Is anyone at Microsoft thinking?

That was a rhetorical question. The answer is obviously “no.”

As many of you will know, I listen to a few podcasts. Microsoft has decided that the final version of Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 will not support podcasts. Meaning that you will not be able to subscribe to podcasts (called “podcatching”) using their software. The most popular podcatching software is iTunes.

WMP 11 will not perform this simple task. Now, there are other software packages out there that do a good job with this, but one of the advantages to having WMP handle your podcasts is that if you use WMP to manage your music on your portable media player, you could eliminate an extra software package. Also, with 2 separate packages, there are bound to be frustrations when they don’t talk to one another properly.

I don’t use WMP. I don’t even use Windows. So this is not really going to affect me. It is just that the stupidity bothers me.

Ready for more stupidity? The Zune (Microsoft’s attempt at portable media hardware) will not automatically support podcasts either. Meaning that the software used to transfer media to the device will not have the ability to subscribe to podcasts. It will still play mp3 files, which is how most audio podcasts are formatted.

I will admit that there are still people who think that podcasting is just a flash in the pan and that it won’t be around forever. I respectfully disagree. But, it is something that is the hot thing right now. To not support it in media playing software is about as stupid as building a web browser that does not support blogs.