Filed under: Audio, Humor, iPod Family, Podcasting
Creative attempts to redefine "Podcast"
This is a good
one. When they aren't busy trying to sue the pants off of Apple,
Creative gets very creative indeed with the definition of "Podcast." While most of us would define
"podcast" as the distribution of audio/video content to an iPod via an RSS feed (more or less), Creative lets
loose with this whopper:"Podcasts, short for Personal On Demand broadcast, are audio files you can download into any MP3 player or computer." Um, what? Nice try, Creative. That's almost as good as Microsoft's "blogcasts."
[Via 37Signals]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tyler said 2:26PM on 1-09-2006
Maybe Creative is trying to extend the term "podcast" from something that is seemingly tied to one brand to something they feel that they can relate their products to.
However, the use of such a "backronym" is dubious at best.
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Dan said 2:28PM on 1-09-2006
I've heard this backronym before Creative latched onto it. It makes a lot of sense. You don't NEED an iPod to listen to a podcast, and people shouldn't think they do.
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John said 3:17PM on 1-09-2006
The other companies are trying to set it apart from Apple while Apple itself continues to try and pass it off as their own innovation.
Two sides to every story, Dave.
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oliver said 4:01PM on 1-09-2006
The point is, the name does stem from iPod. It's both funny and sad to see creative doing this, but i wouldn't expect any less from them really.
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tenin2wenty10 said 4:09PM on 1-09-2006
they also tried to rebrand them as a zencast...
http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/04/creatives-zencast-podcast-solution/
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Tim said 5:25PM on 1-09-2006
"as the distribution of audio/video content to an iPod via an RSS feed"
The definition of a podcast should be more along the lines of "an audio or video presentation" - simple. If I manually download it, does that make it not a podcast? What about if I listen to it on my computer directly or on another mp3 player?
The term podcast is a poor term, but unfortunately the mainstream media has latched onto it where there will be no changing it now.
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matthew said 6:37PM on 1-09-2006
Well I still hoover, but I dont have Hoover, I have a vacuum cleaner, who cares. Companies shouldnt try this vaguely Orwellien re-invention of commonly used words.
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mkp said 8:45PM on 1-09-2006
See, thing is, the POD in iPod already DOES stand for Personal On Demand.
I like Creative, but they really need to do their homework.
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jbelkin said 9:44PM on 1-09-2006
They should have stuck with zencast - neither will fly but it's better to go down with the ship than to be laughed out of existence ... they obviously spend way too much time thinking about marketing when they should be building a better mp3 player ... but hey, I guess it's easier to balme being out sold 90 to 5 on marketing.
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narco said 11:01PM on 1-09-2006
Most people know that Podcasts don't only work on the iPod, but like it or not, the word "Podcast" was inspired by the iPod. Can't change that.
Fishes,
narco.
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mozart said 11:52PM on 1-09-2006
For the record, I don't think Creative came up with the "Personal On-Demand" definition. I remember seeing it in wikipedia but it appears to have been removed. It is however still in the discussions page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Podcasting#Lost_reference
Quote:
"...The "Personal On-Demand" interpretation (with that capitalization) had been in international circulation as early as October 2004. ..."
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