S60 Open to new features

Yes, it's been too long since the last update. (But I swear I've been answering just about every comment by private email. You havent been neglected or forgotten. :-) )

What's new?

Nokia will be attending the "Podcast & New Media Expo" again this year. We met a lot of fantastic and exciting Podcasters last year and got a lot of great feedback, so we're going to be out in sunny California to let everyone play with our new toys and we'll take copious notes about what you love, hate and wish for in your mobile podcasting apps.

If you want to come say hi, the date is 28-30 Sept in Ontario California at the Ontario Convention Center. Should be fun.

with that said, its also been too long since we've updated our default directories for our mobile app. So we'll be doing a minor overhaul of our RECOMMENDED and PODCAST DISCOVERY folders before then.

So in the past year, which audio and video podcasts do you find yourself listening to regularly? Who are the indie Podcast personalities or the mainstream podcast shows you cant live without? Are there certain themed folder topics that you want to see more of?

Or, if you are a podcaster who will be attending the event, be sure to let me know your Podcast Name, RSS Feed, and a note that you're coming and we'll try to get your show in a special subfolder for a limited time.

And before we start the comments, here's a little taste of something coming soon....

and in the very near future... the upcoming release of the Nseries Music Player will include the long-awaited and much requested Bookmarking feature.

(Great news... but be aware that the bookmarking is tied to the Music Player, NOT the Podcasting app. So only devices which either have the new player or have a sw update with the new player will have that feature. I know....I know... but the upcoming devices with Podcasting preinstalled should all have it.

Luckily there is now the Nokia Software Updater app up at Nokia.com, so those happy devices which take on the new player will be rocking and ready.

More hints to help you get the most out of managing your Podcasts on the Nokia Podcasting app:

Subscribe to GOOGLE Calendar in Nokia Podcasting

You can now subscribe to your Google calendar (http://calendar.google.com) in the Nokia Podcasting application.

Log into Google Calendar. From the Google calendar, select:
Calendar Settings, Calendar Details.

Add the XML link under “Private Address” as a Podcast in the Nokia Podcasting application. (From the Nokia Podcasting app under PODCASTSS, click OPTIONS>NEW PODCAST and type in the RSS)

Simple, huh?

This is not only a nice feature for you, but its also a way for other family members, friends, or carpoolers keep track of who is where at what time. Thanks Google!

Continuing our series of hints to help you get the most out of managing your Podcasts on the Nokia Podcasting app:

Get your own personalized search result feed.

www.podzinger.com

1. Go to www.podzinger.com. Enter your search topic. (For example "N95". Or "Veronica+Mars") and choose if you want results for "Audio", "Video", or "Both".

2. When the results are returned, click on the llittle orange“RSS” icon
in the results page.

3. You will be shown a URL. In the Nokia Podcasting application, go to PODCASTS>OPTIONS>NEW PODCAST and type in that URL to subscribe to episodes which feature your key word.

4. Every time you update that feed, you’ll get the latest episodes which contain your search term.

Me love this long time... This feature lets me know when someone is podcasting an episode about things I am interested in. It also allows me to get individual episodes about the topics I want to hear about without having to subscribe/ unsubscribe to a full show. VERY cool feature from the folks at Podzinger.com.

Try it out and use the COMMENTS section to let us know what you think.

One of the things heavy users are asking for is a better way to manage their subscribed feeds. Until we get those features into our code, here is the first part of a series about some killer alternatives which should make your mobile podcasting experiences even better.

www.podnova.com

Setup all your favourite podcasts online. Its a little bit of work to get this setup and typing your new RSS or OPML into the Nokia Podcasting client, but once you do it...it rocks.

a. Sign in and Log in.

b. Add the URLs of your favourite RSS feeds. (or import your favourite OPML) The latest episodes of these feeds will now be ready to listen on the PC in one player. Cool! But we're not done yet.

c. Scroll down and find links to three different feeds:
i. A RSS feed with the newest episode per subscription
ii. A RSS feed with the episodes that you seperately added to 'PodNova podcast episodes for [your username]'
iii. An OPML feed with all episodes from all your subscriptions

d. Open your Nokia Podcasting app on your device. Open PODCASTING. Choose "OPTIONS". Choose "NEW PODCAST".

Type in that monster URL from the first RSS link that you see on your Podnova page. (This is the not so fun part. but its worth it.)

e. Now, you will get an updated Feed called "Podcasts for (Your Name)". This will put all the latest episodes of your favourtie podcasts into one feed.

One they are there, open the feed and use "OPTIONS" , then "MARK" or "MARK ALL" to manually choose which episodes to download.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

(PodNova is not afflicated with Nokia. The solutions just happens to work pretty great with Nokia Podcasting. Since Valentines Day is coming up, we want to share the love.)

Remember when we asked you to recommend postcasts?

Well, the majority of your recommendations are now live in the Nokia Podcasting app. (I'm a firm believer that instant gratification still takes too long. So isn't it nice to see some things can be implemented fairly quickly.)

There is a new subfolder in the Featured directory called "Recommended from Nokia Podcasting Blog" which is now dedicated to podcasts recommended by YOU.

There are a few recommendations which we thought would be best suited to be in our international directories because they were in a language other than english. So placing them within the appropriate country folder seemed the most logical place.

We're experimenting here... so the podcasts listed may rotate or be taken off. But let's see what the feedback is. Like I said before, feel free to self-hype for your 15 minutes of fame. You might be a breakout star.

We will continue to take submissions from the COMMENTS section. As a reminder:

Please list:
1. Name of Podcast
2. URL of RSS feed
3. Format (Audio or Video)
4. Why you think its a great podcast

Many shows were previously suggested with either no link or only a link to the website. Don't make us work too hard to find you.

Also, feel free to leave feedback on the categorizations. We put a few shows in "Comedy" which probably should be under "Talk Shows" or "Talk Radio". The idea is that the categories can help people find what they want quickly. So we're open to suggestions.

So help us continue to help connect people to cool content they might not otherwise find. Your voice is heard.

For those of you lucky enough to have N95s in your hot little hands, you might notice that the 1.00.0-1.00.2 versions of Nokia Podcasting just don't want to install. (S60 3.1 vs S60 3.0)

We now have an updated version of Nokia Podcasting which will install on the N95 (and should work on other S60 3.1 as well. Fingers crossed.)

Presenting version 1.00.3! (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD)

There are no other changes in this build, so those of you with other S60 3.0 devices who are still dreaming of the N95 can happily continue to use the 1.00.2 version.

For those of you still using the beta version of Podcasting ? Shame! Update today for improved features and stability! (either 1.00.2 and 1.00.3 can be installed)

EDIT UPDATE: The Podcasting Survey is now closed.
But you can still leave your comments, feedback, suggestions, and gripes on the Comments section of this blog!

********
Original Post:

For those of you who have installed and used Nokia Podcasting on an NSeries S60 3rd edition "multimedia computer":
(and ok..you Eseries fans can play, too)

We have survey for Nokia Podcasting up and running for you to give feedback.

URL LINK WAS HERE: Nokia Podcasting Survey is now closed

We want to know how well you think the application works as a mobile podcatcher (ie., the usability of the app once you've gotten connected...not the connectivity/WLAN) as well as feedback on what things you feel are priorities for future versions. (Here's where you can let us have it to get that Bookmarking feature in, to improve the setup of the WLAN, improved personalization of folders, Podcast creation, etc.)

It's unfortunately a pretty looooong survey (34 questions... both scaled and open ended.). But we really need to ask the questions to find out which things are on the right track, what needs to be prioritized, and to justify that mobile podcasting is worth the time and investment to continue to develop.

Thanks in advance for your feedback! (And feel free to leave a comment in the comments section if you havent yet used the Podcasting app, but are interested in giving feedback in the future.)

UPDATE EDIT:
From the Comments, Alex said:

I filled out the survey, and would certainly encourage everyone to do the same. In addition, here a few comments that I'd like to share with everyone here.

Before adding new features, it would nice to see some of the existing features improved:

Thanks Alex. To clarify: The survey is absolutely concerned about how to improve existing features as well as new features. This feedback just helps the development team get an idea of which things appear to be highest priority from the key users. Is an existing feature "good enough" to want to get other new features in before going back to make other improvements... or would improvements be more useful than new stuff?

You get the idea. But I wanted to clarify that we're definately looking at the improvements as well as the new.

Here is the updated version of Nokia Podcasting

Download: Nokia Podcasting 1.00.2

Minor updates include:

1. Default Download Limit `% Setting changed from 25% to 75%
2. Fixed ability to search within active Directories.

Oh? You didn't know you could do that? Try this:
a. Open a directory in DIRECTORIES (The folder will change color to Yellow when active)
b. If there is a folder within that directory, click to activate it.
c. Choose OPTIONS>SEARCH and type in a key word or title.
d. The Search will look within the active directories.
e. A temporary folder will appear in DIRECTORIES with the search results. This will be cleared when you exit Nokia Podcasting.

This is helpful for finding content in many subfolders of the DIRECTORIES>PODCAST DISCOVERY folder. Or if you add your own favourite OPML directory and want to only search within that rather than a wider search. (Helpful also for international directories when wanting to search in local languages.)

3. Fixed problem with installing newer version of Podcasting over an older version. (See Updating Nokia Podcasting: FAQ for more information)

NOTE: We have noticed that the automatic updating feature still needs some work before its perfect.

If you are automatically updating many large files at the same time, sometimes not all of the episodes will update. (You will see a red "!" by the shows not updated.)

To fix this, you can either manually update the shows which failed, or if your device is plugged in- try changing the default Download settings to update every hour (staring at a specified time) instead of just once a day. This should pick up any failed updates.

Thank you all for the comments in the other posts. We are reading everything and continuing to evaluate what we can do to make things better. We're already hard at work on implementing some of those issues. :-)

Looks like some more Podcast directory owners are offering additional SEARCH options which are compatible with Nokia Podcasting. Check them out and leave comments with your feedback.

You can update your Search default settings as follows:
Nokia Podcast>Options>Settings>Connection>Search Service URL, then type in one of the following URLs:

Podsonoro (Spanish Podcast Directory Search)
http://www.podsonoro.com/searchservice/?keywords=#&format=rss

YouLoud
http://www.youloud.com/searchservice/?keywords=#&format=rss

Previously mentioned:

The PodLounge
http://mobile.thepodlounge.com/nokia_search.php?q=#

Podster (German Podcast Directory Search)
http://www.podster.de/tag/#/rss

Digital Podcast (Default)
Click here for link

If there are any problems, you can restore the default;
Nokia Podcast>Options>Settings>Restore Default

René wrote in the comments section:

This application is brilliant, but there are some things i would like to see in a future version, where can we send "feature requests"?

Here you go,,,

Now that you have had a chance to test drive Nokia Podcasting, what are some features you would like to see in the future for Mobile Podcasting?

Use the Comments section below to give your suggestions and we'll pass them on to our development team for consideration for future releases.

If you would like to be considered for future surveys and contacted directly about Nokia Podcasting (and mobile podcasting in general), send an email here with your name, email address, and geographic location. (And if you've got a podcast, send that info, too.)

Thanks!