diggnation

I’m pretty sure I’ve made at least a couple of posts about podcasting. I can’t be bothered to read my past entries to see exactly what I said, but I’m pretty certain it was somewhat negative. My main problem with ‘podcasting’ was (and still is) the term itself…Even though I’ve made a couple attempts at podcasting myself, truth be told I didn’t really get it. That is, until I got an iPod.

My wife bought me a black 2GB iPod Nano a couple of weeks ago as an early birthday present. Once I got comfortable with the iPod interface in general and iTunes itself (not a pretty app to run on windows) I started subscribing to a couple of podCasts. A few I’d listened to before and a couple of new ones – I’ll get to that in a minute. After loading up a few hot new podCast, I was immediately impressed, it gave my iPod a completely new use. The way the iPod seamlessly syncs with iTunes makes it an extension of my computer and the internet. If you have an iPod and you’re not listening to podCasts you’re missing out on half the functionality. If you spend a lot of time in front of the computer and you find yourself getting tired of listening to music (maybe you’re just old), check out a podcast.

Anyways, I thought I’d list a podcasts I’m currently subscribed to:
CBC Radio 3
100% Independent Canadian Music
A weekly podcast, with 19 episodes to date. Plays a mix of indie music, similar to what you might hear on DNTO, everything from emo to hiphop. I’ve listened to 3 episodes so far. One of them was pretty good, but i might just be saying that because they played moneen. The other 2 weren’t really great. It’s the sort of mix I might like to listen to a road trip, or late at night. It does makes use of mp3 chapters, which is interesting from a technical standpoint.

Diggnation
Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories. Hosted by former The Screen Savers hosts Kevin Rose & Alex Albrecht.
Always entertaining, usually informative. As these two guys have actual broadcast experience, it’s one of the best. Also has a corresponding ‘vidCast.’

Hi My Name Is Mark
defeat, crushed dreams, and high karate. The life and times of Mark Hoppus…
former bass player for blink 182. Only 2 episodes. So far it’s better than I’d expected. For fear of legal repercussions most podcasts either stay away from music altogether, or limit themselves to “podsafe” music. Because Mark Hopus is actually *IN* the music industry he’s able to get permission play anything he likes, additional he interviews almost every artist he plays. The music is obviously lite, pop punky/emo. Mark also makes great use of the mp3 chapters feature.

Security Now!
Steve Gibson, the man who coined the term spyware and created the first anti-spyware program…discusses the hot topics in security today with Leo Laporte. Published weekly late Thursday night.
I’ve listened to all 7 episodes. The topics discussed in classic Leo Laporte style fairly rudimentary. I could see this show being educational/useful to a lot of customers i used to talk to when i did tech support. Initial I thought I’d give it a chance, the subject matter is a little more technical that the normal Leo fare. It’s going down hill. If the dumbing down-ness continues next week, I will probably unsubscribe.

techPhile
Gadget, Tech & Geek on the go. Listen in for news, reviews, and interviews with today’s shakers and movers in the techworld.
Essentially tech news with a Canadian spin. I was about ready to unsubscribe – the content isn’t too interesting – but it looks like he’s got some good interviews coming up. So I’ll give those a listen.

The Dawn and Drew Show
Gadget, Tech & Geek on the go. Listen in for news, reviews, and interviews with today’s shakers and movers in the techworld.
This show is podcast daily (as far as i understand it’s their fulltime job at the moment, they’re syndicated on satellite radio). That’s probably one of the only reasons I listen to it. I first heard about this show on another podcast. Dawn and Drew get a lot of props, but the show isn’t anything special. The show really isn’t about anything, they basically talk about their life and their fans and joke about sex. It’s serves as my mildly amusing morning radio show on the bus.

The Web 2.0 Show
Welcome to the Web 2.0 Show podcast with your hosts Josh and Chris! Join us as we discuss Web 2.0 technologies, business and ideas with industry leaders.
Pretty straight forward. If you’re not familiar with the term ‘web 2.0’ check the wikipedia article. They’ve only put out 3 episodes to date. The first had horrible audio quality, I couldn’t listen. The second was only midly educational. The 3rd is still sitting on my iPod. I’m pretty excited about web 2.0 so I’ll give this podCast another chance.

Saved the best for last…
This Week In Tech
Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, John C. Dvorak, and other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in high tech. Winner of People’s Choice Podcast and Best Technology Podcast in the 2005 People’s Choice Podcast Awards. Released every Sunday at midnight Pacific.
This is *THE* tech podcast. It’s a behemoth. They don’t know for certain, but I don’t think anyone would be suprised if they found upwards of a million downloads per episode. The original name of the show was “Revenge of The Screen Savers” and that’s essentially what it is. In addition to the reccuring hosts, the discussion often includes former TSS guests and personalities. Despite Leo Laportes presence, this show manages to be an exteremly informative discussion of tech topics. Reoccuring topics tend to be: google, digital rights, IPTV/IPMedia, bittorrent as well as other generally geeky topics. They’ve recently moved the show to a “live” venue (first the apple store in cupurintino, then a bar in toronto, now rotating california resturants) with a live audiance and a video shoot – a first in podcasting. The majority of hosts are media veterans making this a very well produced affair. Episodes typically run 60 – 90 minutes.