Odeo to Relaunch with New Website, Media Player
January 7, 2008
Odeo, the original podcast directory, is ramping up for a re-launch early this year.
The launch which is expected at the end of Q1 will have some major enterprise developments with their desktop podcast aggregator, media player and mobile device synchronization tool.
Eric Rupert, COO of SonicMountain, Odeo’s parent company, said “we expect to be released for a more “open” beta sometime at the beginning of Feb.”
Rupert explained that the new Odeo desktop media player also contains an embedded browser. “It’s a client for subscribing to, watching and listening to podcasts which can also transcode the content and sync it with a number of portable devices including smartphones.”
Glad to see Odeo with a fresh look! This site was one of the first that got me into podcasting.
Now I’m searching for a podcast client that supports my Blackberry. I hope this is the one!
Good deal!
I love Odeo, and hopefully they find a way to stay relevant.
Lately the place has kinda been deserted…
Wow, cool. I might have to start using it again then.
I’ll check out the Beta.
I’m assuming the fireant integration is meant to compete against services like Miro?
SomeAudioGuy:
Check getfireant.com, the old website for some dated information (looks like prior to their acquisition). Like Miro, they say that it subscribes to RSS content and plays it. However, it also can transcode the video and synchronize it to mobile devices. The info there says devices like “some phones”, Creative’s products and others. Maybe more devices coming?
Don’t hold your breath.
I tried odeo once and it was so slow to finally listen to one podcast that I never used it again.
From what I remember about fireant, all it did was eat up a ton of hard drive space and not allow me to delete files from the software itself, i had to manually go and seek out these files from my hard drive to delete. it also never did what it advertised in connecting to my phone or Zen.
so if the new version doesn’t fix these problems I don’t see any reason to use it at all.
Ethan W – Blackberry support via 3GP now with a better synch integration on the way. Just finished Windows Mobile 6 support via synch and wmv conversion in the beta. sign up at beta.odeo.com for an invite.
SomeAudioGuy – you are correct about the current state of Odeo and the new site will have not only more content, but better content organization and cool features like an advanced search engine, contextually relevant suggestions, linkage from the player to the website, etc. sign up for an invite at beta.odeo.com
Ethan w – support for your blackberry is on the way but doubtful you’ll ever see it from odeo. Smarter to put your creative time and energy into a platform that has a better depth of software development going on. Miro is one to check out for sure.