Word's out -- I mean even the WSJ had a story today -- that the latest version of iTunes, 5.0, is letting consumers post video podcasts that, in most cases, can be viewed from the little window in which iTunes typically displays the cover art of the CD/album containing whatever song is currently playing in iTunes. Modesty might prevent Allen from saying so, but I'm happy to point out that Allen and some other podcasters discovered  iTunes "secret videopodcast" capabilities in the previous version, 4.9, about a month ago. 

One can subscribe but you cannot view all the videocasts in the window within iTunes where album art or music videos display. This probably has something to do with the way the videopodcaster is creating their XML feeds. For those that don't launch within iTunes, for one can view them in Quicktime by calling them up from the iTunes folder. (I had to do this to view the videopodcast cited in the WSJ story.)

Given the frenzied rush by the media industry and technology companies to find some advantage in the burgeoning ecology of consumer-generated content, this move is another interesting play by Apple. Can Apple do for videopodcasts what they did for podcasts? How will they handle the inevitable posting of some copyrighted content?

Stay tuned...