Archive for the 'Podcast' Category

I remember with sadness the day the guys behind iPodderX got their cease and desist letter from Apple in December 2005 and withdrew from the podcast aggregator software scene. It wasn’t long however before we got wind of their new name, Transistr, chosen by a public naming contest. The new Transistr was due to be release by March of 2006, which slipped and then word had it, that a release by the end of 2006 was going to be happening. This cam and went, but tantalizingly, the website still showed their new graphics and “coming soon” message. Alas this has now been replace by a standard TextDrive coming soon page, so things are not boding so well for Transistr.

I did do a whois on the transistr.com domain and it is still registered to Ray Slakinski, one of the people behind iPodderX, so maybe all is not lost. Time will tell.

Chris Penn at the Financial Aid Podcast has just released a great guide to help podcasters get the word out about their show. It’s also a great guide for listeners, giving them a way to help their favorite podcasts become more successful. You can also get a PDF version here.

• Author : Ted Demopoulos
• Publisher : Kaplan Business
• ISBN Number : 1419584359
• Cost : $18.95
• Buy Book : Amazon
• Pages : 224
• Star Rating : 8.5 out of 10

The length of this books title, belies it’s relatively short page length. However at just a tad over 200 pages, you’d be hard pushed to cram in any more information than the author Ted Demopoulos already has.

The sub title of the book, “Read-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere”, probably gives a better idea of what you can expect. I’m a particular fan of this style of book. Authors can research all they want, but if you really need to find out about a given subject, who better to talk to than the people directly involved. The subject in this case being Blogging and podcasting.

Most how to/advice books are pretty dry affairs, with page after page of tips and advice, usually from someone who is a legend in their own lunchtime. Whilst Ted Demopoulos’ credentials are not in doubt, this book takes a different tack, by providing 101 tips, not from Ted himself, but from out in the field, bloggers and podcasters who impart some of their hard earned lessons. There are many names in this book, with whom you may already be familiar with, including Seth Godin, C.C. Chapman, Todd Satterston and Guy Kawasaki, high profile bloggers, podcasters and people working in supporting areas.

The books 200+ pages are broken down into the following 8 sections :

1. The Basics
2. Some Business Uses of Blogs and Podcasts
3. Planning Your Blog
4. Making Money
5. Promoting Your Blog and Tracking Statistics
6. Podcast Specific Topics
7. Other Blog and Podcast Considerations
8. The Future

There is much to enjoy in this book and also tons of information to glean, for use in your own podcasts and blogs. There’s also a great resources section at the end of the book, that collects all of the websites mentioned throughout the book and lists them again by section, for easy reference.

Conclusion : A throughly entertaining book, filled with useful advice to assist you in your own endeavors. Highly recommended.

Issue #17 of Podcast User Magazine is now available and the biggest issue yet at 60 pages. Don’t forget it’s free to download, or you can subscribe for free and have it electronically delivered to you each month, as soon as it is published.

Get it here.

• Publisher : Hot Recorder
• Platform : Windows
• Download : Download
• Cost : $14.95
• Star Rating : 7 out of 10

One of the most popular questions from people using a voice over IP solution (VOIP), such as Skype, GoogleTalk etc, is “How do I record my conversation?”. Now why would someone want to do this? One of the main reasons, especially if you are a podcaster is that you want to capture a conversation for later inclusion in your podcast. Another reason and one that I’ve needed software like this for, is when doing telephone interviews, which later form the basis of an article. I’ve investigated many solutions and some of them provide a myriad of features, but the majority of the time people just want to record a conversation and nothing more. For this reason I narrowed my search down to HotRecorder/VOIP.

Upon installing the application, you are greeted by a very non standard looking Windows application, that takes up a relatively small amount of screen real estate. The screen has several tabs, that separate the programs functionality into the following areas.

Recorder
This is where you’ll initiate your recordings. As well as the normal record, pause and stop buttons, you’ll also see the audio source you are capturing.

Player
All the recording you make appear under this tab. You can play any one of them, search for a specific recording made and also send a recording to a friend.

Options
There are several preference you can select change here. The destination folder; the quality of the recording (high medium and low) and whether to record in stereo or mono.

Voicemail
Have HotRecorder answer your VOIP calls with a pre-recorded message and record the incoming message. You can also select to have an email message sent to you notification when a message comes in and optionally have the message included in the email.

Emotisounds
Whilst recording conversations you can inject 1 of 15 sounds into your conversation, to add just a little atmosphere.

HotRecorder has built in support for the following VOIP solutions: Skype; Aim; Yahoo Messenger; Net2Phone; FireFly and Google Talk. You can switch between them by right clicking on the icon in the system tray. One of the things I love about this program is it’s simplicity. From downloading the app to testing it on the “Echo123″ Skype Test Call service, I think the sum of 5 minutes elapsed, not bad going.

To really put the application to the test, I waited until I had to undertake several telephone conversations. In fact I did 3 calls in total, each one being around 20 minutes. HotRecorder performed faultlessly. For recording it uses it’s own ELP format. I imagine these aren’t too different to MP3 recordings as the file length isn’t too dissimilar. The only blip I had is when one of the conversations was being saved and I decided to check out a website until the file was complete. When I flipped back to HotRecorder the whole application appeared as a blank screen. I’ve seen this a few times and know it’s usually down to the program being so maxed out it can’t update the screen. This was borne out when I decided to just leave the file saving and sure enough it eventually completed.

As I never know what machine I am going to be writing an article on, I decided it was best to convert the conversations from the proprietary ELP format to the more popular MP3 format, which I did using the included utility. Whilst the sound quality remained consistent, the two sides of the conversation were out of sync, which proved quite confusing. Fortunately I managed to revert back to the native format recordings to complete my article, but it’s a little troublesome if MP3 format recordings are a necessity.

Conclusion : For anyone needing a simple tool, that records a Skype or other supported VOIP programs conversations, this is definitely worth a try.

Issue #16 of Podcast User Magazine is now available. Don’t forget it’s free to download, or you can subscribe for free and have it electronically delivered to you each month, as soon as it is published.

Get it here.

After weeks of behind the scenes twiddling, New Media Launchpad finally launches, incorporating Podcast Launchpad and Vidcast Launchpad. With two website covering very similar things, it all got a bit too distracting. I’ve also been wanting to cover blogs and many other new media websites and tools, so thought it best to merge everything into one website and take the opportunity to improve the whole browsing experience. I hope you enjoy it.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.

• Tagline : Celebrating all sides of science; from sublime moments of deep thought to the most arcane and bizarre research imaginable
• Website : Dr Karl’s Great Moments in Science
• Subscribe Link :
  
• Parental Rating : G
• Star Rating : 9 out of 10

I’ve covered Dr Karl’s re-purposed ABC radio science call show in a previous review, in which Dr Karl tries to provide answers to some of those everyday questions in life, like can you sense if it’s going to rain by smell and why is poo brown. In this podcast Dr Karl, concentrates on a single subject, in this case a great moment in science and goes into it in some detail. Actually it’s only usually a 5 minute podcast, but it’s surprising how much you can squeeze into such a short space.

I have to say the thing that makes this podcast and indeed Dr Karl’s previously reviewed podcast, is Dr Karl himself. If schools could make learning this interesting and indeed fun and have teachers that actually want to you would have children fighting to get into their classes.

Conclusion : With ever increasing amounts of great podcasts to listen to, it’s great to find podcasts that are like little snack bites of entertainment. When they are this good, there is no reason not to subscribe. Hey you might even learn a thing or two.

• Tagline : The thoughts, observations and musings of John Cleese
• Website : John Cleese Podcasts
• Subscribe Link :
  
• Parental Rating : 15
• Star Rating : 8.5 out of 10

For many people Fawlty Towers is one of the finest examples of British comedy. I myself was never that much of fan. It’s OK to watch re-runs on the numerous channels that show them, but I’ve never found it that funny. Even Monty Python for me on the whole was OK, with some odd moments of sheer brilliance, including the whole Life of Brian movie, excluding the moment of madness, alien scene. With this in mind, I approached John Cleese’s podcast expecting to listen to a couple of episodes and then vanquish it to unsubscribe podcast oblivion, but boy can that man talk. When I first started listening, John (can I get away with being so informal?) was on some kind of tour of Australia and New Zealand, I think it was a kind of “Audience With” kind of thing. The subject matter is varied, from talking about Monty Python, to the embarassment of going deafm but all the time it’s delivered as if he was talking to you personally, a rare gift indeed.

Lately the podcasts have given way to vidcasts, which while entertaining, come across as some kind of filler. I hope they are fillers and not the direction this podcast is taking, as the podcasts are far more entertaining. So apart from the vidcasts, the only thing I have issue with is the awful sound quality. I realise John is probably recording these on some kind of portable media device, but even this can be way better, just have a listen to the Naked Englishman, which is recorded on an iRiver portable audio player and sounds very good considering.

Conclusion : A wonderful insight into John Cleese the man, and a thoroughly entertaining and engaging podcast, which I hope goes on for many more episodes to come. The podcasts that is and not the vidcast, which may be better in their own feed.

• Tagline : What’s On, What To Do And What Not To Do In The Greatest City On Earth!
• Website : This Week in London
• Subscribe Link :
  
• Parental Rating : 15
• Star Rating : 8 out of 10

Although I’ve been living in Canada for 7 years and now call it my home, London will always be a big part of my life. Even now I still get a buzz watching the TV and seeing famous London landmarks that you just take for granted, until they are no longer part of your everyday life. So when I heard Paul Parkinson, Editor of Podcast User Magazine and creator of The Flashing 12 podcast, was doing a podcast on London, I was there quicker than you can say Pie & Mash (a delicacy mostly found in the East End of London, which is where I’m originally from).

I’ve been a listener of the Flashing 12 podcast for 6 months or so and while I do enjoy it, I much prefer the more laid back style of the London show, where it feels much more the case of someone storytelling and openly enthusing, but with more focus. Admittedly the podcast is only on it’s third show, but I really hope Paul pushes forward, as London is such an rich and endless supply of material. Paul also tries to feature a song with a London connection, and so far has picked out some great ones, even though the connection can at times be very tenuous, but hey good music, is good music.

I realise that I’m being greedy, but I’d love to hear some soundseeing tours, full of the everyday noise of London. I’ve already made a suggestion, a tour a Pi and Mash shop, but I just hope he doesn’t rub it in too much, as I haven’t had any for 5 years and I could murder it sometimes.

Conclusion : Early days yet, but full of great potential and in fact great content already. Whether your a Londoner, Travelling to London or just interested, a great podcast.