Mobile Podcasting Dream
May 25th, 2006I remember a commercial from about 6 or 7 years ago where a person is having their morning coffee while a customized version of the morning newspaper was coming out of their printer. The point of this was that you could get the information you wanted, where and when you wanted it. You got to choose what would be included in your paper by making some choices about the topics that interest you. I liked this idea – me as editor. I can see what I want to see. (But what about the implications of this as far as missing stories that might be important to me but don’t reach me because of the filter choices I make? That is a different blog post…)
This morning I was thinking about this as I was driving to work, listening to the radio. NPR’s Morning Edition was on, and there was a National Geographic Radio Expedition story about an insect in the Amazon called the treehopper. (They communicate via sound waves by vibrating their bodies – too cool!) At the end of the story, they mentioned that these stories were available via podcast.
That’s when I got to thinking – we need a new kind of radio for the car: a podcast receiving radio. Since I have wireless access at my house – in theory this is no problem. My car could download my podcasts while it sits in the driveway every night, then have them ready for me to listen to each morning. This is the audio version of the newspaper from that commercial I mentioned earlier – I’m the editor. I get the audio where I want it, and can listen when I drive – one of the best times for me to listen to podcasts. Plus I eliminate the need for that iPod with its cables, batteries, FM modulator, synchronization, etc. Get in and listen – this could change everything.
May 25th, 2006 at 8:50 am
Satellite radio is a reality, so why not podcast radio receiver. I can’t think of any reason why not.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Great post and cool photo.
Two thoughts here. One is that I too have had the idea of a wireless podcast feed/download to the car in the driveway each morning. Just load up the car’s hard drive with the latest podcast goodness and drive away, a happy camper. So obviously great minds think alike. Another thought, though, comes out of my anti-convergent brain (the other half is convergent, never fear). Though the iPod and its cables and paraphernalia are a drag, the fact that all the stuff is on the iPod is not a drag. What if we just perfected the interface between the iPod and the car so that the iPod sits in its auto-cradle and transfers its content directly into the car stereo, all while it’s charging its little battery? And oh yes, the control interface is the same one you’d use for an ordinary CD player or radio, with nice volume and track-advance and ff-rew buttons on the steering wheel. The advantage here is that you can take the iPod out of the cradle and carry it with you, thus ensuring maximum mobility and flexibility for accessing that content. If you didn’t finish your favorite podcast, you could maybe listen to more later while walking to a meeting, or while exercising, or whatever.
Of course, the more expensive autos are already sprouting elegant iPod interfaces, and there are kits to do retrofitting too.
Obviously I love my iPod and want to hold it close wherever I go. But I refuse to be in any of Apple’s silly bash-Windows commercials. :-)
May 26th, 2006 at 10:24 am
I think a better iPod connection to the car would be good, but it still means I need to have the iPod synced up, remember to bring it, and plug it in. If the radio handled it all, that would make me happiest! But Steve hit on something with satellite. I have Dish Network at home, and they continually are feeding me content like software upgrades for the receiver and program listing updates when the receiver is not being used. What if my satellite radio could do the same thing while it was off? I envision going to the XM web site, choosing my podcasts, then letting them download whenever the radio was off. They are already making radios with built in hard drives (though they are very large and bulky – not iPod like at all), so this might be a natural extension of service for XM or Sirius, since they naturally could charge me for it as well. :(
May 29th, 2006 at 6:44 am
Good thought. I’d still argue for mobility and remembering the tiny devices, but if more things could happen automagically while I sleep, I’d be a happy camper, or at least a happier one.
I think Dish already has a portable media player that can either get feeds from or maybe sync to the set top box. We need more stuff like this.