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Acast buys New York Times-backed podcast company RadioPublic
Sweden-based podcast giant Acast has acquired public benefit corporation RadioPublic in a deal that gives it access to the podcaster's tech and talent.
RadioPublic aims to capture the 'Serial' podcast crowd
Public Radio Exchange (PRX), the non-profit that delivers podcasts like The Moth Radio Hour, is launching RadioPublic, a company that aims to capitalize on the popularity of podcasts like Serial. The first goal for the organization is to build an app that helps users find and listen to audio programs, including "spoken-word stories, news, information, journalism and entertainment," according to the company. Investors include some serious media players, including the New York Times, Graham Holdings and the Knight Foundation Enterprise Fund.
Public Radio Player app redesigned in latest update
Some of my favorite radio programs are from National Public Radio here in the States, including Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion. Fortunately, most of those shows are now available in podcast form, so that's primarily how I listen to them. And of course NPR stations broadcast terrestrially around the country, so if you want to listen to them the old-fashioned way, you can do that. But occasionally I need even more NPR. Sometimes I want to listen to classic stations in Boston or Chicago, or I just can't be bothered to scan around the dial and find my show. For those instances, the Public Radio Player app comes in very handy. It's just been updated with a brand-new design, and it allows you to tune in to more than 500 different NPR stations from around the US, wherever you happen to be. You can now also download your favorite shows (including some of those mentioned above), view news headlines from NPR, even follow stations on Twitter or donate directly to your favorite stations from within the app itself. It's a very impressive update to a really comprehensive app, and of course it's completely free. NPR consistently presents some of the best radio programming out there, and the new version of this app provides another great way to listen in.
Custom gameboots work dangerously on 2.80 [Update 1]
Those with homebrew on their PSPs have enjoyed a featured called "custom gameboots" for quite some time. These gameboots replace the PSP's default introductory sequence when launching a game. Players that were bored with seeing the PSP logo appear in front of a plain white background made cooler intros, usually involving anime characters, or ironically, gameboots from other machines. It's been revealed on PSP3D that custom gameboots now work on PSPs with firmware 2.80. However, the method used is somewhat complicated that those without strong technical skills will certainly brick their PSPs trying to use it. "There are absolutely no safeguards in place when you use this program, and it allows you to do anything to any of the files in flash0. On firmware 2.80, even replacing a single PRX module will nearly guarantee a brick. We feel it's important to keep you guys safe, so we're going to keep this relatively quiet until a safer method can be published." It appears that Sony's official firmware 2.80 has been cracked open like an egg. Expect the development community to continue to develop more and more interesting uses for the PSP as the weeks go by. [Update 1: Program is now available.]
