podcast facts

History

Adam Curry, in collaboration with Dave Winer, a developer of RSS feeds, is credited with coming up with the idea to automate the delivery and syncing of textual content to portable audio players

the first app to be compatible with podcasts was  iPodder X,

Apple issued Cease and Desist orders to many podcast application developers and service providers for using the term "iPod" or "Pod" in their products' names

Adam Curry launched his show Daily Source Code. It was a show focused on chronicling his everyday life, delivering news and discussions about the development of podcasting, as well as promotion for new and emerging podcasts. Daily Source Code is believed to be the first podcast produced on a consistent basis.

In June 2005, Apple released iTunes 4.9 with native support for podcasts.

Personal Audio lawsuits

A company called  Electronic Frontier Foundation tried to claim ownership over the idea of podcasts and tried claiming royalties off podcasters .

enhanced podcast

enhanced podcast can display images synchronized within audio these can contain chapter markers.

podcast novels

a podcast novel is a literary format that combines the concepts   of podcast and an audiobook

Podcasts

A podcast is a form of digital media which is pre-recorded. It’s also episodic and can be downloaded from Apples software iTunes. It can also be streamed online to a computer or mobile device.

A list of audio and video files appear on a server as a web feed to users. A software named ‘Podcatcher’ enables you to check for updates and download any new files In the series.

The name

In February 2004 a man named Ben Hammersley first mentioned ‘Podcasting’ in The Guardian newspaper. The word podcast is combined with ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’.

Windows claims the Pod in Podcast stand for Portable on Demand and the cast standing for broadcast.

in February 10-25th march 2005 Shae Spencer Management filed a trademark application to register for the term 'podcast' for a prerecorded show online. But on September 9 2005 the United States patent and trademark office declined the application and informed them of the term and it's history. The company then sent a second application the following year in march, it was again rejected with the trademark office insinuating it hadn't differentiated for the first letter enough. The same year in November the letter was abandoned.

September 26 2004 it was reported that apple started to crack down on the term 'pod' in all product and company names. Apple sent a cease and desist letter to a company called 'Podcasts ready Inc'. as they had a product called 'mypodder'. Lawyers for Apple argued that the term 'pod' is used in such a significant way by the public to refer to their music material that it falls under apple trademark cover. it was speculated that apple was expanding their existing trademark of 'iPod' which included trademarking 'IPOD', 'IPODCAST' and 'POD'. So on November 16, 2006 the apple trademark department revealed that apple doesn't mind other company using the generic term 'podcast' to refer to them kinds of services and that apple hadn't licensed the term yet they had not specified whether or not they held rights to it or not.