If you use iTunes to manage your podcast subscriptions, and you have enough of them, it can become quite difficult to sift through the list to see what has been recently updated. I often find myself wanting to quickly check whether anything new has arrived in say, the past day or two.

My Recent Podcasts script makes this a breeze:

If any podcasts are found, they’ll be presented in a list, where you can choose one to automatically start listening to it (though I personally rarely listen in iTunes itself):

Note there is a user-customizable flag in the script itself: kIgnoreAlreadyPlayedPodcasts, set to false by default. But if you would like to limit the listing to items that you haven’t already listened to, just set this flag to true.

Best part is that all of these dialogs are keyboard-navigable. So I popped the script into my iTunes script folder, and gave it an application-specific shortcut Cmd-Opt-R (with FastScripts, naturally).

Enjoy!

Update January 8: It’s been pointing out in the comments that Smart Playlists might be a better solution for this kind of scenario. I tend to agree, but I’m leaving the script and entry up here in case people find this preferable, or if they just want an example of the scripting techniques.

See Peter Hosey’s example of how you might accomplish the same thing with a Smart Playlist.

Note that the workflows he demonstrates could be even simpler by using the “Podcast – is – true” rule. He reminds me that smart playlists can be nested, which is just really, really cool.

Dan Benjamin has a great weblog, and has just taken the plunge into the world of recorded audio broadcasting. Checkout the Hivelogic Podcast (direct feed), whose first episode features a chat with John Gruber of Daring Fireball. The quality of the podcast is already much higher than most first episodes, so I’m looking forward to listening to the series evolve.

The content of the first episode is centered around the rumored Apple cell phone, with John taking the position (and more-or-less convincing Dan) that Apple can’t announce a completed product at Macworld, because the product simply requires too many cooks in the kitchen. He suggests that if and when Apple pulls together all the required resources to build a complete product, there will be so many companies involved that a leak is inevitable.

Maybe.

But I’ve learned to never underestimate Apple’s ability to redefine the rules. There’s just no saying what they could have cooking up their sleeve. And they have a huge, competent workforce that has been mostly slapped into confidential submission. So I’ve got a bold prediction about the mythological Apple Phone (and yes, this is a real prediction, unlike my last phone entry).

To be honest, I don’t know enough about mobile phone technology to be qualified to speculate, but here goes. I know that among the alleged problems for Apple are:

1. Apple has to make deals with wireless networks ahead of time.
2. Apple can’t realistically produce a device that supports multiple standards (e.g. CDMA and GSM).

So what’s my totally uneducated, shocking prediction for Macworld? Apple will get around these obstacles by redefining the mobile telephone market. Apple will modularize the “communication component” of mobile phones, by turning the hardware required for connecting to and communicating with any particular network a “snap-in” component: basically an extension of existing SIM cards. For existing SIM-card carriers, a module that adapts the SIM card to the necessary circuitry to communicate with a GSM network, and for other carriers, a module that handles the whole shebang. The whole thing will connect to the Apple Phone via a custom compartment underneath the battery. “Only Apple could have done this.”

You’ll buy one “iPhone,” and as many communications modules as you need for the various networks or vendors you do business with. As I understand it there are at least some vendors who will work with “unlocked” phones. That means roughly that the vendor will work with a “commmodity phone,” such as Apple could develop independently and secretly. But Apple doesn’t want to be limited to these commodity vendors, and they don’t want to confuse customers with a rash of different phones. So next week Apple will come out two mobile phone products:

1. The Apple Phone. Part iPod, part phone, part magic.
2. The Apple GSM Module. This will come bundled with the first Apple Phone as the only option, allowing the Apple phone to work with any vendor able to provide a GSM sim card.

At the Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs will hold up the world’s sexiest phone, which will glisten in the rapid-fire of flash photography as he announces instant availability for unlocked GSM networks. And one more thing: Apple is “anxious to work with any wireless network company that wants to develop an Apple Phone communications module for their customers. We’ve designed the a comprehensive hardware spec and we believe that most carriers should be able license and build these modules with a list price of $49.95USD, with a reasonable profit margin built-in.”

Game over.

I recently had the mixed pleasure of spending a few nights in the Argent Hotel (recently bought by the Westin), a rather nice edifice located in downtown San Francisco. In the month of December, the hotel had really attractive rates – I guess in the big scheme of things, it makes sense that not many people travel to San Francisco for the holidays. It’s sort of a “while you’re young” kind of town, and I imagine most people rush off back to their family homelands when the holiday season arrives.

But being from the bay area, I found myself back in San Francisco for a few days and needing accommodation. Right next to the BART, clean rooms, courteous staff, what more could I ask for?

Not being reamed left and right with nickel-and-dime bullshit.

Honor-bar fridge: No personal use.
Each local telephone call: $1.
One two minute domestic long-distance call: $9. (!!!)
Wall-tethered internet access: $15/day.
Reminding oneself to finally remember to call ahead and check on this bullshit: slight comfort, at best.

I will not rent rooms from nickel-and-diming bastard hotels.
I will not rent rooms from nickel-and-diming bastard hotels.
I will not rent rooms from nickel-and-diming bastard hotels.

Oh yeah, The Westin. They ripped me off in Chicago, too. Hopefully I’ll be more careful next time.

“I drank from a faucet, and I kept my receipt
For when they weigh me on the way out, here nothing is free.”

Death Cab For Cutie – Why You’d Want To Live Here

The best (i.e. worst) part about the Argent was the sign on the honor-bar fridge. They meant to say “We can’t let you use this refrigerator for personal items, because we don’t make any money off of that.” Instead, they insulted my intelligence (and all 666 other guests – no joke), with the statement: Please do not place your personal items in the Refreshment Center, as they may spoil. They might as well shut off access to the bath and bed, as my skin might melt off in a freak chemical accident, too.

No way to to treat a customer. We pay the big sum of money up front, so we don’t have to pay the bullshit money as we go.

Today Garrett Murray let loose a rather provocative post, wherein he details the unfortunate series of events that unfolded after selling his company’s product and web site to Brian Ball of MacZOT.

Long story short: Brian agreed to pay roughly $5000 for the product, in installments. But a contractual loophole of Garrett’s own devising inadvertently allowed Brian to simply stop paying, and allow ownership to revert back to Garrett. Brian essentially claims that Garrett got more money out of the deal than he could have otherwise, and Garrett essentially claims that Brian was kind of a prick about the whole deal.

You be the judge. Also be sure to check out the extensive debate on the (now buried, it seems) digg entry. Here both Brian and Garrett have a chance to let their feelings be known in the public debate. My summary? Liberals will agree with Garrett and conservatives will agree with Brian. (“Have a heart” vs. “Tough shit, kid.”)

But what really interests me…

I find the drama of this story a bit engaging. It’s always at least a little bit interesting to watch a car crash, even if you can sort of tell that people are getting hurt. But what I can’t believe is that a relatively mature product like this sells for only $5000. And Garrett was including 50 hours of consulting with the deal. By my reckoning that means he was essentially selling 50 hours of work and throwing in the business for free.

But this got me thinking. Will anybody sell me their product for $5000? I am a good buyer. Make me an offer, and if I like what you’ve got, I’ll pay cold hard cash for it. No installment crap. If you won’t sell for $5000, how much will it take? Send me a private email detailing the terms of your offer (not legally binding), and I will let you know if I’m interested. I promise not to divulge any specific details to the public about your offer. I just want to know what my options are. If you’re a desperate shareware developers looking to get away from a particular product, maybe we can help each other out.

After a week or so, I’ll post a followup consisting only of statistical information such as average offering price, number of total offers, etc. And I’ll let you know if I ended up with any new products in the pipe.

Let’s make a deal!

Update January 5: I’m sure you’re probably curious whether this is garnering any results. So here’s a little update: as of this writing I’ve received at least 15 legitimate, reasonable offers comprising mostly Mac software titles, but also a web site, and a Palm-platform product. There have also been, needless to say, a few good jokes.

The viability of the serious offers, in my estimation, sort of run the gamut. But there’s definitely some interesting stuff in there. The range so far is from $2,000 to $20,000, with some quite interesting stuff in the lower end. I have to confess that if I make an acquisition I will probably be bargain-hunting. Some of the pricier offers would still be a great deal to a more monied investor, but are probably too rich for my blood right now.

Update: The product I acquired is MacXword from Advenio, LLC. The product was rebranded and released on March 21 as Black Ink! For more information about the process I went through and the offers I received, see my Acquisition Roundup post.