Comments on: Apple Visit, Day 1 http://mfeldstein.com/apple_visit_day_1/ What Michael Feldstein Is Learning About Online Learning...Online Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:23:59 +0000 By: Michael Feldstein http://mfeldstein.com/apple_visit_day_1/#comment-287 Michael Feldstein Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:23:37 +0000 1984780262#comment-287 Interestingly, Apple has introduced enhancements to AAC which include chapter points (and those chapter points can be synchronized to a slide show). It's non-standard, but it's an open extension to the standard, much like the RSS standard allows for extensions. What I don't know is how the iPod behaves with the chapter points. (iTunes offers up a very nice interface to them.) If you have access to Garage Band and any iPod with a color screen, you might want to try playing around with it. Interestingly, Apple has introduced enhancements to AAC which include chapter points (and those chapter points can be synchronized to a slide show). It’s non-standard, but it’s an open extension to the standard, much like the RSS standard allows for extensions. What I don’t know is how the iPod behaves with the chapter points. (iTunes offers up a very nice interface to them.) If you have access to Garage Band and any iPod with a color screen, you might want to try playing around with it.

]]> By: Midizen_X http://mfeldstein.com/apple_visit_day_1/#comment-286 Midizen_X Tue, 14 Feb 2006 21:53:53 +0000 1984780262#comment-286 I would be cautious regarding any compression used to "speed up" voice playback. Yes, it certainly can be done - just listen to those incomprehensable legal disclaimers on any car commercial on terrestrial radio ("tax, license and other fees incurred. Yadda yadda yadda"). There is obviously a threshold at which speed and comprehension diverge... Now, if there were a way to meta-tag audio files and insert cue points (analogous to tracks on a CD), now you're talking usable. I would be cautious regarding any compression used to “speed up” voice playback. Yes, it certainly can be done - just listen to those incomprehensable legal disclaimers on any car commercial on terrestrial radio (”tax, license and other fees incurred. Yadda yadda yadda”). There is obviously a threshold at which speed and comprehension diverge…

Now, if there were a way to meta-tag audio files and insert cue points (analogous to tracks on a CD), now you’re talking usable.

]]> By: Michael Feldstein http://mfeldstein.com/apple_visit_day_1/#comment-285 Michael Feldstein Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:24:06 +0000 1984780262#comment-285 Apparently, it's possible to speed up or slow down a voice recording without changing the pitch using Apple technologies. I'm not sure whether this is in iTunes or the iPod, but the Apple folks specifically mentioned it several times. This doesn't solve the problem the way speech-to-text would, but it mitigates it somewhat. Apparently, it’s possible to speed up or slow down a voice recording without changing the pitch using Apple technologies. I’m not sure whether this is in iTunes or the iPod, but the Apple folks specifically mentioned it several times. This doesn’t solve the problem the way speech-to-text would, but it mitigates it somewhat.

]]> By: Alan http://mfeldstein.com/apple_visit_day_1/#comment-284 Alan Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:50:39 +0000 1984780262#comment-284 Thanks for keeping the flag hoisted for moving podcasts as "lectures online". The capability of the enhanced podcasts are all the elements needed for basic digital storytelling. For Joe's comment above, try Podzinger (not the best but a start): http://www.podzinger.com/ or Podscope: http://www.podscope.com/ As big a limitation is the inability to easily link to a specific time code within a cast, as a shortcut to access desired segments easily within a cast. Thanks for keeping the flag hoisted for moving podcasts as “lectures online”.

The capability of the enhanced podcasts are all the elements needed for basic digital storytelling.

For Joe’s comment above, try Podzinger (not the best but a start):
http://www.podzinger.com/

or Podscope:
http://www.podscope.com/

As big a limitation is the inability to easily link to a specific time code within a cast, as a shortcut to access desired segments easily within a cast.

]]> By: Joe http://mfeldstein.com/apple_visit_day_1/#comment-280 Joe Fri, 10 Feb 2006 02:27:38 +0000 1984780262#comment-280 Hmm..I was just thinking of this disadvantage (lack of user control over speed through content) while listening to podcasts on the subway this morning. The "skimmability" and the searchability of text is a very important feature, and it means that text is always going to be more subject to random access (not really random, but you know what I mean) than audio can be... Until, and unless, we can develop a really workable indexing/bookmarking system for audio. In listening to an hourlong podcast (or even 20 minutes), if I'm reminded of something that I heard in last week's podcast, it's very tedious to try to skim, and almost impossible to really search, for that exact moment from last week's podcast. Even the ability to bookmark exactly where you left off when stopping a podcast is pretty unevenly implemented in today's technology. I wonder if some advances in voice recognition software (the advances we keep being promised) would make it possible in the future to search a podcast for words and phrases. In the meantime, I think there's an important lesson about podcast production--chunking the content, with logical divisions and relatively brief segments, needs to be part of the production process. Hmm..I was just thinking of this disadvantage (lack of user control over speed through content) while listening to podcasts on the subway this morning. The “skimmability” and the searchability of text is a very important feature, and it means that text is always going to be more subject to random access (not really random, but you know what I mean) than audio can be…
Until, and unless, we can develop a really workable indexing/bookmarking system for audio.

In listening to an hourlong podcast (or even 20 minutes), if I’m reminded of something that I heard in last week’s podcast, it’s very tedious to try to skim, and almost impossible to really search, for that exact moment from last week’s podcast.

Even the ability to bookmark exactly where you left off when stopping a podcast is pretty unevenly implemented in today’s technology.

I wonder if some advances in voice recognition software (the advances we keep being promised) would make it possible in the future to search a podcast for words and phrases.

In the meantime, I think there’s an important lesson about podcast production–chunking the content, with logical divisions and relatively brief segments, needs to be part of the production process.

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