Don’t get me wrong, I love iTunes, and the iTunes app on my iPhone, but it bugs me that I can only download pocasts that are a) in the iTunes Directory, and 2) when iTunes has scanned the feed and detected a new episode. Sometimes that takes a while, sometimes its a day, but either way, I get impatient.

I’ve read a lot about RSS Player as a replacement but unfortunately this either isn’t available right now, or is not available outside the USA. But, I did come across DriveCast [iTunes Link]. Its basically the same thing, but with some benefits.

After paying the minuscule sum of 59p for this app and installing it, when you first launch it, you’re asked to login with your existing details, or are redirected to Drivecast.eu to sign up. As a new user, I went and registered, and confirmed my account with the auto-sent email verification. All pretty standard stuff.

Now, the interesting features. If you login to DriveCast.eu in your web browser, you’re presented with a nice 3-pane view. The top is a menu bar, the left, is effectively a source list, leaving the main pane for what ever you’re viewing. To get going, just hover over Add, and click Add Podcast. You’re given the option to choose one of the 20 suggested podcasts, or clicking Other to add your own. Once you’ve done that, you choose the syncing settings, how many episodes to download, title, description, etc. Then you’re good to go.

Back on the iPhone, after logging in, your device syncs with your account, and gives you a list of all the new episodes available. Clicking one gives you show info, a Play button, and a download button. Hit that and it immediately comes down, whether it be on Wifi or 3G, which means it conveniently steps over that iTunes 10MB limit they impose on 3G.

I’ve just started downloading a few shows, and it happily downloads while you listen to other shows. Of course, if you quit the app, the downloads stop until you relaunch it.

Back on the website, you can create playlists of shows and edit and delete existing show information. You can also upload files from your home PC to sync across to your device.

As well as that, you can set up recordings from your favourite internet stream. Select a country, language and pick a station, in my case I get a list of all the BBC channels. Then proceed to set up the date, and time of the show, set repeating times and you’re done. That show can be recorded and downloaded to your device at any time.

The last feature I’ll mention is that DriveCast is not just for iPhone and iPod Touch’s. They also offer a small client you can download and copy to any USB drive, be it a flash drive or USB based MP3 player, allowing you to use any PC and internet connection to download new shows. They also offer Blackberry integration, syncing podcasts to your Blackberry via USB, a client for Nokia N800 and N810’s, a RSS feed to your DriveCast library to manage your podcasts in your other chosen podcatcher, as well as Mac OS X and Linux clients, so you can get your podcasts anyway you want

So far, I have only found one issue. When viewing episode details, it doesn’t parse HTML code correctly, so you see all the paragraph markers and break points, among other things.

Aside from that minute point, this is an excellent alternative to the iTunes app, and a real bargain at 59p. Worth checking out if you’re struggling with iTunes, or to run on any other device.

As I browse the website, I notice more features I like. Definately a site worth a look if internet streams and podcasts are your thing

DriveCast.eu

iTunes Download Link

Developers Website

I’ve been looking around for jobs recently and made the decision I need to improve my appeal to employers.
I currently have the CompTIA A+ and N+ qualifications, which don’t seem to count for much around these parts. So, the next best step, seems to be to aim for the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA). For me, its only 3 exams to take, 2 server and 1 client, and I think it’d make sense for that to be Windows 7.

I’m hoping that after that, or perhaps even during, I might get the opportunity to study for the Apple exams, aiming to become a Certified Professional at some point.

Hopefully I can be less slack about studying this time around, since it took me over a year to do my A+ and about a year to do my Network+. Suggestions welcome!

This came to me earlier today and I need to share my dislike. I remember a particular program I used to have on my Mac that scanned your disk and gave you a report of free space, and where your disk space was going, showing large files, and grouping file types so you can see how big your MP3 collection is.

At some point during the course of development, there was an upgrade to this freeware application, which I dutifully installed looking forward to some random bug fixes I would never encounter.

What I did encounter was that the developer had suddenly decided that he wanted to charge for this application, and so pushed out an update to all versions to make it shareware. So the next time I fired it up, I was prompted for a serial number and asked to purchase a copy of the software.

I’ve got nothing against buying software. I’ve bought a Tiger, Leopard and will buy Snow Leopard, I bought VMWare Fusion cos I had a need for it, and I bought SuperDuper cos it was a great bit of software. But I knew going into that that I’d eventually have to pay for the software. It wasn’t sprung on me.
I do have something against being forced to pay for something which I was previously getting for free, just cos the dev had a change of heart. Especially to do it in such a sneaky way as a software update. If you want to charge for your product, then release a new paid only version, stop development and updating the old version, and do a clean cut over. Offer new features and support for the product, but don’t sneak in through the backdoor and demand money.

As mentioned in my earlier post, I spent a week in New York last month. It was an awesome experience and I loved every minute, despite some rather crappy weather.
I figured it might be useful for some people to pass on some travel tips or advice as I had some good input from a few good people.

Travel Details

I booked my flights and hotels individually as I couldn’t find any decent package deals that suited our length of stay and travel dates. It seemed to be cheapest for us to travel on a Saturday evening, and we stayed for 5 nights.

Flights: I booked them online direct through American Airlines’ website. It was easy enough to do.  You are given a choice of seats in coach, and using SeatGuru.com, I chose the apparent best seats available. We sat near the back, in the first row of 4 seats in the middle. It means your screen and table are in the seat arm rest, which is kinda nice, although my iPhone headphones didn’t work with the headphone socket. Meals were average, expected for coach travel, so you may want to bring something yourself.

Hotels: I booked mine on Expedia.co.uk, getting Nectar points in the process. We stayed at the new Holiday Inn in Long Island, on 29th St. Its about a 10 minute subway trip into Manhattan, only a few minutes walk from 39th Avenue stop on the N/W lines.

Getting Around: We opted for the $25 week-long travel card when we arrived, and certainly got our use out of it. The subways are clean, and were surprisingly pleasant. Carriages seemed more spacious than the London Underground, and people were all kind. We only took a taxi ride once, mainly to avoid getting drenched by rain late at night. I think the cost was fairly reasonable considering we drove from the East Village, over to Queens/Long Island.
We also did a fair amount of walking around the city, rather than getting the subway a few blocks. It wasn’t too bad at all. Once you work out which direction the roads go, navigating gets easier. Best to remember avenues run north to south, and streets run east to west.

Airport Travel: We drive to Heathrow, parked at a nearby airport parking place, for £53 for the whole trip. They provided a coach to your terminal, and picked you up when you get back.  We flew to JFK, and from there, once through border control (having an photo and thumbprint taken) we rode the Airtrain ($5) to Jamaica Central where we caught the “E” to Queens Plaza. This dropped us on 35th Av/29th Street so it was a few blocks walk to the hotel from there. We did the same going back, although when we go again, we’ll probably get a taxi to the airport as we were supporting a few extra bags, and pretty worn out.

Attractions: We went to the Empire State Building (nice views, long queues, as in 5 before you even got upstairs), Museum of Modern Art (bit of a disappointment for us) , American Museum of Natural History (nothing like Night at the Museum but still very good), walked through Central Park, took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty (free), walked down 5th Avenue and did some shopping, went to Times Square, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, 2 of the 3 Crumpler shops, went to the financial district and saw the site of the Two Towers, and probably some other stuff I forget. Overall, most stuff was good. The ESB was $20 per person, and offered audio tours. We didn’t bother as we just wanted to see the city. The MoMA was too modern and irreverant for my tastes, although the photography section was good. Central Park was gorgeous. It was totally safe, really nice, and we stopped for a drink and snack by one of the lakes.

Meals: We ate breakfast at the hotel about 4 times, which cost about $30 a day for the two of us. Not particularly cheap but it was good food. We had a lot of quick foods for lunch, ate at the Candle 79 vegan restaurant one night. They were really pleasent and very accomodating to us, and other patrons. Not a bad word to say about them.

Tips

1. Plan your journey from the airport to your hotel. Find the local subways stations, and if its more than a few blocks, get a taxi. We wasted 20 mins going in the wrong direction before finding the right road to get to our hotel
2. Buy a travel card. It will save you money.
3. Don’t believe all New Yorkers are rude and in a hurry. Everyone we met was kind and friendly, and really helpful to everyone. Someone stopped in the street to ask if we were lost. Lovely people.
4. Get a Travel Money Card from the Post Office. Its easier and quicker than Travellers Cheques. And take some cash with you. You’ll need it for the Airtrain/Subway.
5. Get a decent map.
6. Plan where the things you wanna see are, and plan days around particular areas. We spent a lot of time going from one part of the city to another.
7. Don’t forget the prices you see are EXCLUDING sales tax. This is about 8% so you need to take that into account.
8. Tips. Tipping is fairly generous so read online or in a proper guide to learn the right tipping etiquite.
9. Plan at least 5 nights. Since we arrived so late, we pretty much had 4 and a half days for a 5 night stay.
10. Have fun. Don’t try to carry too much. Drink plenty.

So thats about it.  Let me know if you have any other questions. But you will love it, and like us, probably want to go back really soon!

Just a quick note to tell you all that I’m off on a weeks holiday to New York baby! We’re going out on Saturday and will be back on Friday. Wifi may be available so don’t count on too much happening with me online. I’ll post photos to Flickr when I can, and will probably be doing a bulk upload when I get back. Follow me on Twitter to see what I’m up to