We're very pleased to announce the first (and very early) beta of our podcasting products! Of the four applications and services on our roadmap, two are now available for public testing. You can now tag episodes at Podcast Tags, and you can create your own podcast and upload episodes at Podcast Spot. We anticipate releasing beta versions of Podcast Basket and Podcast Wizard sometime next month. For more information on all four products, visit the Paramagnus Podcasting site.

Although we had previously released a version of Podcast Tags, it was more of a test for us than anything. We've worked hard to fix the issues we had with the previous version, and we've added a few things too!

  • The website is now http://www.podcasttags.com, instead of the awkward http://podcasttag.com.
  • We have ping interfaces in both SOAP and XML-RPC (including ExtendedPing support).
  • In addition to looking for tags in your podcast, we also look for categories! That means almost every podcast can immediately take advantage of Podcast Tags.
  • We're still working on the API, but it should be available soon. The API project will allow you to tap into Podcast Tags from your own applications and services.

Podcast Spot is our podcast hosting service. The first ever release is now available for you to play with and take a look at. There is still lots of work to be done, but for now you can:

  • Create an account (register here)
  • Add episodes and categories
  • Select a Creative Commons license for your podcast

Additionally, these features are currently working:

  • If you upload in MP3, we'll automatically convert it to WMA (and vice versa)
  • You can download segments of audio files in MP3 format
  • Users can subscribe to a dynamic, general feed for your podcast or more specific MP3 and WMA feeds

We're really pleased that we were able to release the first "beta" in time for the Podcast & Portable Media Expo! There is still lots of work to do, but we're looking forward to getting some initial feedback on what we've done. If you're going to be at the Expo this weekend, come see us in booth #312!