Microsoft eyes podcasts

Microsoft is apparently paying close attention to Apple's plan to give its iTunes music software a "podcatching" feature -- letting people use the program to subscribe directly to audio programs, or podcasts, that are then downloaded automatically when new content becomes available. (Currently such functionality requires an extra program such as iPodder or iPodderX.)

During the revival of the Gillmor Gang audio program over the weekend, podcasting pioneer Adam Curry said he had been trying for some time to persuade Microsoft and Apple to pay attention to the trend and build podcatching features inside Windows Media Player or the iTunes software. He said things changed when Steve Jobs demonstrated the new iTunes podcatching feature last week at the Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference. On the Gillmor Gang, Curry explained what happened next:

"It was like 15 minutes after it showed up in the Wall Street Journal when Microsoft called, saying, 'Hey, how do we get in this?' I don't know a lot about Microsoft. I do see they're a lot hungrier company than they used to be. But every single time you talk to them about anything that's new, or in this case iPodder functionality inside Windows Media Player, the almost standard answer is, 'Yeah we're going to have a lot of that in Longhorn.' That to me means there is this huge steamboat that is very difficult to steer left or right, and it's just harder to get stuff done at Microsoft."

That's just a snippet of an interesting discussion of the topic. You can download the full program via the Gillmor Gang link above.

On the same subject, Microsoft's Robert Scoble pointed out over the weekend that one podcasting group, the Podcast Network, was wondering how to get its programs into the new iTunes version. Wrote Scoble: "I don't know anyone on Apple's iTunes team, but I will pass this to our podcasting team. Oh, am I even allowed to admit that we have a podcasting team? Heh, the secret is out."

Update: Scoble offers his take on some of the Gillmor Gang's comments.