Ryan recently discovered and shared with me some functionality within iTunes and AAC audio files specifically that was previously unknown to us. The functionality itself (you'll have to read his blog to find out) is very cool, and something that has been needed.
However, the more interesting part to me is that cool stuff like this sometimes sneaks out under the radar. I have seen this occasionally before, where a company has built some really fantastic functionality into a product, but then does nothing to promote it. It slips out when a few people find it and spread its existence via word-of-mount.
My company has been notorious for that in the past. We would stock our products with tons of extremely useful features that then never got documented, or were just never promoted to the sales force or general public. You would then get people years later saying, "Man, I wish there was just someway to do this task...", and we would then tell them the exact functionality they needed had been there for years. It got extremely frustrating at times.
So, my point is, brag up your features companies, all of them. Anything Engineering sticks in there, add it to a list features somewhere.
Back to the point at hand, this new feature is extremely cool. Ryan has pointed me at a podcast to try, and also remixed his latest DJ mix into enhanced AAC format, rather than MP3. I will try them both out tonight on my 4G iPod to say if it works as well on there as it does on his 5G.
Experimenting on doing this with an M4P will have to be left to him, given that I can't run ChapterTool (no MAC in my house yet), and my complete lack of M4P files (thanks JHymn!). Given that it is just XML data, and a known AAC format, maybe I should look into writing a Windows app for this. If I then added .cue support, it would do everything Ryan needs as well.
Update: Works great with a 4G iPod as well. Very slightly different, but mostly the same. A website regarding all of my finding will follow shortly.
5 years ago
1 comment:
I think the biggest problem is how to tell people about the features without overwhelming them. Printed manuals are a thing of the past, and no one seems to read the online docs. You can't put that sort of stuff in a press release, so what's left?
Well, you can get the world to tune in to your keynotes. You can take the show on the road and do demos. Or, my favorite, talk directly to the people who care.
I think developer blogs are the future. Microsoft is heavy in to this and we've seen other companies dip a toe in. A good developer blog gets to ride the same word-of-mouth that currently exists, but it gets to be the one to kick off that word and even put a spin on it if need be.
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