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How to Podcast
ptorrone writes "Engadget shows how to get Podcasts on your iPod and for the DIY Radio enthusiast, how to make your own Podcasts using mostly free tools. What's a Podcast? To put it simply, a Podcast is an audio file, a MP3, most likely, in talk show format, along with a way to subscribe to the show and have it automatically delivered to your iPod or other music device."
bah, that's nothing.
how about modding an (automotive) fm modulator to increase the power output, hooking up an antenna to it, and using your mp3 player as your source? share some interesting radio with the cars parked around you in traffic. bonus points if you attach an led display to your rear window showing "now playing".
Sports scores, weather, news reports, etc? Maybe a college professor can make his lecture available in this format?
Is the commentator/mixer on an iPod a PJ?
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Ahh, finally a way to get cable access quality, home-brew radio talk shows delivered directly to my iPod! The world will be changed forever! No longer will I have to worry about listening to up-to-date news and information on my computer or via the radio, now I can listen to old news that has been automatically archived on my mp3 player. And best of all, I don't have to worry about listening to interesting podcasts from the NPR or the BBC because their aren't any.
Don't misunderstand me, having my iPod loaded with mp3s via RSS is a cool idea, but the lack of DRM insures that the copyright and royalty-driven major media players will not be sending out RSS feeds anytime in the foreseeable future. So, podcasting seems destined to be a bit player.
There are lots of interesting legal uses for this technology. Podcasting is another step forward in democratizing the media.
There is no reason to assume that the "podcasts" are of music, and there is no more chance of piracy from podcasts than from the internet in general. Characterizing people doing podcasts as people "doing undesirable things" is a presumption based on facts not in evidence.
The automatic presumption that computer audio files==piracy is a triumph of RIAA PR but not an actual fact.
More of a danger to iPods and iTunes would be the INDCUCE act and dis-information from Steve Balmer, who implied that iPods with their ability to play un-DRM'dmp3s were the primary vector for pirated music. In fact, iPods, with the success of the iTunes Music store, are the primary success story for DRM, and Microsoft Windows powered PCs are the undeniable leaders in pirated file trading.