Podcasting Hacks

Podcasting does for Internet audio listeners what TiVo does for television viewers--it puts you in charge of when you enjoy a program. Podcasting is a web-based broadcast medium that sends audio content (most commonly in the MP3 format) directly to an iPod or other digital audio player. You subscribe to audio feeds, receive new files automatically, and listen to them at your convenience. As you can imagine, podcasting is taking the "blogsphere" by storm. A podcast is a professional-quality Internet radio broadcast, and like blogging and HTML before it, this revolutionary new way of publishing to the Internet has become the new outlet for personal expression. If you've got Internet access and a copy of Podcasting Hacks, you can find out just how easy it is to listen to and create your own Internet audio programs. With Podcasting Hacks, Jack Herrington, a software engineer with 20 years of experience developing applications using a diverse set of languages and tools, delivers the ultimate how-to of podcasting for anyone looking to get the most out of this hot new medium. Since August 2004 (the month that iPodder.com editor Adam Curry considers the start of podcasting), audio blogging has exploded. Podcasts cover every conceivable topic, including sex, relationships, technology, religion, home brewing, recreational drugs, rock 'n roll, food, entertainment, politics, and much more. There were podcasts from the Democratic National Convention in Fall 2004, and some programs on Air America and NPR are also podcasts. Podcasting Hacks offers expert tips and tools for blogging out loud--for transmitting (and receiving) audio content worldwide with ease. This groundbreaking volume covers both entry-level and advanced topics perfect for aspiring and experienced podcasters. Herrington shows you how to get started, create quality sound, use the right software, develop a great show, distribute a podcast, and build an audience. More advanced topics include audio editing, podcasting on the go, and even videocasting.

Voice over Internet Protocol is gaining a lot of attention these days. Both practical and fun, this text provides technology enthusiasts and voice professionals with dozens of hands-on projects for building a VoIP network, including a softPBX.

Have you figured out the basics of making a podcast, but now want to make a great podcast, and possibly make some money? Tricks of the Podcasting Masters holds the answers to questions such as: How do I interact with listeners and get them to come back next week? How do I conduct a great interview over the phone? How do I attract sponsors? How do I stay motivated? The authors share their experiences with the 'casts they've produced regularly since podcasting began, including "podCast411" and "Geek Fu Action Grip," and draw from more than 100 interviews with podcasting's stars. With this book, you will be able to take your craft to the next level and create a business around your podcasts.

With more than three thousand feeds in the iPodder directory and at least ten more being added every day, podcasting is undeniably hot. Podcasting Pocket Guide is a non-technical guide for the non-geek who wants in on this revolutionary new online medium--for those interested in enjoying the best podcasts or producing them. While podcasts seem like Internet "radio programs," they are definitely not radio. And that's a very good thing for people like you with something to say. Radio waves, after all, are heavily regulated, which means you can't say whatever you want on them (in fact, most of you can't say anything on them, assuming you don't happen to be DJs). But anyone who can make an MP3 recording, host it on a web site, and publish a "feed" for it can be a podcaster. And anyone who wants access to opinions and ideas that you won't get on the radio can find them on a podcast. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the portable and affordable Podcasting Pocket Guide shows you how to tune into the best podcasts and download them to your favorite portable device so you can listen to them wherever and whenever you want. This handy reference even includes a listener's guide with reviews of some of the most interesting and unusual podcasts available today. From unique views on current events to music you'd never hear otherwise to soundseeing tours that take you all over the world, there's something for everyone on virtually every conceivable topic. For aspiring podcasters, Podcasting Pocket Guide introduces you to the tools and techniques you'll need to make and publish podcasts with the most basic of equipment: a computer, a microphone, and some free software. It includes practical tips and how-tos for creating, recording, editing, and uploading your own, professional-quality podcast. Once you've made that first recording, you can publish it online, get it listed, and start obsessing over the size of your audience!

Provides instructions for a variety of multimedia projects that can be done with Linux, including creating DVDs and VCDs, streaming audio and video over the Internet, and building a MythTV digital media hub.

Sure, it's just what you've been clamoring for: an ultra slick, portable version of the most popular console gaming system in the world. But Sony's new PlayStation Portable (PSP) isn't just a handheld gaming device. Beyond its killer graphics and spectacular widescreen LCD for unparalleled game play, it also sports wireless connectivity and a variety of multimedia features, including video, music, and digital photography. Your wildly versatile, endlessly powerful PSP practically begs you to hack and repurpose it to your liking. To save you the trouble and show you how to make the PSP do more than you ever imagined--and more than Sony ever intended--PSP Hacks is one succinct volume of 50 of the coolest, most useful, up-to-the-minute hacks for this amazing device. You'll learn how to open your PSP's hardware and what to safely plug into it. You'll explore and put to good use every hidden feature of the device. You'll be able to move all sorts of multimedia onto your PSP and find ways to extend its wireless capabilities. And you'll find out how to get the very best experience out of online game play. With PSP Hacks, you can accomplish a whole lot more than good gaming on the PSP. You'll quickly learn to surf the Web with a PSP, chat in IRC, and use the PSP to read web comics, ebooks, and RSS feeds. Other expert tips and tools allow you to sync an address book to your PSP, watch UMD movies, fool iTunes into thinking the PSP is an iPod Shuffle, and much more. The innovative hacks, tweaks, and how-tos in this essential guide make it easy to customize your PSP, take full advantage of features, capabilities, and functionality far beyond what's listed in the PSP user manual, and make your PSP perform countless tricks that only an all-in-one portable entertainment unit as remarkable and revolutionary as this one could.

Provides information on creating Web sites using the PHP scripting language.

Podcasting: New Aural Cultures and Digital Media is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of academic research exploring the definition, status, practices and implications of podcasting through a Media and Cultural Studies lens. By bringing together research from experienced and early career academics alongside audio and creative practitioners, the chapters in this volume span a range of approaches in a timely reaction to podcasting’s zeitgeist moment. In conceptualizing the podcast, the contributors examine its liminal status between the mechanics of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media and between differing production contexts, in addition to podcasting’s reliance on mainstream industrial structures whilst retaining an alternative, even outsider, sensibility. In the present tumult of online media discourse, the contributors frame podcasting as indicative of a ‘new aural culture’ emerging from an identifiable set of industrial, technological and cultural circumstances. The analyses in this collection offer a range of interpretations which begin to open avenues for further research into a distinct Podcast Studies.