I had a pre-release look of the PodcastReady application a month or more ago and was very intrigued. It’s an podcatcher application that can run and reside completely on a USB Memory Stick. What the folks at PodcastReady did was form a partnership with mobiBLU and had PodcastReady preloaded on their new B153 MP3 player that is shipping to stores nation wide. This was probably the smartest thing someone has done in the podcasting space in a long time. I received the MP3 player that was PodcastReady on Monday and have been playing with it for the past two days.
When the user plugs the mobiBLU MP3 Player into the USB 2.0 port, the MP3 player is detected as an ordinary USB Memory stick even though it is a full featured MP3 player, which you can then navigate via windows explore, and residing in top level directory is the Podcast Ready application. Launching Podcast Ready loads the application it calls home and then presents you with a list pre-selected podcast. Now what is smart is that the PodcastReady application does not come preloaded with a podcast directory instead the software calls home and receives a fresh list that the PodcastReady team can update. This assures that the podcast they present are those that are valid and delivering content on a regular basis.
The user then has the option of downloading one of those initial podcast or opening up an account on the PodcastReady.com website and choosing shows from their full featured directory that is then inked via subscription to your player.
This is easier than dealing with iTunes! Here you have the first truly podcast ready mp3 player, and without a doubt will introduce 100’s of thousands of people to podcasting. It’s the first innovation I have seen in the space in a long time and I wish I would have thought it up because it is pure genius.
The MP3 player itself is pretty awesome it will play a 153 hours on a single charge and is 1/2 the size of my cell phone. The unit I tested had 2GB of storage which is plenty for loading up podcast and some indie music to listen to. The MP3 player has a very easy to use menu system, for the first time I received a MP3 player that did not require me to break out the manual. If you are looking to introduce someone to podcasting, and want to empower them with the power of walk away content this is the item that I would buy. The unit I had was available online for 129.99.
Congrats to the PodcastReady team and two thumbs up to mobiBLU which is manufactured by the Hyun Won Inc. [www.mobiblu.com] [www.podcastready.com]
This looks like it may be exactly what I’ve been looking for! I was really close to buying an Ipod a couple of weeks ago, but I decided to hold off and wait to see if some other easy to use solution came along. Part of the reason that I held off on that was that I heard that Apple may be pushing ads into Itunes and maybe even the Ipod itself. If I’m going to fork out that kind of money for a player, I’m not going to put up with a third party (Apple) pushing ads into my content. I guess whether they really go through with that or not remains to be seen, but I digress.. This player looks really good from the specs and is really more in line with what I’ve been looking for anyway. Unfortunately all of the “where to buy” links on mobiBLU’s site lead to sale pages for their “Cube” player, the DAH-1500. Maybe I’m missing something there. One question I have that I haven’t found an answer to yet.. Is the USB cable that you use to connect the B153 to a PC standard? The player I’m currently using, the MPIO FL100 uses a cable that almost looks like standard miniUSB, but it’s not, and it’s not easy to get an extra cable. The upshot of that is I have one proprietary USB cable that I have to carry around everywhere with the player. I’m just about done with that. Thanks for the heads up about this device and the great podcast.
– Dan
This seems like it may be worth looking into. Having a iPod now that I often would like to try out a different MP3 player. One that is easy to use and isn’t a Apple product.