I’ve talked about the new iTunes before, but there’s a few updates on version 4.9’s features that some people are interested in. Adam Curry mentions on his last Daily Code podcast show that the new iTunes will probably be out in 2 weeks. This means it is hurry-up time for other podcast-related companies (like Odeo) to get stuff out there - because from that moment on, competition will be hard(er).

Additionally, he mentions the addition of a new XML namespace - “pod:”. What this means is more ways to tag data - which explains Steve Jobs’s demonstration of scrolling through the tracks automatically updating the information picture at the WWDC keynote. Naturally, this has several other applications that can be used not only by iTunes but any other software. I can think of quite a few uses, like:

• Automatically providing the user with extended information about the specific artist playing at a given time
• Allowing the user to buy that specific track or album, through Amazon or the iTunes store
• Skipping directly to audio content of interest - remember one of the problems with podcasts is how hard it is to skip to what you want to hear, especially in podcasts with several “parts”

Podcast section bookmarking:

Just like you wouldn’t go through an eBook without bookmarks because finding what you need would be hard, podcasting too needs some sort of bookmark support in order to actually revolutionize how audio content works and is used by the listener.

I have a couple of ideas of my own about how one could use XML with current audio file formats (mp3, aac, ogg or PCM files) in order to provide bookmarking support and some of the features I describe above. I will probably write a bigger article about this soon, and how to implement it. This will probably become an important feature for future media players (software or hardware based), if podcasting keeps growing as it is right now.