Column: Apple to legitimize podcasting

Apple's official endorsement of podcasts is helping increase public interest in the audio broadcast phenomenon. Technology Review feels Apple's support for podcasting in the upcoming iTunes 4.9 might make podcasting as mainstream as blogging. "The podcasting movement, for all its headlines, is in dire need of the 'Apple treatment.' More than anything else, Apple has succeeded in the last 10 years because it has made technology easy for people to understand and commodity hardware stylish." Apple's involvement with podcasts may also help legitimize the concept, which is currently surounded by "murky legal water." Some podcasts include music, but licensing rules -- which have hampered streaming music services -- have yet to be established for podcasts."

Filed under: iPod, industry