Podcast.com News

Talk about burying the best part of a story (yeah, it’s a company press release), but a recent press release by Cisco claims a study at the University of California-Berkeley reveals that incoming freshman think podcasting is just as important as both wireless Internet and email.  We’re still trying to confirm if students were directly asked to compare podcasting to these other technologies, but if it’s true it’s a big validation for podcasting in education and the podcasting industry in general.  We reported recently on the new UC Berkeley podcast channel on You Tube, and this new (alleged) study explains why this university decided to lead the charge in spreading its educational podcasts far and wide.

Apple is releasing their new operating system, Leopard, with two podcasting applications built right in: Podcast Capture and Podcast Producer.  Podcast Capture helps you to get audio and video and screen captures from internal and external devices (creating your content), and Podcast Producer helps you mix, encode, and publish that content so that fans can get it on a variety of devices (distributing your content).   You can read more about it here.

Podcasters in the Boston area have long been marking their calendars for the second Podcamp conference in Boston (you can attend a Podcamp at various times and places around the world), and that week is finally here. But Podcamp is not just for podcasters; it’s an intimate get-together for anyone interested in new and social media. All skill levels are welcome. The speakers/presenters welcome plenty of contribution from the audience, so this isn’t a conference for sitting idly through overly long, overly boring sessions — you’ll get your chance to lend your own expertise and opinion should you attend.

(Registration has hit capacity already, unfortunately.  We’ll provide more info if we hear otherwise.)

[Note: you can now register here.] In case you didn’t notice the blue “BETA!” icon in the middle of this page, and you’re not already registered with Podcast.com, give that icon a click and register for our site. There you can organize podcasts in your own directory, create your own playlist, and much more. We need your input to make this site and service useful for you, whether you’re a podcast listener or creator or anyone else in between.

Once you log in you’ll be able create your own directory of podcasts. The easiest way to start this is to search for a topic using the search box (try your favorite hobby or subject), then click on one of the search results. If you like that podcast, click the “+add feed!” button below the podcast’s image in the middle of that page. You’ll then see that podcast in your directory! If you don’t want to add that podcast to your directory, try your search again at the top of the page. After you’ve added a few feeds to your directory, you can click the little folder-with-gears icon below your directory to move feeds around and create folders to organize them in, and even add links to Web pages. See how I organized my folder here.

You can learn about more things you can do with our site by clicking the “getting started” link on the left part of each page. You can send any questions about what to info [at] podcast.com — also feel free to send us comments about how easy or hard the site is to use. Don’t be shy! We read/listen to every comment that comes in.

Thanks for using our site. It’s a work in progress, but we think there are a lot of fun and useful things here.

NPR is getting a little younger and smarter in the morning. It’s uber-popular AM show, Morning Edition, has given many a U.S. public radio fan a soundtrack for cooking eggs and sitting at stoplights every morning. But the show hasn’t aged well, even after inserting new hosts a few years ago following the acrimonious departure of long-time voice Bob Edwards. NPR has given us reason to let bygones be bygones with a new morning show, the Bryant Park Project, that speaks closer to the ear of the *cough* ‘modern’ public radio fan. Hosts Alison Stewart and Luke Burbank convey the notes of the day in a loose, conversational tone that goes well with that first cup of coffee.

UC Berkeley, the California USA university that we’d all like to go to, has launched a channel on YouTube, which means they have a RSS feed that we’re promoting through Podcast.com. Berkeley has long been interested in webcasting and offer podcasts of their on-campus events and many of their courses via webcast.berkeley.edu.

Boing Boing has had a long run at one of the most popular blogs by spotlighting the oddities, strangeness, and coolness of this world. They started their first audio podcast a while ago now, which is quite nice — but it lacks the visual impact of images and videos included in many of the BB blog posts. That’s why we’re pumped up for Boing Boing TV, which brings the necessary Boing Boing stories to your screen. We can say no more except that it’s Super Awesome with a capital S and A (in other words, it’s highly recommended).

Yes, it’s another do-everything program for creating and uploading your podcasts, and yes, at first glance it looks like Garageband, the de-facto music creation program for the Mac that also supports podcast creation. But Ubercaster is making strides to separate itself from that pack (check the marketing speak here: “Leave your garage and feel at home”) as a program specifically built for podcasters. It’s got some neat tricks baked in such as live recording of interviews over Skype and iChat (which both have emerged as the de facto choices for recording interviews over the Web) and a “stealth mode” that allows you to mute certain programs while Ubercaster records the rest of the sounds coming through your computer. The obvious limitations/drawbacks are the price ($80) and the lack of a Windows version, but otherwise it looks like a good solution for a Mac podcaster who conducts interviews over the ‘Net.