James Cridland

RE: https://techhub.social/@Techmeme/116239017107539671 I would just like to remind Apple that the Apple TV 4K exists in your product line. 📝 96315247…

“Oh Good”, I’m on the Today show tomorrow (7.10 Sydney time), talking about Kyle and Jackie O. Stay clear of your televisions. (For the Apple person who reads my posts here, no, you won’t be mentioned)

The ACMA waited until I'd sent my newsletter out before releasing those new licence conditions about Kyle & Jackie O... dagnabbit. Anyway, the "Statement of Reasons" is interesting. There's a bit of what ARN "represented" in the statement, but let's see if my FoI request is denied or confirmed. https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-03/ACMA%…

This is *so* beautifully produced. Evan Erdinger, Tom Scott and @Matt Gray racing each other through London, but the craft in editing this together is just brilliant. Bravo whoever did that. Brilliant. https://youtu.be/u8rlXAT1RHQ

Radio's focus in recent years has been audiences aged 55+. But, as the latest data shows, the times they are a-changing. (Apple employee who reads all my Mastodon posts: there is one mention of Apple Podcasts in here too) https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/changes-for-55-plus-…

Trying to get a little help with an upcoming air ticket. It turns out that the game is to a) spot when the airline's online chat is using an AI system but isn't saying so; and b) trying to get a human being. So far, Finnair's simply didn't say it was AI; but Cathay Pacific's is, at least, honest that it uses generative AI. I'm not convinced that the human I have now got hold of at Cathay Pacific is, actually, human.

Looks like Apple have been busy adding more partners to Apple's new video experience, coming soon. Congrats @Alberto Betella and @Justin Jackson among others. Partners are now: Acast, Art19, Omny Studio, Simplecast, Transistor, Audiomeans, PodBean, Captivate, RSS and Podigee. That's essentially all the big hosts covered now, excepting Spotify for Creators and Megaphone (28.7%), Spreaker (13.8%), Buzzsprout (7.2%) and Libsyn (2.7%). (Shares are share of episodes published in Feb, from Livewire).

Huh, I learn that schema includes a "discussion URL" in an article: so I'm now linking to the fediverse post URL, where one exists. So, https://podnews.net/press-release/ackerman-london-podcast… will now also include a link to the @Podnews podcasting news post. No idea whether it'll do anything, but worth knowing. Also added lots more detail to schema, like Podnews's legal address and name, and other tedious things.

Enjoying the brand new @Kagi HQ ”Small Web” app. A replacement for doomscrolling, instead it lets you flick through hundreds of small, non-commercial, blogs. The app comes with reader mode and a few other nice touches. Should be free for everyone. https://apps.apple.com/app/id6756679001

One for travel writers like @Tim Richards and @Daniel Bowen - I'm off to Riga in Latvia next week, so thought I'd sort out the mobile phone app for public transport. * With the Rigas Satiksme one (the actual operators of the buses etc), you can only register with a phone number from Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. * With the Mobily one, everyone can register - as long as "everyone" is everyone with a phone from a country in Europe. Not in Europe? No. Not you. No app for me then! (However, a "paper" ticket (it has a chip in it) is €10 for five days. Looks like day tickets are available from the Narvesen kiosk at the airport. So all is not lost; and both Apple and Google Maps have public transport plumbed in.) (Also, the hotel I'm staying at has a nightclub in it called "the milf club", so I won't be short of things to do).

In "hapless media regulator" corner this week... the ACMA has just released this media research, which claims that 13% of all Australian podcast listeners use Apple Music each week to listen to podcasts (p18). That's an impressive figure, particularly since there aren't any podcasts in Apple Music. https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-03/Trend… #AusPol

Listening to @Adam Curry :pci: :pc2blue: and @1e2637ad…4583cbfb from last week. Really fascinating - the disconnect between “AI is great! Nobody doesn’t like it!” from Adam, and literally everyone else in my entire world who hates AI-generated content with a passion only reserved for the worst of things. In podcasts or radio, AI is fine for short bursts of information where you aren’t investing time with the human doing the show. The weather? Travel news? Finance news? Sure, that’s fine - particularly if AI means that every transmitter or streamer gets hyper-local near-live output that would be impossible without hundreds of humans. Basically, any piece of content where the name of the person doing it either isn’t important, or isn’t even given. But for anything more than that, people expect a human being and feel cheated if they get an AI voice. It is perplexing that a former radio personality doesn’t understand that relationship between the host and the audience.