Finally, an iPod

Despite having had various mp3 players over the past couple of years, I've been without one - a working one anyway - for a few months now. Yesterday I finally got around to resolving this situation, with the purchase of an iPod Shuffle.

It was a great day indeed.

Why a Shuffle? In fact, why an iPod? This may seem a little odd, but I wanted something without a screen. The device's primary use was - and still is - to be listening to an audio podcast or audiobook when I just want to give my eyes a break. Sit back, close your eyes and take it all in. Beautiful.

The other criterion was that it be inexpensive. Although there are other players for the same price, they all appeared to try their hand at several things. Rather than risk a possible 'jack of all trades, master of none' situation I went straight for the only player I saw which performed one simple task well.


A brief note on the iPod: if you're just looking for an mp3 player to playback podcasts, any of them will do. Shop around. However, if you're looking for something simple, take a look at the Shuffle. Simple, elegant and functional.

More books to take a look at

Originally I planned on reviewing another book that addressed podcasting but you know what? It was just about the same thing that I reviewed before, so I won’t bore you with a review. Before I go on let me say this about books. I think if you get a book on podcasting you should have your microphone and software ready to use so you can try some of the things that are recommended in these books.

If you’re looking for a book on podcasting here’s a list of books that you might be interested in (most of these are linked to the right):

Podcasting Bible

Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide

Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting

Podcasting for Dummies

Absolute Beginners Guide to Podcasting

Secrets of Podcasting: Audio Blogging for The Masses

Podcasting Hacks: Tips & Tools for Blogging Out Loud

Podcasting Hacks: Tips & Tools for Blogging Out Loud
By Jack D. Herrington

Media are becoming a conversation, not a lecture

I’ve tried writing something about this book about 3 times now and nothing that I’ve put down has been interesting. So hopefully by tossing all inhibitions out the window I’ll get something that’s useful and I’m pleased with. Sometimes you got it, other times you don’t.

My “writers block” is not because this book is boring. In fact it is probably the opposite. There is so much information contained in this book I don’t even know where to start. All of the book (most of it?) covers how to create your own podcast. From the beginner where you pick up the $39.99 USB microphone from Best Buy (we don’t have a Circuit City where I live…ugh) to those that want to drop a cool $1300 on a microphone. If your one of those people putting down some serious cash on the microphone you’ll enjoy the plans Herrington has on how to build your own home studio and some amps that will make things all that much nicer.

However if your like me and a cheap bastard and not 100% sure you want to do this end Herrington also covers that end of things as well. It seems to me, at this point, that Audacity seems to be the software of choice for editing your podcast and recording it. Best of all it’s FREE and in my opinion nothing beats free. Well I guess if the software isn’t that good then paying something might be worth it. However I will reserve judgement until I work with the software.

This book is a bit on the geeky side, but I suspect most of us who are looking to podcast are either a bit geeky or just want to be famous. Or maybe no one will listen to us speak so we post up a podcast that we hope someone will listen to. Despite the geekiness (writing Perl scripts to download podcasts) this book should be on any serious podcasters shelf. It’s got a ton of information that will be useful for the beginner and for the pro.

Why podcast?

I’ve gone back and forth with myself on if I should produce a podcast of some sort. I’ve been blogging for a few years now and podcasting seems like the next logical step to take. But why exactly would I be podcasting? At the heart of the answer I think it’s because I want to give it a try and see how much different it is from blogging. But there are many other reasons why one might want to podcast. Here are just a few reason’s one might want to podcast:

Get your message out in a different format. I enjoy reading blogs as much as the next person, but there are times when I’m just downright tired of sitting on front of a computer.

Perhaps you are a better speaker than a writer or you are covering a topic that would be better portrayed through voice rather than written word.

More powerful communication. According to this link (http://www.podshowcreator.com/why.shtml) , voice is a more powerful communication medium than written text.

Okay so it’s only 3 reasons, but you could probably sum them up as one thing: communication. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my few years up on this earth (okay it’s more than a few), there’s a lot of communication that DOESN’T happen that should. At least this has been my experience. Podcasting is just another way for us to communicate.

So now that I’ve decided that I’m going to do a podcast, I’ve got to figure out what tools I need in order to produce one. A run to the library will probably be in order.