Category: audiocasts

Podcasts are booming

Recall when pundits were saying podcasting is dying?

Not so.

Apple Podcasts currently hosts north of 550,000 active shows, a bump from the 525,000 the company reported back in April — that’s a considerable jump from the 3,000 programs it hosted when the program launched back in 2005. …

Tech Crunch

I’ve been a daily listening fan since they started.

On The Media has been my favourite for perhaps the last decade.

Most people still get their audiocasts from iTunes. It’s not perfect. Nor is the Podcast app on IOS.

On the upside Apple is quite strict about who gets hosted. I never hear of any Nazi podcasts on the platform, for example.

 

 

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I love This American Life

For some reason I’ve not been listening to the highly acclaimed audiocast much over past years.

That’s got to change. I’ll be listening every week from here on in.

Recommended – #638 – February 9, 2018 – Rom-Com

 

NEW – The Adventure Podcast

Dave Adlard and Kraig Becker have launched an audiocast called The Adventure Podcast.

For years Kraig has been my main source of news on outdoor adventure on his site called The Adventure Blog.

He and Dave are co-hosting an extension of that site with a weekly online radio show.

Both are gear nuts. From episode 1 they’ve already convinced me I NEED two products:

The new Omni smart helmet. Indegogo.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

And a Dji spark drone.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Check out the podcast here.

my AirPods

I’ve cursed Steve Jobs 10,000 times for not perfecting wireless headphones.

The new Apple AirPods are good and bad.

The good? No wire tangles. They fit. They don’t fall out. Battery life is excellent. You can tap them to start and stop play.

The bad? Bluetooth is not 100% reliable. Audio cuts out quite often. There is no volume control without Siri. They are expensive at US $160. And … not everyone thinks they look cool wearing them. 🙂

Audio books and podcasts are important to me. I’ll get good value out of that $160 over the lifetime of the AirPods.

Still, I’ll normally use them in preference to my regular headphones.

Click PLAY or watch the Johnny Ive pitch on YouTube.

Here’s a real world review. Good and bad. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The fit and sound exactly like Apple earbuds.

On The Media audiocast

On The Media is my favourite podcast.

WNYC’s weekly investigation into how the media shapes our world view. Veteran journalists Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield give you the tools to survive the media maelstrom.

The most recent episode  is super —  This is Not a Safe Space. It explores the issues of students feeling safe on campus and academic freedom of speech.

 

White male patriarchy results in bullying on campus for anyone who is not a white male. Something like 1/5 women will STILL be sexually assaulted in their College years.

 

We want all students to feel safe while simultaneously protecting freedom of speech. The two are not mutually exclusive.

 

UE Roll Bluetooth speaker

So far I’m very pleased. Small form factor. Very durable. Good for travel. Good for my Coaching presentations.

I was inspired to buy a UE Roll when the speakers in my old laptop stopped functioning.

ue-roll-waterproof-bluetooth-speaker-618x520

Wirecutter:

After listening to 30 of the most promising new Bluetooth speaker models on top of the 48 we originally tested last year, we think the UE Roll is the best choice for most listeners. It combines above-average sound quality with a waterproof, travel-friendly design that practically begs to be slipped into your suitcase or laptop bag. You can find speakers in the same price range that sound a little better, but in our opinion, you can’t find one that matches the Roll’s combination of sound quality, design, utility, and price.

The Best Portable Bluetooth Speaker

AUDIO books and PODCASTS 2015

Seems everyone I know is now listening to audio books and podcasts. 🙂

In the fall of 2014, the medium of podcasting achieved a milestone moment. The podcast Serial – which reinvestigated the 1999 murder of Maryland high school student Hae Min Lee – became the fastest podcast to reach 5 million streams or downloads in iTunes history. Although the success of Serial – a spinoff of WBEZ’s This American Life – clearly represented a new peak in the popularity of podcasts, Pew Research Center data show that the medium has, in fact, been steadily growing its audience …

journalism.org

PJ_15.04.28_FSA-Podcasting

I’m currently subscribed to about 70 podcasts. But truly only listen to about a dozen of those. They are all free via iTunes.

I have about 20 audio books lined up into the future. I pay an average of about $10 for those.

I buy from Amazon – Audible.com.

Audible

The advantages of audio over reading are many. But progress in the switch over has been slower than I would have expected.

Sadly, Apple has mostly bungled podcasts. Their apps have been lousy. Yet the competitors have not dented the importance of iTunes in distribution.

Audible is too dominant in the audio book market. They don’t innovate. They charge too much / title. Yet competitors have not dented the market leader, Amazon.

related – Against all odds, print books are on the rise again in the US