Inside Mediafly.com (Tech Insights)

Show off your podcast on your website with Mediafly's "easy media" presentation technology (free)

PodcastPickle.com recently updated their feed pages to use Mediafly™ Presentation Engine™. You can see this technology in action on all PodcastPickle.com show pages, such as their display of This Week in Tech (one of my personal favorites). Mediafly is allowing partners to use this technology but will be releasing to the public soon. But you can get to it now if you want to try it out. It is about 4 lines of code and allows your to display any podcast on your website (i.e. make your own podcast look/function great or show off your favorite(s).

Here is how it would look:

Here is how to do it:

Here is an example snippet of code to render the podcast above. To get your personalized code to display any podcast you desire, visit www.mediafly.com/MyFeedWidgets.aspx

  <script type="text/javascript"> var mediaflyEmbeddedFeed = new Object(); mediaflyEmbeddedFeed.code = '4UtjbcvSKMMyJmSM'; _mediaflySource = 'mediafly-typepad'; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.mediafly.com/widgets/embedfeed.js"></script>

PodcastPickle gets a makeover (and some new features)

	PodcastPickle.com, one of the best resources for finding the top podcast, has partnered with Mediafly to provide improved access to the best podcasts in areas such as top 100 audio and video podcasts. PodcastPickle leverages the Mediafly™ Presentation Engine™ to find podcasts on PodcastPickle and quickly/easily add them to your Mediafly Channels for download & sync to your iPod/iPhone and most USB Players (e.g. sansa, creative zen, iriver, etc.) as well as Mediafly-enabled devices such as the revolutionary chumby.
We (Mediafly) will be making the Presentation Engine™ available to other publishers and bloggers in the next couple months.  If you want early (free) access email us at www.mediafly.com/contactus Now, find something great on PodcastPickle.com today. Here are a couple of my personal favorites: This Week in Tech Dan Carlin's Hardcore History NBC Today Show Enjoy! Carson

Get all your Podcasts on your iPhone OTA via Mediafly.com (even over Edge)

You can now get all of your podcasts over the air on your iPhone (yes -- even on Edge!).

It's easy. Here's how:

1. Create a free Mediafly.com account (if you don't already have one)
2. Select your podcasts and organize them into your channels
3. Visit mediafly.com/iphone on your iPhone and enjoy!

The Mediafly iPhone site is still in development but I figured I would post access so that you could play with it.  I use it on my drive in and the over the air (OTA) playing works great, even on edge.

If you are new to Mediafly... the Mediafly service (which is free) allows you to find and manage all of your podcasts in one place play, download, or sync to almost any device.

You can download and sync your podcasts to your desktop iTunes/iPhone/iPod as well as your Chumby and any MTP-enabled usb player, such as Sansa, Creative Zen, iRiver, and more...

We're still in beta and the iPhone app (as I mentioned) is still in testing. So, please send your thoughts and ideas to www.mediafly.com/contactus or post them here. We love to hear what you think.

Enjoy!
Carson

p.s. Here is a more detailed visual of the Mediafly iPhone experience...

Mediafly Syncs podcasts to ANY media player (almost)

If you use iTunes then podcasts are pretty easy. You can use the iTunes podcast manager. Or you can use Mediafly's SyncClient. 

But, what if you use a SanDisk, iRiver, Cowon, Creative Zen, Mobile Phone, etc.? Well.... Mediafly has the solution (of course I am biased as I work at Mediafly).

You can now manage all of your podcasts on Mediafly.com and then automatically sync your podcasts to any USB player -- or at least any player which supports Microsoft MTP (which most do).  The SyncClient copies files directly to your player without any action by you, bypassing any clunky software in the middle, such as Windows Media Player, Yahoo!, etc.  This new version is still in Beta (testing) but it is now available on the Medaifly SyncClient download page (You must select the Beta link)

How to download the Mediafly SyncClient Beta

1. Goto www.mediafly.com/syncclient (You must select the Beta link)
2. Create a free Mediafly account (if you do not already have one).
3. Select the beta download link which is located below the production SyncClient download button.
4. Follow the installation instructions and launch the Beta SyncClient
5. Attach your USB Player and it will automatically be detected and synced.  

How does it work?
It is pretty simple... The SyncClient runs in the background downloading your podcasts during the day while you work.  And, as soon as you plug your device in, the SyncClient adds all of your new podcasts and organizes them into playlists for easy access. And, almost as valuable, the SyncClient removes any expired files.

Tell me how it goes

We want to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or trouble running the new SyncClient,  just email us at www.mediafly.com/contactus

Mediafly widgets (or are they called gadgets these days?) to Share your favorite shows...

This is not live to the public yet but if you're a mediafly user and you want to share your favorite podcasts, or let's say you want to put the entire mediafly News area on your site, now it's easy. You can actually see the widget on this blog (probably on the left or right side depending on how I'm feeling that week).

We've built the system to be very easy. Here are the steps.

1) Visit www.mediafly.com/mywidgets.aspx

2) Select the content you want to see on the widget (see the first image below). You can select from options such as your personal channels, mediafly areas, or a search query.

Or if you have specific podcasts you want to showcase just enter the mediafly "slugs" in the box. The slug is the last part of the mediafly url, such as:  http://www.mediafly.com/Podcasts/Feeds/Buzz_Out_Loud_from_CNET

3) Click the "Add Widget" button. This will take you to a list of your widgets. Select "view widget" to see your creation. You can change it right there. pressing the "update widget" will cause the displayed widget to change.

4) Copy the HTML code and put it into your blog.

If you have any questions, post them here or email us at www.mediafly.com/contactus

Here are some pretty visuals:

The Add Widget interface

How the widgets look on my blog.
These are my favorites widget and a widget or NBC5 Chicago's podcasts (some of my favorites).

 

First public review of Mediafly service (good stuff)

DownloadSquad has become the first to officially review Mediafly. I think it is a great review which points out what we are doing well and the things we need to improve (And the suggested improvements are in the works).

I would like to thank the author, Kristin Shoemaker of linuxlibrarian.org, for this great review.

Here is the Mediafly article as well as her other DownloadSquad articles. Enjoy!

Personalize the Podcasts on your Chumby (beta)

Secret Sneak Peak at Mediafly SyncPoints... You can now personalize the podcasts on your Chumby.  As you change your shows and channels on Mediafly they are immediately changed on your Chumby.

Here are the steps to personalize your Chumby (and a nice little visual below to show you).

1) Create a Mediafly account if you have not already and create your channels. You can always add/remove/modify them later. Your Chumby will adjust automatically.

2) Login to the Chumby website with your Chumby user id and password.

3) Find your Chumby ID. It is the long number that appears to the left of your Chumby (see below).  Copy that full ID.

5) Go to www.mediafly.com/mysyncpoints.aspx, Click on the add a Chumby link

6) Paste your full Chumby ID into the box provided (shown below).  Press Save.

7) Reboot your Chumby by pressing the little on/off button on the back.

8) Your Chumby is now synced with your Mediafly account. You should now see all of your Mediafly Channels in the Mediafly audio source on your Chumby.

If you have any questions, you can email me at www.mediafly.com/contactus.

Good luck!

Easy podcasts on your Zune (Manage them online. Deliver to your Zune)

Last month Mediafly launched Zune podcast integration. It is a great addition to the Mediafly service. You can now manage all your podcasts on Mediafly and deliver them to multiple devices, including the Zune.  And, the best part is that Mediafly organizes your podcasts into channel feeds which are delivered via RSS to your Zune.

So, after you have synced a Mediafly channel with your Zune you can add/remove feeds from any computer in the world via Mediafly.com and those changes are immediately reflected on your Zune if you have a WiFi connection. You don't need to connect to the Zune Marketplace to change your feeds.

Give it a try:

1. Create a Mediafly account
2. Add the podcasts you want and organize them into your channels (e.g. news, business, technology, etc.)
3. Click on "Deliver Options" from your My Mediafly page
4. Select a channel you want to add to the Zune and click on the Zune Direct (via RSS) option (note: because of the way the Zune works you have to add each channel seperately).
5. Enjoy Mediafly podcasts on your Zune!

If you have any questions or ideas on how to improve the Zune integration, email us at Mediafly.com/ContactUs

Simple beginnings

To kick off this blog I thought I would introduce myself and tell you a bit about what I'll be talking about. I have a passion for technology, innovation, media, and society. So, I'm going to use this blog as a platform to talk about the intersection of those passions and try and share any insights I have.  I am by no means a grammarian and I write quick and with passion. So please forgive any errors in grammar, syntax, and most likely spelling.

First a little bit about me. I am the CEO of Mediafly, which is an innovative media tech company (at least we like to think so). Our mission is to make New Media “easy media” so that the mass market that don’t have the technical talents or time as the younger generations can still benefit from the breadth and depth of opportunity that is available through “new media” sources, such as podcasts I’ll be talking more about Mediafly in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. For now, I encourage you to check out Mediafly yourself. That’s the best way to get a good feel yourself.

That’s it for now. I hope my insights spark thoughts, questions, comments, and debate. I encourage your feedback. I see myself as a student of technology and life and I’m always looking for teachers.

All the best!

Carson

p.s. If you are interested, here are my favorite podcasts.