a modern day Walkman. Now it's this swiss army knife of the 21st century. With success like this it still boggles the mind that Apple computers don't catch on the same way. Flame me if you will, but if Apple just sold a computer for 600$ I think it would catch fire like the iPod has.

    CB*(#$@@!@
    • The Emac is pretty cheap, even the new Imac is pretty damn cheap if you think about it. 64bit chip, 17 inch (Apple) LCD. All for around $1200. That's not bad at all. All the software you need built into the OS (for the average user, think grandma, an uncle etc. and all of it quality).
      • agreed, but again, the Dell/HP/Gateway commericals all hock 499$ PCs. Grandma isn't going to understand popping down an extra 5-600$ for a computer. Put out a eMac replacement; looks like the new iMacs, but has a G4 (G3?) in it, and get the price down to 500$ or so, then Grandma will be all set.

        CBR$

    • Re:What can't the iPod do? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      First of all, this is not iPod specific.
      Maybe the concept of people extending the use of something is new to you, or you are simply a iPod zealot (I will automatically get modded down as troll for that)

      Either way, modification/changes/additions to electronic devices has always happened. Ever use a Sega Dreamcast, PSX, Xbox, DirectTV etc.... The few things around for the iPod are nothing compared to those.

    • Re:What can't the iPod do? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Paulrothrock ( 685079 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @12:09PM (#10257659) Homepage Journal
      Many current switchers, according to chatter heard in Apple's Support Forums, have switched because of their experience with the iPod. Whether it was from walking into an Apple Store to buy an iPod and getting a chance to actually *use* a Mac, or seeing how much thought was put into the iPod, from how the scroll wheel accelerates to how rugged the design is to the neat way the backlight fades on and off.

      If iTMS is a loss-leader for the iPod, then the iPod is a leader for Macs. I'm all for Apple making a headless eMac. But until they do the eMac, which is itself an incredibly capable machine for its price, will probably be the first Mac many people own.

    • Re:What can't the iPod do? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by BoneFlower ( 107640 ) <anniethebruce@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @12:37PM (#10257967) Journal
      What can't it do?

      Pitch control and cue points. Add those two features, and apple will find a large market of DJs that will buy them. Hell, I'd put off upgrading my mixer if Apple added those two features. I'd have a good portable music player for the bus and whatnot, and a small device I can hook up to my mixer so I can use digital music files, stuff I rip off CD or my own productions that I can't afford to press to vinyl in my sets. And it would open up a large amount of music, especially futurepop, that is disgustingly difficult to find in any quantity on vinyl.
      • Mixing with an iPod? You're serious right? Wow. No thanks. It's a much better idea to use something designed for the job. Check out Rane/Serato Scratch Live [rane.com] which allows you to play AIFF, WAV, MP3 (soon Vorbis) directly on your regular vinyl or CD decks. Feels exactly like vinyl, right down to scratching, juggling, backspins, poweroffs, etc. It even integrates with iTunes for all you Apple junkies.
    • apple's $600 computer IS an iPod.

    • Re:What can't the iPod do? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by radish ( 98371 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @01:26PM (#10258439) Homepage
      if Apple just sold a computer for 600$ I think it would catch fire like the iPod has.

      What makes you say that? The iPod follows Apple's other products in being (a) nicely designed (b) well built (c) very expensive. There are many competitors to the iPod, most of which offer additional features (of varying usefulness), and are cheaper (often very significantly). This is just like the PC market - Windows boxes are more numerous, usually not as well built/designed, but a lot cheaper. What surprises me is how the market seems to tolerate Apple's premium pricing for mp3 players but not for computers.
    • if Apple just sold a computer for 600$ I think it would catch fire like the iPod has.

      No, you're thinking of that other story [apple.com] posted on slashdot [slashdot.org]

  • this is new? (Score:2, Informative)

    by CheetoNards ( 813730 )
    looks like there have already been other programs designed to do this with itunes radio http://homepage.mac.com/swithers/iblog/C784421780/ E1012504207/ [mac.com] it seems like it should work with more than just the radio since it simply records audio being broadcast to the computer. Is this different is some way?

  • Adam Curry / Neal Stephenson connection (Score:3, Funny)

    by kraksmokr ( 216277 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:36AM (#10257337) Journal
    This may be a bit offtopic, but does anyone remember Adam Curry's metaverse.com web site? He got that one after MTV took away mtv.com from him. This was way back in like 1993 or 1994. I believe he had just read 'Snow Crash'. Anyway, it's neat to see a celebrity become a geek (kind of like the pr0n star Asia Carerra!), but of course she looks better naked.

  • Correct me if I'm wrong ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by e1en0r ( 529063 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:36AM (#10257345) Homepage
    ... and I'm sure you all will, but I was under the impression that iPodder was a fancy automatic way of downloading MP3s, not converting streaming radio to MP3s and then storing on your iPod which is what this story seems to imply. It is not " the first portable time-shifted Internet audio application", it just "raises the prospect of truly portable time-shifted audio programming on the Internet". I believe Audio Hijack Pro will let you record streaming music, but iPodder looks like it just downloads MP3s.
  • You could tell, even in his prissy glam-metal heyday, that he was a smart one. He went from VJ to dot-com genius. I mean shit, you don't see Jesse Camp coming up with great ideas like this.
    I mean, Matt Pinfield knew a lot about music, but there's a difference between trivia and usefulness. Way to go Adam.

  • Don't I Already Do This With MPlayer? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Chaotic Evil Cleric ( 622653 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:49AM (#10257461) Journal
    How is this different from
    mplayer -dumpaudio /stream/address
    ?

  • What about Replay Radio (Score:5, Informative)

    by chrisspurgeon ( 514765 ) <chris.spurgeonworld@com> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @11:53AM (#10257499) Homepage
    Not taking anything away from iPodder, but I've been using a great little app called Replay Radio for a year or so to grab my favorite web radio programs and save them as MP3s, which I then dump into my iPod. Product details here [replay-radio.com]
    • I tired using Replay Radio but it didn't want to work on a machine that I only access using Remote Desktop. Instead I ended up using Total Recorder. Unlike Replay, TR captures the stream before it goes in to the audio drivers thereby skipping the whole Remote Desktop issue. It uses it's own driver to decode the stream and then it uses whatever encoding you have loaded to save the file. It will also neatly build the ID3 tags as well. At the end of the weekend I have a nice collection of NPR programming

  • Time-shifting? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @12:01PM (#10257577) Homepage Journal
    When I first read that I got ideas of a Hitchhiker's Guide show. Who needs a towel anymore if you have an iPod!

    (it's funny, try to laugh! ;))

    CB%^&*()

  • Let me get this straight (Score:5, Funny)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @12:03PM (#10257606) Journal
    So "time-shifting" with my iPod does not imply time travel?

    Shit.

    I thought I could just hit the button and turn the volume control to skip back a few minutes.

  • Yes.. TimeShifting! (Score:5, Funny)

    by scrubmuffin ( 173705 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @12:05PM (#10257623)
    Another fricking buzzword. Gotta love 'em.

    My website is now rendering multi tiered aggregate content to strategize user-centric metrics while orchestrating scalable synergies utilizing virtual timeshifted content.

    Somebody buy me..
    Please?

  • The First? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Musicfan ( 813745 )
    What the hell is this? I've been using Audio Hijack Pro [rogueamoeba.com] to time-shift radio programs for what, 2 years now? How is this /.-worthy? Yet another audio recording app. Oh, but it's Adam Curry - well in that case, post it right away!

    Newsflash - RMS takes world's first crap! Read it only on /.

  • I have MythTV installed, with a WinTV Nova-T card (digital TV card) which allows me to schedule it to record radio straight from UK's freeview service. I then have a php script which re-encodes it using Lame into an archive directory, which I rsync each morning to my iRiver mp3 player...

  • Give me pitch control.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BoneFlower ( 107640 ) <anniethebruce@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @12:32PM (#10257913) Journal
    and I'll buy one.

  • Non-revolutionary? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rasterboy ( 871 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @01:46PM (#10258675) Homepage Journal

    Yeah, I know, it's nothing new, the whole automating the pulling down of content. What's really important is that a framework is being established. RSS is getting more and more popular by the day, and if producers of audio content get it together, and produce RSS feeds with enclosures pointing to the audio files, it becomes *extremely easy* for developers to write apps to handle that content, and *extremely easy* for users to get that content - automatically!

    Adam knows he's not a brilliant programmer. He's a frustrated developer, who is really trying to kickstart this whole thing by enticing others to write better code than his, which is happening. It made me release my crappy perl code, and prompted others to start similar projects.

    Heck, this is the Apple section of /. right? Remember "easy of use" is somewhere near the top of the list for some people.

  • I do this with my x-box (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xjerky ( 128399 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @01:48PM (#10258705)
    With X-Box Media Center. I sometimes leave my box on all night and let it dump a bunch of streams to my HD, then I load 'em up on my iPod later to see if I like 'em.

  • How Come? (Score:4, Funny)

    by SomeOtherGuy ( 179082 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @01:51PM (#10258739) Journal
    How come whenever anyone does anything trivial that has anything to do with an Ipod...that it is reported like world peace?

    Recording streams have been around as long as streams themselves....I guess it was not a big deal until someone with an Ipod started recording streams.

    Next we will read about "Ipod owner creates Hello World" and a "tetris clone".

  • ...we're off to the tempest nebula to gather chronotons! And there's me thinking this was some Farnsworthian device capable of stretching the very fabric of time itself! *clenches fists and glares heavenward*

  • Streamers for OS X (Score:3, Informative)

    by christor ( 663626 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @03:39PM (#10259834)
    If you're interested in having various streamed radio programs (like BBC, NPR, etc.) on your iPod, you may want to check out Streamers [versiontracker.com] for OS X. (Disclosure - I'm the author.) Using Ambrosia's WireTap, iCal, and iTunes, it allows you to keep a library of shows to be recorded and to schedule recordings. Just be sure to drag the app itself, and not the folder that contains it, into your Applications folder. The way I packaged the last build has caused a few users some confusion on this score.

    It's freeware; source is included; and I've just put up a sourceforge site for it.

  • http://hublog.hubmed.org/archives/000870.html

    #!/usr/local/bin/perl

    use LWP::Simple;

    $webjay = get('http://webjay.org');
    while ( $webjay =~ m|href\=\"(.*?)\"|igs ){
    if (( $1 =~ m|^(http://webjay.org/by/.*?/.*?)$|i )
    && ( $1 !~ /#comments/i ))
    { push @playlists, $1 }
    }

    $play = rand(scalar(@playlists));
    exec "open $playlists[$play].smil";
  • I had a similar idea a few months back, when I realized I was spending 10+ hours per week sitting in my car or on the Metro. I just wish I had more choices than NPR, RIAA, or AM radio. I like the idea of XM radio, but it doesn't work underground and doesn't have the variety that the web can provide. I'd rather listen to kooky bloggers commenting on micro-issues than another 10-minute summary of what Big Media thinks important. It'd also be a great way to get exposed to new independent artists.

    If there was

  • Missing the point (Score:4, Informative)

    by xombo ( 628858 ) on Wednesday September 15, 2004 @10:34PM (#10262734)
    A lot of people aren't reading the site and realizing what this technology is about:

    1) The program uses encapusization in RSS feeds to grab media from timely updated web sites.
    2) The program stores the media and transfers it to the iPod by way of iTunes.

    It does not "record broadcasts from streams" any more than using Kazaa to download videos allows you to fast-forward through the boring bits in porn.

    Essentially it expands on new RSS tools that give media sites the ability to post recently updated media resources.

  • Content? (Score:3, Informative)

    by LanMan04 ( 790429 ) on Thursday September 16, 2004 @08:51PM (#10273395)
    A neat tool, I got it working after some initial confusion (talk about lack of documentation, that is part of software development, you know), I found the content to be...err...lacking.

    I mean, as much as I like listening to IT babble all day, I get enough of that at work, and after work, and with my friends, etc. Sure would be nice if NPR, or CNN, or any new site not related to hard-core IT or crazy eclectic blogging supported RSS 2.0 with enclosures....

  • What iPodder is! (Score:3, Informative)

    by RaySl ( 790080 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:10PM (#10277957)
    iPodder and like scripts is just a method of getting new content onto your iPod or MP3 playing device. Nothing more. Its not rocket science, just just a needed tool.

    RSS is just an XML file, one of the tags is an enclosure tag, that tag specifies a link to an MP3 file of a new audio program that the author has posted online.

    When the iPodder aggregator is run it checks for new MP3 files and downloads them into a playlist (Windows Media, iTunes, ect) that you can later sync up to a portable player.

    Why is this needed? hell that should be simple for anyone using an aggregator at all. Its just easier to have this stuff come to you then for you to go out and be on the look out for new 'IT Conversations' or 'The Daily Source Code' episodes.

    Yes the concept is simple, and very basic but it didn't exist before, so this fills a hole that a lot of listeners to these types of shows really needed.

    After reading some of the comments about iPodder, I was more than a little confused on how so many people could wrap their heads around what iPodder does, I hope this helps (sorry that is late in coming)

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