SCOM03800 Subscribing to 2013 Members Shows

Ever wanted to publish your own magazine on the iPad.

To date, it's been complex and prohibitively expensive, but that has all changed with MagCast!

I've been inundated with requests for information on how I was able to create and publish the new ScreenCastsOnline Monthly interactive digital magazine via Apple's Newsstand. So in this week's show, I take you behind the scenes and take you through the process of how I publish the magazine each month, using a brilliant new publishing platform called MagCast.

MagCast is a comprehensive publishing solution that is designed to enable you to create and publish digital magazines directly to the iPad via Apple's Newsstand. It's as simple as creating a PDF each month, submitting to the Newsstand platform, add in your links and interactive content and publish direct to Newsstand. Your new issue gets delivered to your subscribers automatically, and if you're selling your magazine, Apple send you a cheque each month for your sales.

It's really that simple!

MagCast is more than just the delivery platform though, it includes full training, support and even marketing help to get your magazine published and promoted. MagCast even creates your Newsstand app for you, and gives you full instructions on setting up an Apple Developer Account setup by step via a series of screencasts. No development skills are required, it's all laid out in click by click instructions that you can follow along with.

In this week's tutorial I demonstrate some of the key aspects of Newsstand and the MagCast platform including a walk through of me creating the October issue of ScreenCastsOnline Monthly through to publication. You'll be amazed at just how easy it is!

This full tutorial includes sections on:

• Newsstand
• Newsstand Apps in the App Store
• MagCast Platform
• MagCast Training Modules
• Creating a Mag Issue
• Creating the Pages Document
• Submitting to MagCast
• MagCast Tools
• Testing Your Mag
• Publishing Your Mag

In this special episode, I spill the beans on my super secret project.

Yet another way to access ScreenCastsOnline tutorials and a little bit more!

The full tutorial includes sections on:

• Introduction
• Magazine Walkthrough
• How To Subscribe
• Wrap Up

Following on from episode 327 (over six months ago), things have changed significantly behind the scenes at ScreenCastsOnline.

By popular demand, this episode brings you up to speed with how I've gone from an intensely manual production process, stretching to produce a single show each week, to an efficient, streamlined and automated workflow allowing me to produce two shows each week.

As part of the review, I also take a quick look at my recently acquired MacBook Pro and Thunderbolt Cinema displays.

This full tutorial includes sections on:

• New Hardware Setup
• Changes to Displays in System Prefs
• Production Workflow
• Checklist & Encoding
• ScreenCastsOnline Website & CMS

Last show of the year so I thought I'd do something different.

This week I take you through the ScreenCastsOnline workflow, from preparation, through recording and editing, on to encoding and subtitles to final testing and publication. The whole process is fairly complex so I've broken it down into manageable chunks.

I'm hoping to streamline the publication side of things in the New Year with the launch of a new website based on a bespoke content management system, which should automate a lot of the manual processes involved in producing the RSS feeds and publishing to the websites. Once that is in place, I'll need to start looking at automating or outsourcing more of the video production work. But until then, take a look at how things are organised now and wonder how on earth I manage to produce a show every week - I know I do!

The traditional "wired" model of having to sync your iOS device with a Mac to access the latest podcasts is just too limiting and extremely frustrating. It means always having to be near to your Mac to sync the latest stuff - not always possible, especially if you're travelling.

There is also a move to start using different iOS devices for different things (if you're fortunate enough to have both an iPad and and iPhone/iPod touch). The iPad is perfect for video podcasts and the iPhone/iPod touch for audio podcasts. There are many 3rd party "podcast catchers"available to allow you to download podcasts directly to your iOS device, but nearly all have a couple of "issues"or missing features. Some are iPhone only, but you can use them in 2x mode on your iPad - not the best idea. Some don't support "protected feeds", so that makes them unusable with ScreenCastsOnline and other premium content. Some don't support chapters. Some are just out and out buggy!

Eventually, I've managed to find an application that works great on the iPhone, iPad and iPad touch, supports fully "protected feeds"and is optimised for video podcasts allowing you to access chapters directly. A major plus is that it also has a pro-active and passionate developer who continues to support his application.

It has a ton of other features too, including an easy way to migrate your podcasts from iTunes using OPML and eMail. The application is called iCatcher and is available from the iTunes store for just £1.49

This week's tutorial takes you through the process of initially subscribing the ScreenCastsOnline members feeds in iCatcher!, allowing you to download the members tutorials directly to your iOS device. I also take you through a tour of some of the playback controls as well as demonstrating how effective iCatcher! is at playing video podcasts with chapters.

The second part of the tutorial takes you through the process of exporting your iTunes library via OPML, and splitting the file in separate files for video and audio podcasts, then using those files to migrate all your audio files to your iPhone or iPod touch, and your video podcasts to your iPad. Very simple to do and could save you a lot of time manually re-subscribing!

The theme for this week’s extended show are updates - First, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to update the ScreenCastsOnline website. The first section takes you through some important updates to the ScreenCastsOnline website to make searching and accessing tutorials easier for members.

The second section is an update on an application we’ve covered before - the new version of Fluid - a brilliant app that converts web applications into Mac applications.

Can you believe it! The 200th show!

To mark this special occasion, this week's show is slightly different from the usual in that it takes you (by popular request), behind the scenes at ScreenCastsOnline. Starting off with a brief video tour of my current setup, I then take you through all the various processes from planning and scripting, to recording and editing, finishing off with the host of updates I do to the RSS feeds and websites.

The full show covers:

• ScreenCastsOnline Studio Video Tour
• Recording, Editing & Encoding
• Scripting & Outlining
• Screencapture Recording
• Exporting From ScreenFlow
• Converting to AIC
• Editing in Final Cut Pro
• Final encoding to H.264
• Distribution & Publication
• Media File Upload
• Automating My Documentation
• Updating My RSS Feeds
• Publishing the Websites
• Updating the Forum
• Creating the Newsletter

Whilst you may not use most of these processes and techniques in your day to day activities, I hope the show will give you a better insight into how the show comes together each week!