Dude, Where’s My Podcast?

As I have previously mentioned, I’ve become a podcast addict.  To me, listening to a podcast is equivalent to attending an expert panel discussion at an industry conference, except the conference is in my car.  I’m sure you could find four or five awesome podcasts dedicated to any interest you have (e.g. Home Brewing, Accounting, or Buddhism).  Like any addict, I need my fix daily.  This is where I run into problems.  Experts spend their valuable free time producing these podcasts and often release them weekly, but sometimes skip a week, or multiple weeks.   So, my morning ritual is to ask: “Dude, I wonder if any new podcasts are available?”

What’s that?  I should just use iTunes?  Maybe you’re right, but I’ve never liked the podcast subscription feature in iTunes.  I have to go through the pain of attaching my iPhone to my PC, refreshing all my subscriptions, and synching to iTunes.  Wait... did it just delete six unheard episodes?  Dang!  Maybe I have an irrational fear of the synch, but their UI just doesn’t seem to meet my needs.

The iPhone is perfectly capable of downloading podcasts on its own (PC-free), but you have to check each podcast manually, every day.  Bummer, dude.  Checking things repeatedly is never fun, I prefer getting notified.  So I’ve looked around and found a few options:

Subscribe via RSS

Most podcasts have a website containing a link to the RSS feed for their show.   You can subscribe using your favorite RSS reader (aka Google Reader).  Now you can group all your subscriptions into a folder and have one place to check every day.  The drawback is that you’re still stuck with checking a website then going somewhere else to manually download shows.  Weak, dude.

iPhone App #1  -  Podcast Push

I was initially stoked after finding this app.  It allows you to enter your podcast subscriptions and promises to pop up a “Push Notification” alerting you when new podcasts are available.  You can quickly tap the link and be downloading in seconds.  Sadly, this app does not consistently notify, and for some podcasts it completely fails to notify.  Seriously dude?  Great idea though!

iPhone App #2  -  Podcaster

This full featured app is my current fave.  After adding your subscriptions you can check them all for new shows with one swift tap.  You can even schedule it to check for new episodes at certain times of the day and download the automatically.  It does some things better than the iTunes app, such as displaying show details so you can decide if it’s worth a listen.  Some things aren’t as polished, like podcast searching.  But, at 99 cents, I’d say it’s a sweet deal.

Do you also suffer from podcast addiction syndrome?  How do you deal with this?  Android users:  are their better tools on the Droid?  I’d appreciate any suggestions.



Is Social Media Killing RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a great way to consume information on the web. Clicking on the orange RSS icon (available on most blogs and news sites) allows you to "subscribe" to that source using your favorite RSS Reader. I recommend using most popular one: Google Reader.

However, despite its usefulness, RSS hasn't really seen massive adoption. Recently I've heard many techy types exclaiming they've stopped checking their RSS Reader. Instead they're finding more relevant links on Twitter. Social sites like Twitter are specifically built to encourage a lot of sharing. If you use Twitter to follow people in your industry, you'll inevitably be exposed to interesting discussion and links to very relevant topics.

Another emerging player in the link-sharing business is Facebook. Unlike RSS readers, Facebook has seen massive adoption, now boasting over 400 million users. Average folks can understand Facebook's simple interface. They’re also finding that it’s pretty easy to share news articles and Youtube links with their friends and family on Facebook.

So, have social media sites killed RSS before it reached its full potential? Personally I'm still using RSS for a number of things. Here are a few of my favorite uses for RSS:

Handy Uses for RSS

1. Blogs - I'm a big fan of getting notified rather than constantly checking websites. If you follow a few dozen blogs, you don't want to be checking each of them every day for new posts. RSS readers allow you to browse quickly through new posts.
2. Discover People on Twitter - Twitter's advanced search provides an RSS feed for your search results. For example, if you're an avid rock climber, you can search for people within 25 miles of your city who mention "rock climbing" in their tweet. Checking the RSS feed can help you discover local, like-minded enthusiasts.
3. Craigslist Searches - Craigslist also provides an RSS feed for search results. Let's say you’re looking for an apartment downtown for between $600 and $1200. After your first search, subscribe to the RSS feed, and you can stop obsessively checking Craigslist every few hours! The most recent results will be waiting for you in Google Reader.

Do you think RSS will survive? Will it be killed by more popular information sharing tools? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

iPad Blog Post Roundup

Yesterday was a monumental day for tech news. I eagerly awaited Steve Job's keynote presentation about Apple's revolutionary new tablet device: the iPad. Later that night I found myself relentlessly searching for perspectives from the tech community. Here's a summary of the blog posts I found most interesting.

The Uncomputer

Daniel Tenner's post "iPad: and Apple for Mom" explains why the iPad may be exactly what the masses have been waiting for. He argues that "most people don't need a proper computer at all."

Marketing

Rory Marinich's amusing post "This is why it's worth learning about advertising" discusses Apple's sales pitch: Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. He describes the iPad as: "simply put, a magical screen that can do anything you ever want it to, no matter what that is."

Inspiration

Miguel de Icaza's post "iPad - Inspirational Hardware" talks about his excitement for building applications on a touch-based computer. He wants to build apps using his favorite language, C# (which I use at my job).

Regret

Alex Payne's post "On the iPad" expresses his concern that the closed nature of the device may be detrimental to the next generation. He states "if I had an iPad rather than a real computer as a kid, I’d never be a programmer today."

My Personal Take

I'd love to use the iPad as an information consuming device. Often times I read news in bed and other non-desk locations. The iPhone has provided me with lots of innovative apps that help me find exactly the information I'm after. Although I don't have $500 burning a hole in my pocket, I can certainly see the allure and this new book/blog/news reading gadget. Am I too caught up in all the hype?

Don't Repeatedly Check Websites - Get Notified

When email first became popular, people started forming a peculiar habit: they would repeatedly check for new email multiple times a day, like an info-addict. If they got a new email they were quite excited ("You got mail!"). If not, feelings of disappointment and regret ensued. Why should we spend so much time checking for things? Wouldn't it be better to know exactly when to check? Fortunately many services exist to help solve this problem. Email is an easy target so let's start there. If you use Gmail, I recommend these:

Gmail Notifier - Great for most users. It puts a little blue envelope in your system tray when you have new mail. Double click it to access your Gmail account.

Gmail Notifer Plus for Windows 7 - This notifier takes advantage of some new Windows 7 task bar features. It provides options when you hover over it, allowing you to preview and open new emails.

What About Other Email Providers?

Actually, my favoriate email notifier is Digsby, which handles all of your Instant Messaging needs in addition to notifications for social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn) and a variety of email providers: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts. I find there notification interface to be the most intuitive and useful.

Digsby Gmail Notification

What About Other Things I Check Too Much, Like Twitter?

One of my main gripes when I started using Twitter was that I wasn't notified when someone started talking to me. People converse with you on Twitter by "mentioning" you, which means they include your username with the "@" symbol in front ("@martymatheny" in my case) in their tweet. Twitter would email me if someone sent me a Direct Message, but not if they mentioned me. I didn't want to repeatedly check Twitter, so I started using Boxcar, which is an iPhone app. Boxcar kindly sends me a "push notification" on my iPhone when I'm mentioned, so I know when to engage. It can also notify you based on the results of any Twitter search query (e.g. "MyCompany").

Cool, What About Blogs?

The best way to check blogs and news sources is use an RSS reader, but that's a topic for another post. Do you have a favorite notification service?