Apple Activates Podcast Downloads in 2.2 Firmware

[MacRumors]

German blog Schimanke.com publishes new screenshots from the iPhone 2.2 firmware that reveal that Apple has activated iTunes and App Store features that will make their debut in the next iPhone update. Prior to this past week, these new features had not been fully enabled.

The new iTunes Store screenshots confirm that Apple will be delivering over-the-air downloads for both video and audio podcasts.

The screenshots also show off the new App Store category view with icons embedded. Additional 2.2 features previously revealed include the addition of Google Street View and Japanese Emoji icons.

Meanwhile, there has been no evidence of background "push" notifications which were originally promised in September. Unconfirmed whispers suggest that the Apple has delayed the push notification service due to major issues with the initial implementation.

Apple seeded Beta 2 of the 2.2 iPhone firmware to developers in late October but has given no indication when we can expect a public release.

Article Link: Apple Activates Podcast Downloads in 2.2 Firmware

 

[DaveTheGrey]

Very good news. Syncing Podcasts is a pain! Finally the device which is playing the podcasts can also catch them. Thanks Apple!

 

[atropos]

Dude, that is iTunes store..... not App Store

 

[Mishilon]

That looks more like the podcast feature has been added to the iTunes wifi store on the iPhone, rather than the app store, also iTunes looks to have had the wifi restriction removed.

 

[bobbleheadbob]

Good news. Anyone got a sense of when the update will be released?

 

[sgibson]

This will be useless (to me) if it can't sync podcasts with your main iTunes repository. I listen on my MacBook or iPhone depending where I am and having them out of sync would be nightmare.

Come on Apple, wireless iTunes sync for music and podcasts. I know contacts and calendars won't be there because it would impact MobileMe sales, but even the Zune has had wireless sync for over a year.

 

[kolax]

This is news - the previous post was over-the-air, with the pointer at WiFi.

Using 3G for this would be awesome. Maybe not for the monthly usage though..

 

[andothfc]

This is brilliant news. All the hoopla over cut and paste is bandwagon jumping, if I had my choice of one new feature on the iPhone I've always said i would be over the air podcast downloads.

 

[tri3limited]

Dude, that is iTunes store..... not App Store

Follow the linked article... there are four screenshots.

 

[stephendoc1984]

Loading icon

Is it just me or has the loading icon moved in this pic. Mine is to the left of the clock.

Or is this region specific?

If it has does it suggest it has been moved to make room for a push notification icon

 

[schimanke]

I just added a note to my blog entry. m4gic.net has found out, that podcast-downloads over the mobile network are limited to 10MB per episode.

 

[mad102190]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I have heard from an extremely reliable source (whom unfortunately i cannot name, but am sure many of you would recognize) that Apple's Push Notification Service is completed and ready as of this past weekend. I would therefore predict that it is very likely to be implemented in the next firmware.

 

[RyanFromQA]

This is good news, but in my mind, they're just adding in more features that should've been there in 2.0. If I can download big Apps over the air, why not iTunes content. I RARELY use iTunes on the iPhone. Mostly I do to listen to the previews to try and ID a song (if I can't Shazam it), and when i tried it for the first time on my 3g, I was shocked that I couldn't do it without wifi.

 

[koobcamuk]

Come on Apple, wireless iTunes sync for music and podcasts. I know contacts and calendars won't be there because it would impact MobileMe sales, but even the Zune has had wireless sync for over a year.

Dude, one step at a time. Podcast notifications are one thing, but to sync entire music libraries is going to cain bandwidth and the battery.

 

[MattJessop]

This is good news, but in my mind, they're just adding in more features that should've been there in 2.0. If I can download big Apps over the air, why not iTunes content. I RARELY use iTunes on the iPhone. Mostly I do to listen to the previews to try and ID a song (if I can't Shazam it), and when i tried it for the first time on my 3g, I was shocked that I couldn't do it without wifi.

I think Apple actually want to do this, but it requires agreeing on new licences from the record companies, and so far Apple has refused to budge on price increases, making new agreements very hard to do between the two. It would be very easy to enable, but legally its not within their remit to, as cellular over the air downloads arn't part of what they agreed to the record companies with.

 

[stephendoc1984]

Is it just me or has the loading icon moved in this pic. Mine is to the left of the clock.

Or is this region specific?

If it has does it suggest it has been moved to make room for a push notification icon

Any thoughts on the loading icon to the right of the clock instead of the left

 

[oticon6]

I'm sure this will be good for the rest of the world.. but here in Aus, there's no point trying to download anything Optus officially has the worst 3G network in the iPhone world. I'd be happy if I could just browse at less-than-pathetic speeds.


The features I want to see:
- MMS support, even if it's just so I can RECEIVE pictures
- A small app switcher -- allow maybe 3 active apps, and make it accessible with double-tap
- Quick options on the same double-tap menu... iTunes controls, enable/disable 3G and Wifi, brightness (or more options to calibrate the auto brightness -- it's way too bright in darkness)
- SIMPLE background service (but NOT app) support:
Air Sharing needs to have sockets open
iNap needs to open when the GPS hits a certain location

This could be done with simple triggers, and the CPU usage would be dependent on the internal components implemented by Apple.

- Bluetooth picture sending >_<

Good news either way
to be able to resand iNap to be able to embed triggersto be able to run in the background

 

[MattJessop]

Any thoughts on the loading icon to the right of the clock instead of the left

It's the same on all iPhones - all thats happened is the phone decides that theres no room left on the left hand side, because of the 3 icons there taking up a lot of space. The easiest way to see this is to turn on wifi AND vpn - the loading icon then will be on the right hand side of the clock. So this has always been there. Hope this helps.

 

[stephendoc1984]

It's the same on all iPhones - all thats happened is the phone decides that theres no room left on the left hand side, because of the 3 icons there taking up a lot of space. The easiest way to see this is to turn on wifi AND vpn - the loading icon then will be on the right hand side of the clock. So this has always been there. Hope this helps.

Ah ok

 

[sebimeyer]

The over-the air podcast feature is a godsend. Right now the ONLY reason I need to synch my iPhone is because of podcasts, as mail, contacts, bookmarks, etc are all handled through me.com syncing.

I sincerely hope though that push notification isn't far behind though. It's now November and the feature was promised for September. I am not going to sue them, but it's a tad embarassing that they haven't pulled something off they publicly demontrated. Very un-Apple.

 

[BongoBanger]

You mean it can't do this already?

Wow!

 

[kas23]

Yawn...

Exactly: meh. Only great news to those Podcast junkies. What about implementing something that EVERYONE with surely benefit from?

 

[Chupa Chupa]

This is brilliant news. All the hoopla over cut and paste is bandwagon jumping, if I had my choice of one new feature on the iPhone I've always said i would be over the air podcast downloads.

That is the difference between people who want to use the iPhone as a toy rather than a tool. Lack of cut and paste is not "hoopla," it's a significant missing feature. While you are out there downloading podcasts some of us just want to get work done, which is made more difficult b/c there is no cut and paste.

 

[wctaiwan]

So that's why Podcaster was not approved (or is it? heh).

Dibs on the currently non-existent but seriously awesome feature for iPhone. I got there first, Apple.

Anyway, I assume this firmware upgrade will (again) not be free for iPod touch owners... Would I be correct? (I hope I'm wrong, since I have one.)

wctaiwan

 

[Yuppi]

This will be useless (to me) if it can't sync podcasts with your main iTunes repository. I listen on my MacBook or iPhone depending where I am and having them out of sync would be nightmare.

Come on Apple, wireless iTunes sync for music and podcasts. I know contacts and calendars won't be there because it would impact MobileMe sales, but even the Zune has had wireless sync for over a year.

I totally agree. Synching the music and podcasts over the air would be totally awesome. Right now I hate to put my phone on the chord just to transfer the new podcasts (seen status, played count etc..). Even when the battery is not low at all..