Be One with the Pod

We are all too familiar with the brand iPod and the music craze it has stirred amongst the trendy youth generation. iPod represents an era in evolved portable technology, personalization, independence, and straight up attractiveness. Not only has this brand become an icon of today’s society, but it has twisted up traditional broadcasting techniques into digital, syndicated feeds accessible through mobile devices, iPods, and personal computers. This method of syndication can also be termed as podcasting. A podcast is distinguished from other digital audio formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically, using software capable of reading feed formats such as RSS.

I know that sounds like a lot of technical mumbo jumbo, but in reality creating a podcast is actually quite simple. Websites and other software technologies today provide anybody with a PC the flexibility and capability to record, upload, and broadcast a podcast in a matter of 20 minutes (provided you have your session prepared). I recently set up an account for digital telepathy in podOmatic.com. Here you can record your podcast into the program or upload an existing audio file, name the podcast, set up a personal profile with pictures and other media, and instantly give access to thousands of podcast users. In addition, podOmatic.com provides an RSS feed URL so you can copy and paste your podcasts into iTunes or other podcasting platforms. A code for a badge/button that can be featured in a blog or Myspace page is also provided. The sound quality when using podOmatic’s recording tool is not that great, so instead I used Audacity; a free recording tool you can quickly download that provides a much higher sound quality (less background noise and reverberation). By integrating these two programs you can record a crisp, clean sounding podcast while using very few resources. This site really makes it easy for anybody with a microphone and computer to create a podcast (you be the judge if that’s a good or bad thing).

In the near future we will be podcasting our weekly Edible Education sessions. So keep on the look out for these upcoming features as we start to become one with the pod.