In my InBox this Morning

I subscribe to many industry newsletters. This was in one this morning.

Apple Gives Podcasts a Boost
According to industry research firm Gartner, Apple Computer’s new update of its iTunes application will allow consumers to better manage podcasts, which are MP3 files that can be listened to using any digital player. The iTunes software allows users to buy and manage music files. The release of iTunes 4.9 offers the capability to store podcasts separately from music files.

Since podcasting is getting some play as a training tool, the new version of iTunes may accelerate that trend. Gartner recommends that content providers get aggressive in offering podcasts, which could be a signal to providers of training content that podcasts are an area to start exploring more closely. Technologies such as podcasting, blogging and wikis (Web applications that allow users to add and edit content online; many wikis take the form of shared-knowledge databases edited by the people whose knowledge is in the database) are making significant inroads in the training space.