Posts Tagged ‘Twit.tv’

Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 10

January 10, 2009

The list this week is tech-heavy and later than usual, mainly because of the “last” MacWorld Expo. {See all lists].

  • MacBreak Weekly 122: Macworld Expo Live from the floor at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Leo Laporte gathered some of his stalwarts, following the last Apple keynote (the company is pulling out of the convention, a fact that seemed to hang over this event with sadness). The discussion focuses on the high points of the keynote presentation from Phil Schiller of Apple: improvements to iMovie editing; new iPhoto features like facial recognition, geo-tagging, and integration with Flickr; the new 17-inch MacBook Pro; and the end of DRM on iTunes. General agreement that Schiller is no Steve Jobs when it comes to giving a speech. Many of the panelists are camera geeks who don’t use iPhoto, so they are hoping that some of the features will be ported to Aperture, Apple’s high-end photo software. No real picks, though Boxee was plugged; some good show notes are here. I also watched a short 5-minute MacBreak video podcast featuring Merlin Mann pestering people on the convention floor. It was amusing with low information content. Length: 1 hour 9 minutes. Released: Jan. 6.
  • Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 1

January 1, 2009

There has been a lot of chatter about the podcasting business model, and whether it has been a failure. That talk intensified when a major commercial podcaster, Podango, warned recently that its death seemed to be near. None of this is of concern to me: I leave business models to the money people. My interest is content.
I had more free time than usual this week, so the list is longer than usual (in the order I listened). [See all lists.]

  • Grammar Girl 149: Top Five Pet Peeves of 2008 Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogarty) has a business model, or, at least, some regular advertisers and a dedicated audience of grammar enforcers. The top peeves suggested by her listeners: carelessness with language, misuse of “myself,” overuse of the word “tapped,” the phrase “baby bump,” and the use of “slay” as a noun, particularly in New York Daily News headlines. It’s an idiosyncratic list, to be sure, but all these targets are worthy of scorn. (I also listened to the slightly less interesting Episode 150, about podcasting a book. I doubt I would ever listen to a book in serialized podcast form.) Length: 8:33 minutes. Released: Dec. 19.
  • Make-It-Green Girl 34: The Story of Stuff A sister podcast to the one from Grammar Girl, with the same “quick and dirty” preaching to the converted. Anna Elzeftaway suggests you stop buying so much stuff and suggests holiday gifts that require no products, packaging or other waste. “Make it special without making a footprint.” The smug message grates a bit. Length: 5:06 minutes. Released: Dec. 24.
  • Read the rest of this entry »

    Podcast Zeitgeist, Dec. 5

    December 5, 2008

    There are 8 million podcasts on the naked Web. Each week, I listen to 10 or more of them and write some reviews. Here’s the latest survey of independent audio featuring assorted nerds, geeks, freaks, mystics, fans and experts talking about the things they love. In the order I listened this week:

  • TWIT 171: Chocolate Sox” Not a great week for news and information about tech. Leo Laporte makes good on his threat that his This Week in Tech podcast is “unscripted, unplanned and sometimes completely off the hook.” He is joined by John C. Dvorak, Andrew Horowitz and Sarah Lane. They discuss Beaujolais Nouveau, insult Adam Curry, taste chocolate, reminisce about Tech TV, brag about how many Twitter followers they have, complain about AT&T customer service, plug a useful Web site (Gethuman.com), discuss the financial crisis, demonstrate an ignorance of journalistic practice and browse a few tech headlines. It’s entertaining, if not enlightening. Length: 1 hour, 42 minutes. Release date: Nov. 30.
  • Read the rest of this entry »

    Podcast Zeitgesit, Nov. 13

    November 13, 2008

    What I got out of this week’s podcasts for nerds and geeks:

  • TWIT 168: Dirty Pedro” This week’s episode proved useful for getting to sleep on Tuesday evening. Otherwise, I might be asking, how do I get this 1:34 hours of my life back? The signal to noise ratio is quite low, despite heroic efforts by John C. Dvorak to keep the discussion focused on technology. The Audible.com ad was mercifully short. Topics: Google/Yahoo, Obama’s technology and FCC policy, cameras, keyboards, an argument for aggressive comment moderation on blogs. Released: Nov. 9. Length: 1 hour, 34 minutes
  • Read the rest of this entry »

    Podcast Zeitgeist, Nov. 6

    November 6, 2008

    Podcasts I got around to listening to this week, and what was on them, in the order I listened:

  • TWIT 167: More Twit Than You Require” First half: An informative discussion of Windows 7, the replacement for Vista, which I did not care about, as a Mac user. Fast-forwarded to second half (just past 1-hour mark): Leo Laporte interview with John Hodgman, the fake-trivia expert Daily Show I’m-a-PC guy, who is on a book tour. Instead of playing a character, Hodgman gets nerd-real. It’s good. Released: Nov. 2. Length: 1 hour, 45 minutes
  • Read the rest of this entry »

    Podcast Zeitgeist, Oct. 19

    October 19, 2008

    Lately my music library has languished as I have loaded up my iPhone with podcasts of a certain type: Men (mostly) talking about gadgets, technology, movies, stuff on the Web, games, women, and news of the weird, among other topics. The list:

    • Diggnation” Perhaps the most well-known podcast on the list. In various video and audio formats. Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht drink beer and sit on a couch, going down the list of the top stories at Digg.com. Frequency: Weekly. Duration: 45 minutes or so, video.
    • Smodcast” The director Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier shoot the breeze about making and watching movies, comics, growing up in New Jersey, porn and other topics. Weekly. An hour or more, audio only.
    • The Totally Rad Show” Alex Albrecht is joined by Dan Trachtenberg and Jeff Cannata, for reviews of movies, TV shows, comics and video games. Weekly. About an hour, video.
    • Read the rest of this entry »

    Follow

    Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.