Shad

Earlier this week, I was working along on my computer, when I get a message from my friend Lee (who works over at Fast).


2:44:03 PM fastmrlee: hiya
4:05:11 PM calosa: yo
5:20:40 PM fastmrlee: so whats up there
5:20:56 PM calosa: not much. just workin'. how about you?
5:21:05 PM fastmrlee: new itunes 4.9
5:21:11 PM calosa: yeah, how is it?
5:21:20 PM fastmrlee: includes podcast stuff
5:21:23 PM calosa: cool

Not sure if everyone knows what Podcasting is, so allow me to explain (there’s also a great article over on Wikipedia).

Podcasting is, quite simply, someone digitally recording themselves speaking/singing/mixing music/etc and putting it up on the internet each day/week/month/etc. That may not at first seem very revolutionary, but imagine that lots of people are doing this and there are tools that allow you to “subscribe” to all your favorites. Now, add an iPod to the mix. Now you have a portable music player containing perfect recordings of your favorite shows. It’s timely, personalized and entertaining. It’s like listening to the radio except you can control it. Your content, you pause it, you fast forward through the crappy parts.

What’s more, the content is basically all free.

Here’s a step by step guide:

Get yourself a computer & internet access

Now I know most of you already have a computer. Unless someone printed this out and passed it to you on the street, then you’re probably reading this over the internet as we speak. For those of you have been waiting for something like this to convince you to get one of those “infarnal machines”, I would suggest getting yourself the 12″ iBook from Apple. Don’t be afraid. Tell ‘em that Shad said it was all good.

Get yourself an iPod

The shuffle is quite nice, but the others can hold a lot more data.

Download & Install iTunes

Mac users will already have iTunes, but Windows users will need to download it.

Go to the iTunes Music Store

Click the box that says “We now have Podcasts!”. Select the podcast(s) that you’re interested in and click on them (iTunes will do the rest)

Plug in your iPod once a day

This will copy all of the podcasts over to your player automatically. If you’re still using a modem, then you’ll have to connect up and click the “synch” button before you plug in your iPod.

That’s it. Now your ready to enjoy the freedom of listening to whatever you want, whenever you want it.

For those of you that are interested in the total package, here’s the price breakdown:

12″ iBook: $999
iPod Shuffle: $129 (about 240 songs)
Internet Connection: $14/month

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