With my first chat on Skype with my girlfriend I decided to try recording it for test purposes. I was using the Sony Stereo Microphone with my iPod ear buds, Sue was just using an ordinary computer microphone. All I did was open SoundForge and hit the record button and chat away. The quality is usable but background noise features heavily throughout.
Are you using iPodder? You may have noticed that it has been acting strangely. Once I search for new podcasts I’m never sure how many podcasts I’m going to get from the one feed and if I leave it to download automatically while I’m away I often come back to find that its downloaded around three shows that I have already listened to from the one feed. If you subscribe to over five feeds this is a major problem. So why not check out other Podcatchers and give them a trial run.
Having heard of jPodder all those months back I decided to download and give it a test run for myself. It also has a nice tidy website to go along side it. Its very easy to use and is clearly laid out.
The top tabs are:
Directory: which is powered by iPodderX’s. Its a simple menu, just click on the category followed by the podcaster ad click the tab beside the find button to subscribe to it.
Personal Feeds: is where your selected feeds go, you can unsubscribe to them add any time by clicked the square box, it also features the preview and download now button which always comes in handy if you are bored and want to listen to some few podcasts.
Downloads: This is the feedback area with the status bar showing how which it has downloaded to, once download has completed you can easily clear the contents.
Log: Is where you can follow how the downloading is going and if any podcasts were un-able to be downloaded.
Settings: This is a very useful area. you can decide which media played they will play on, where the downloads will take place and you can also import your favourite podcasts from iPodder.
Help: This area is very detailed and offers all the help you need if you come across a problem with the help of diagrams.
Overall this is a very good podcatching, easy for beginners but I’m still sticking with Nimiq.
I decided to put my previous post into action. I got my Sony Ericsson T630 just before Christmas it was only yesterday that I actually recorded something and sent it to my inbox. With a recording time of ten minutes I felt it was long enough for a mobile podcast that could feature updates or little tips/news stories. So it recorded in .amr format but when I checked my email it had transformed it into .wav which was strange. But on hearing the recording it was very bad quality a buzzing sound played loudly in the background which was a disappointment. If my sound seeing tour of Clonmel is to happen I need to test out my old Moto v300 and check its quality.
Update: I recorded a quick 20 second snippet on my Motorola v300 and sent it to my Irishfree account, it remained in .amr so I needed to locate a zip file which I had earlier used on another podcast. Luckily I located it and converted it in seconds. To progress with this I will need to delete some applications and images to increase its recording time.
As a child growing up my father would always say to me “You get nothing in life for free”, to which I would also answer what about the free lollipops with the Dandy or the free TV guides in the newspapers, “but you have to buy something to get something back” he would reply. While shopping in Dublin many years back I came across a catalogue in Argos and shouted “Dad, this is free!”. Free it may be, but what’s it for? What can you do with it except pick an item out and pay for it”. So up until 18 months ago I couldn’t think of anything that was “free” until I came across Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. I learned in a lecture that you could actually rip off the cover and put your name on it, imagine how cool that would be? You could be an author and show your Grandmother how amazing you were. The following lectures led us to the Creative Commons which is a place where you can value your work and decide how it should be used. This means that in some cases you can use other peoples work for absolutely free.
Liam, thanks for the kind note. I’m about to launch into the podcasting space myself, so I’m happy to help and learn. It is extremely exciting to hear about how you all are spreading Free Culture. Have you seen the Free Culture movement (not related to me) started by students at Swarthmore (http://freeculture.org)? Also, it would be great if you used CC music in your podcast — to again, reinforce the point you make in the beginning of your post.
Now people can choose to either pay for songs from iTunes or get free content on their MP3 players (Podcasts). Podcasting will get many artists noticed in the future (just like Bradsucks.net) who gets played in many Podcasts – even mine once it gets underway. Podcasting is free to listen to, if you don’t like it you can stop listening and subscribe to another. Many people are now looking at ways to make money from podcasting which could mean having to pay to listen to your favourite shows. This was an idea discussed by Dawn and Drew who already have a sponsored advert from msmobiles.com and appears at the end of the show so it doesn’t get it the way. Adverts in Podcasts can work if they are done in a fun way much like what Dawn and Drew do: you get the message but are entertained at the same time.
Having an iPod means alot to me, I can store my entire collection of CD’s and over 80 podcasts (many of which from openpodcast) that are updated daily. An MP3 player to most people means you are listening to music, expect this becomes a problem when you’re listening to Dawn and Drew or Armando and Sara and you start laughing out loud in public as people watch in dismay and wonder “How could a song be so funny?”.
We need some company to build a MP3 player dedicated to Podcasting (a great market ploy to get new podcast enthusiasts thinking: “Do I need one of these to listen to podcasts?”) The publicity would help podcasting grow and also warn people that if someone is laughing out loud it doesn’t mean they are mental.
With more and more podcasts appearing aren’t we stuck for choice? Yes and No. Let’s say for arguments sake that Podcasting is a Magazine. We can all go into a newsagents pick up a Magazine and browse thought it, thanks to Open Podcast it allows people to send in MP3 files by email people can send in promos (adverts) for others to listen to. I have subscribed and will find it hard to unsubscribe because of the following reasons:
It’s short (between 2-10 minutes); you get to listen to a wide variety of topics some of which you would never have subscribed to. It’s a little taster and if you like a show just listen out for the web address and jot it down in your mobile for when you get home.
In this case we can empty out the trash and subscribe to what we like the sound of, Podcasting needs to be personal (just like Adam Curry and Armando and Sara) who let us into their world while they podcast. In this way you get a bearing of what they are about and what makes them tick.
Unfortunately some major podcasters [Engadget and Radio Whore] have stopped for reasons unknown (I just wonder if they were getting enough listeners), which is a shame as I enjoyed listening to both. That’s the problem Adam Curry would never have seen come through: too many people podcasting for our attention.
Open Podcast is soon to release the code that allows people to send an MP3 to an email address and directly appears on the webpage, the website also allows you to ring (206) 984-1190 and have a podcast available to download straight away. Just be careful not to include:
Although it mostly features promotions, it does have some great content, if you subscribe you’re sure get a lucky dip not knowing what you’re about to listen to on your MP3.
Here’s the valuable feed: http://openpodcast.org/podcast.xml
A more focused Irish Blog area dedicated to Irish people as Podcasting in really starting to take off here, with more and more people beginning to Podcast.
Podcast Profiles - will be a place where you can get to know your favourite Irish podcasters, a mini interview asking them: how they got started, what their show is about, what they listen to etc. I will be emailing other podcasters and asking them the same 5 questions.
Irish Podcast News - will give informtion on new Irish podcasts and where to go to get them, and talk about their site. It will also be a place to record when Podcasting is featured in the press.
Contribue - will be a place for Irish people to have their say and feature on the show with their comments/opinions or even chat about one of the themes.
Podcasting Explained - will be very useful to people who have just heard about podcasting, it will feature terms such as Podcatching and Podmedia. Users can also contribute to this list.
Podcaster - will be the home home page for all of the above and will feature snippets from each of these and also some fresh podcasting news.
Normal service as usual continues here.
While listening to open podcasts I came across #701 from Hank Lynch, who was talking about how he doesn’t use a podcast receiver and doesn’t have the time for it, he doesn’t have a MP3 player so the only chance he gets to listen to podcasts and make his own is when he’s in front of his computer.
Well his problem was when he wanted to listen he needed to download each show especially Adam Curry which would take about 5-10 minutes a time and that’s just for one podcast. And once he downloaded and listened to it he then needed to locate the MP3 and delete it and complete the process again and again each day.
The answer finally came to him recently:
Prior to PodcastMania.com, in order to fully enjoy what podcasting was all about, you would have needed to download special software to “tune in” to these podcasts. I personally had over a gig of podcasts, in several directories on my hard drive and two 3rd party applications installed to gather and play podcasts. I was constantly downloading files, building playlists, deleting files….there had to be a better way! Enter PodCast Mania, the one stop, click and listen portal for listening to PodCasts while you’re tied to your desk! No third party apps, no file management, no clutter on your hard drive, just click and listen. Aaahhhhh….that’s more like it!
I would never of thinking to use Nimiq; the first three receivers you think of are iPodder, Doppler and iPodderX. 
Once downloaded Nimiq seemed to somehow stand out from the others. It looked really good. Unlike iPodder which has a text box to paste the RSS feeds, Nimiq requires you to hit subscription and enter the feed in the pop up box, you can enter how many enclosures to download (may come in handy if you’re on dial-up) and you can also decide where the playlist goes to: either iTunes or Windows Media Player.
The icons are nice, really clear, but the clean up icon is a correct sign, without the text I’d be wondering what it would do. It has a very useful Opml browser added to it, so you can scroll through the iPodder directory and select a feed from any category.
Under tools > options you can change the folder where the podcasts are sent to and schedule when downloads occur.
Podcasting has already featured in Time and Newsweek magazines; it appeared on CNN’s website and on BBC2. What needs to happen soon is some references to Podcasting in the Irish Press, get people to notice Irish Podcasters and maybe start their own Podcast from the information they are pointed to.
We have some excellent Irish bloggers which appear world-wide; why not have some excellent Irish podcasters?
How about an Irish couple who are more outlandish than Dawn and Drew? How about a drunkcast - instead of ringing your ex after a night out why not get out your mobile and record a live show in abrakebabra as you wait for a soggy kebab (that will be dropped on the footpath as soon as you get out).
I’m already subscribed to Eirpod who at the moment is just getting to grips with recording and has yet another listener.
Get young people involved in creating a local podcast (for the South East) , creating something useful that will stand for them in the future (e.g. content management, show production, editing and publicising), because it’s from teenagers I’m sure it would get a great audience.
Show could include topics on:
Also wouldn’t it be great to get a personal view of an event/location. For example with CAO forms due soon, surely wouldn’t secondary level schools like to know what Tipperary Institute is really like, what the courses involve, what lecturers are like, how’s the food, facilities and what’s the night life like.
Open source and creative commons are some of the massive steps to change the way we use the Internet. Sites such as wordpress, textpattern and many hundreds of free programs enhance our involvement of the Internet. Anyone can have a website for free to place their thoughts/opinions and their images.
The best source of advertising isn’t through television, magazines or the radio it’s by ‘word of mouth’ which is why Podcasting (only in it’s 4th month) has been so successful, you only have to look at sites like podcast alley or iPodderX to realise how many people are involved without them being told about this from other sources.
A podcast can be recorded by anyone of any age with only a little knowledge of information which is available on this site. All you need is a microphone/voice recorder, something to talk about, a computer (optional) and if you want to polish your podcast use a free sound program like audacity. Now once uploaded write a blog entry and place a link to your MP3 file, your blog should automatically add an enclosure to the rss file. With this RSS file people can subscribe to your show using free applications such as iPodder or iPodderX.
To listen you a podcast (podcatch) just go to audio.weblogs or the ipodder directory and get the RSS feed from their site, all content is free to listen to with most if not all playing non IRAA music such as Brad Sucks.
Another great service useful to podcasters is J2, this company allows you to sign up for free, get a number assigned to you that can allow listeners to ring you and leave comments about your podcast. The key item is that once recording it emails it to you in MP3 format so you can easily insert them into your own show.
Basically Pocketcasting is podcasting from where ever you are as long as you have GPRS access in your area. For example you can podcast a sight seeing tour while on holiday back to your friends without accessing the Internet.
Take my Sony Ericsoon T630 mobile, a podcast device? With a bit of work it can be your ‘on the move recording device’. Firstly enter the main menu, navigate to ‘pictures and sounds’ and scroll down to record sound, once you click it records so be ready. It records a maximum of ten minutes and stops, if you’re recording is less than that just click stop. The recording will stop and be saved in my sounds. It will be a default value of ‘Recording’. Now hit more > send > as picture msg > (click edit if you want to add text - could be show notes or links to websites). Finally hit more > send > followed by where your sending it to e.g. e-mail address and enter your e-mail followed by send.
At this point your podcast isn’t much use in your inbox unless your parent/friends have your password. What you need to do before you leave is to set up a gmail account or any other mail service with POP. If you have a blog such as Wordpress you can login > options > writing and enter your details such as your login name and password. Now you can enter your gmail in the recipients list on your mobile as you send the podcast.
This means you can podcast from any special event or any location right there and then allowing your listeners to be kept up to date. This makes your podcast so much closer to ‘Almost Live’.
Our Podmedia Podcast will soon be under way will the following themes. But we have already recorded two mini podcasts which are about two minutes in length (to listen to one of these click the logo to the left). These were great for testing and finding problems and overall user testing is what makes improvements in sound quality and sound production. Stay tuned for the Podmedia Podast launch date.
Subscribe to the feed and view the production notes.
When travelling to other countries what’s the first item we purchase? No it’s not a bikini or a pair of sun glasses or maybe it is? What most people buy is a travel companion guide with information about the region. So why not take Podcasting to another stage and make a sight-seeing tour from where you’re from. You could talk about the area, buildings, items of use to tourists like shops, prices, best places to stay, what the weather is like and what monuments you need to see. So before you leave for your destination go to (for example) sightseeingtours.com, search for the location you will be visiting and download the podcast to your MP3 player.
You could also record a podcast while on your holiday (a perspective from a tourist) and upload it to the website through GPRS or get to an Internet Cafe. This means a database should fill up for the most popular locations, best places to visit and areas to stay away from.
An interesting article on why some people don’t think the iPod is a useful item for Podcasting. As Adam has said on “The Daily Source Code“:
“Apple hasn’t picked up on podcasting because they are thinking about how things work from Apple to the rest of the world. They are not seeing what is happening.”
The Sony Condenser Microphone was later used for a podcast dealing with Christmas in Ireland. There was 8 of us contributing our views on what sound we think of at Christmas and what gadget a girl would like for Christmas.
This item was ideal for this recording. Each of us were sitting and standing around a table so sound needed to be heard from a long distace. We placed the Microphone in the center of the table, connected it to the Mini Disc Recorder and began talking. It picked up the sound very well and has a useful connection wire of 60cm which can allow alot of people to Podcast in one room.
Just to let all know, EirPod is up and running, www.eirpod.com, please forgive the untidyness of the site, but hey, if I dont get started, procrastinaition will set in. New Year and all that. Feel free to stop by. Blog is just my ramblings and plans for the podcast will be a weekly programme, (and no, not a program), as the tag is it says , EirPod - a view from Ireland. If you said two months ago I’d be doing this, I would have laughed at you, but thats why I like this format. I like it and I hope you do. Few things to sort out but we’re all learning.
Thanks to Liam for this site and please use the facilities. Go on, go on, go on go on, and do it. We’re a nation of talkers, so let’s talk, the world is listening. Thanks also to Adam Curry for the support and Marc of Mindcast, for talking to me over Skype, to set up a feed etc , relatively painless I assure you.
Only hours ago I stumbled across Eirpod, which to my surprise is an Irish Podcaster. He will produce a weekly podcast dealing with his interests. He is gifted with a “radio DJ voice” which is quite rare among people when they are recorded. Even he is shocked that he can podcast with a little help from his friend. This is a perfect example for anyone out there who has got something to say, don’t be scared, give it go. This podcast will be a must have on your MP3 player. So go to Eirpod and listen/subscribe to his podcast right now.
Andrew Davey has recently launched a Podcasting Client for MS SmartPhone 2003. You can use this application to subscribe to and download podcasts, right on your phone. Give your feedpack or ideas to ipoddersp@equin.co.uk and maybe donate some money.
History of Project
10th January 2005 iPodderXP v0.3 released Improved podcast download window and error handling. Settings window to alter iPodderSP behaviour iPodderSP v0.2 released - fixed update window not closing bug 9th January 2005 iPodderSP v0.1 released 8th January 2005 iPodderSP development started
Have you just discovered Podcasting? Want to Podcatch? Well all you need to do is take a glance at my simple step guide to downloading, installing and using iPodder.
Visit the iPodder.net homepage and click the link under download now. You will then be directed to Sourceforge, here you can click Podder.NET_0.11.zip and choose a corresponding mirror to download from. Next unzip the file and wait for the installation wizard to guide you through the process by following the instructions.
You should now see an iPodder icon on your desktop. When you double click it a mini icon will appear on your bottom toolbar. Now right-click the icon and choose options.
Application:
You will notice that you are subscribed to The Daily Source Code, Evil Genius Chronicles and The Gilmore Gang. If you want to try them out leave the box ticked, but if they don’t take your fancy just deselect them.
On the top left hand corner you can specify were your podcasts should download to. The default is set to C:\FeedDownload but may be best to change it to Podcasts to avoid any confusion. You can change to Refresh time from 30 minutes to as far as 1000 minutes, this time period may depend on the amount of Podcasts you are subscribed to. If you are only subscribed to one or two it may be best to leave a long refresh time.
Now to the main part of the application, the RSS Feed submission area. This is very simple process indeed, just travel to your favourite Podcaster site and click on their syndication feed and copy/paste it into this area and click “add feed”.
It will appear shortly in the box below along with the Feed name and the RSS location. The last option is to manually check for new podcasts by pressing the retrieve now button.
With the launch of the iPod shuffle last night, the more I think about it the more I see what a great tool it is for Podcasting. If you load this iPod with songs you can’t control in which order they are played meaning if you love playing a song over and over it’s not the device for you.
You don’t have a display and thus can’t easily choose which mp3 to play, so if life really “is random”, why not load it up with your favorite podcasts.
But with Podcasts you only want to hear a Podcast once and get rid of it. No one wants to listen to a 40 minute show or even a one minute show more than once. You know you’re going to be listening to Podcasts which you are subscribed to and listen to regulary.
I got the chance to test out the Nokia 9500 in the sound studio with 7 other Multimedia Students. We had an open discussion lead by Bernie Goldbach relating to Smart Mobs written by Howard Reingold. The opening sentences of each chapter were read out and we inserted our own opinions/views on what they actually meant and how they related to us.
I opened the Nokia Communicator on the desk which was the central feature of the room. I just had to hit the ‘my own’ button while I was on the main menu followed by record. Once the 30 minute session had ended I just had to click stop > menu and scroll down to save as and enter the file name. To take out the 512MB memory card I had to open the mobile from the back and pop it out. I later used the Memorex card reader to upload to my college PC, the computer recognised it but it had no data. After thinking everything was deleted it was pointed out to me that the card was upside down, not very clear from the device as to what way to insert it.
The sound clips were in amr format meaning I needed to use a simple converter program and change the four files to wav so I could listen to the sound quality. I tried uploading them to the xdrive but the college computers had problems uploaded such large files. When I got home Tuesday I tried from home, I selected the file to upload, it was uploading but gave no feedback as to if it was successful, unfortunately it never got there, so today at 7pm tonight I uploaded each one again. I know one of them appears on xdrive so at the moment I have just logged in to xdrive and I’m still waiting over 5 minutes to view my uploads to see if the rest made it.
Only recently used for our Podcasts. It’s a great piece of technology from Sony. It’s a touch screen devive with Flash, Movie Recorder and also a useful voice recorder.
This makes Podcasting so easy to record. To turn on the device slide the switch on the left hand side upwards. The main menu will appear with all available programs. In the bottom left hand corner touch the Voice Rec icon. The voice recorder application will now appear. Now when you’re ready to record touch the rec button and away you go. Once finished press stop and wait for it to save. You can now take out the Memory Stick and insert into our computer.
The new iPod Shuffle has just been comfirmed and will be shipping soon. The shape is quite shocking as it looks more like a remote control for your T.V. This could be called an iPod mirco as it’s only packed with 1GB (240 songs). The first of the iPod family to feature a flash memory-based.
It will be available in 512 MB and 1 GB versions, the iPod shuffle is sized at 3.3″ x 1″ x 0.3″ and .78 oz.
This will be a massive hit even though people can’t control what songs they listen to, which makes it all the more fun. The suggested retail prices are $99 USD (512 MB) and $149 USD (1 GB).
Several Irish companies have IVR services that work like a champ. Imagine working with one like Globetech and then setting up a service that reads your podcast feeds, download them onto a server that you could call with your mobile phone. You would use the IVR commands to flip through the new podcasts, all the way down to specific minutes inside the podcast. You could listen through earbuds or with a Bluetooth headset. Or just with phone-to-ear (but that will fry your brain).
We’re going to create a podcast channel that delivers 15 - 30 minutes of content once a week into the iPodder community. Some initial themes include:
- One minute tip: covers mastering hardware, software and firmware
- Crunch Notes: five minutes at a time of things you need to know to write answers to exam questions.
- Dementia: wacky and short
- Around Ireland: no more than seven minutes of short takes of the online Irish landscape. This could be a survey of irishblogs and the online news sites.
- Inside View: reading of technology column, no more than 1200 words.
- Sustain Yourself: coffee chat with hands-on practitioners who live off the land in a sustainable way. Lots of ecology, organic tips, and an undercurrent of 21st century pastoral Ireland.
email: irishpodcast@gmail.com
mobile: +353 (0)85 7202355
web: http://podish.com
skype: irishpodcast
First there was the grand daddy of all directories ipodder.org, but there’s a major shift happening. More and more directories are popping up and are around to stay just like digitalpodcast.com. Sportpodcasts.com is the first category dedicated to one subject. Only recently set up it just contains 3 podcasts, but will spread and grow in time, no doubt its appearence as a paid google sponser will have great advantages.
Just completed a very basic Podcasting: How To Guide for the people arriving wondering how they can Podcast and get a show going.
This Sony Professional stereo microphone worked very well and projected a good sound across on Skype. We are yet to try it during recording times in the T.I but as it is Uni-Directional we would need to be passing it around for people to grab ahold of once they have something to say, which is a problem once it comes to editing as its very easy on this Microphone to pick up background noise.
Electret microphones are a variant of condenser microphones that mostly utilise a permanently charged diaphragm over a conductive metal back-plate. This model is Uni-Directional (stereo)
Podcast Expo will have a conference in America, but I have heard rumours of the first UK conference on podcasting. Stay tuned, hopefully it will gather legs.
Over a month has pasted since Heineken recorded their podcast, I must say I did listen to see what they could come up with after Adam Curry pointed me to it on his Daily Source Code. After listening to Adams earlier ideas about trying to get Heineken to sponser The Rock and Roll Geek Show (he emailed them and informed them how it could benefit them), the only problem was Heineken thought Podcasting could help them moreso if they made a Podcast. Having listened to an interview I was extremly let down, what a waist of time, if only they sent out a couple of bottles of Beer a week to Michael Butler and have him advertise during his show it would have worked out much better. The Rock and Roll Geek Show should come out smiling in the end as he continues to make Podcasts which don’t go dead.
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