This podcasting thing… revisited
Posted on December 30, 2005
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A month or so ago, I jotted down a few sentences on podcasting:
I keep reading about podcasting (example). I guess I don’t get it — or maybe that’s because I don’t live with an mp3 player attached? I like the concept, but for me to find time to listen I’d have to burn the things on to a CD and listen during my commute. And that just feels too much like work. And besides, I’m already a feed junkie, I don’t think I could manage adding audio into the mix.
Since I can never just leave well enough alone, I have, of course, tip-toed into experiencing this podcast thing. It is interesting, but not without some challenges for those of us not hooked on iTunes and iPods. But, I’m slowly learning how to “do” this and thought I’d write up my low-buck approach.
Challenge 1: I don’t own an mp3 player! My wife and kids all have ‘em, but not ol’ dad. I have the next best thing though — the mighty iPAQ. It is getting a bit “dated” in the features scene, but still quite capable.
Challenge 2: My iPAQ isn’t exactly chock full of free and available storage. And my solution here doesn’t go a long ways to mitigate that, but it works for now. I already had a 256MB SD expansion card that had some software (*cough* games) on it. I just uninstalled that stuff and dedicated it to podcast mp3s. Longer term I’m gonna want a 1GB card here I think. I seem to spend more time than necessary making sure I delete ‘casts after I listen to them to make room for the next.
Challenge 3: Pocket PC’s version of Windows Media Player can be a pain. And, more importantly, I realized very early on that part of the key to this is having a player that can resume/bookmark from where it was before shut-off or stopped. As far as I know after a very cursory look, wmp couldn’t do this for me. Enter an old favorite: GSPlayer. Not only is it free, but it has just about every feature that I need to listen to my MP3s and podCasts.
Wouldn’t it be cool if an MP3 player could have a “podcast mode” switch that would tell it to automatically delete an mp3 file after it has been completely played? I wonder what it takes to do a GSPlayer plugin type thing…
Challenge 4: This one I’m still working on. Right now, as I find podcasts that I might be interested in, I search the appropriate site for an RSS feed that I can add to my netvibes pages. This way I am alerted as new episodes are released. The downside to this approach is that I’m cluttering up my “rss reader” page with all these extra podcast feeds. In a perfect world, there would be a service that I could tell what podcasts I care about. That service would then give me an RSS feed specific to just those podcasts. Boy, doesn’t that sound like a nifty Web 2.0 thing? I bet someone’s already doing this (hell, maybe iTunes does? Can I use that if I don’t have an iPod?) I need some advice on this one I think.
So how does it all work? Pretty well, actually. I toss the podcasts on my laptop as I see ‘em, then I periodically update my iPAQ with them. I pretty much do all of my listening in my car on my work commute. I just plug my player into the same “input line” that my XM Satellite receiver uses, thus reusing the existing FM Transmitter. (side note: Using the XM equipment that way is a bit wonky - it won’t broadcast unless the included power adapter is plugged into the XM radio -and- the radio is on. /shrug). I’ve found some very interesting podcasts and some real clunkers. Once I figure out which ones I like I’ll have to post about ‘em.
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I know what you mean about some Podcasts being clunkers, I’ve recently dumped my subscription to the ASP.NET podcast after several lemon episodes that I’ve considered a waste of my time.
Lately, I’ve taken a liking to the IT Conversations feed. Their theme is syndicated content from a variety of technical conferences around the world. While some of the content isn’t exactly hardcore techno babble, it is quite amusing in a geeky sort of way. For example, Ze Frank and PopTech 2005 was quite hilarious in his ranting about airline safety
Regarding using iTunes to manage Podcasts, surely this would work. iTunes may be a bit of a beast for this simple task, but give it a try and see how it goes.