Friday 22 February 2008

On air


Have you got an MP3 player yet? Are you struggling to fill its endless gigabytes of memory with Artic Monkeys, or the Ring Cycle, or whatever tickles your aural fancy? Have you thought of putting some of that memory space to better use? If you join the merry world of podcasting you'll be able to update yourself on all sorts of things while you are driving, stuck on a train, or relaxing in the bath.

Since I last mentioned podcasting on this blog I've come across the Guardian's podcasts. They vary in length from under 5 minutes to almost an hour. As well as keeping up with the latest UK and foreign news, politics and sport, you can listen to items on science and technology or life style. One of today's life style offerings looks at the current fad for drinking bottled water and asks if there is any real benefit. If the Guardian isn't your cup of tea then the Times has podcasts on sport, music and arts. The Telegraph podcasts page offers business and arts stories, and a link to a page of videos.

BBC radio continues to offer a range of general interest podcasts, along with help on getting started.

Podcast.net is an online directory of podcasts. The science and nature/medicine listing currently has over 200 entries. A quick glance down the list shows the range and scope - podcasts for medical students on useful themes with added music (the breast cancer item has music from the film Titanic, apparently), FAQs on travel and blood clots from the Vascular Disease Foundation and an update on flu.

My main quibble with this site is that when I tested it today it was painfully slow, and gave up the ghost totally at one point.

Podcastdirectory.com has podcasts from the (American) National Institutes of Health and there is a wide range of podcasts on PodcastBlaster, where the science and medicine subsection looks more useful than the health section, which appears to be devoted to fitness and dieting. The site also offers a history of podcasting and tells you how to create your own podcasts.



1 comment:

Noel said...

Thanks a lot for introducing podcast in such a brief detail. I am realy thankful to you. You can also subscribe for podcast at this podcast directory.