Audio News: Pretty Cool, but Slightly Robotic

by Neil Woodburn on

When things get busy in my life, one of the first casualties are my newspapers and magazines. As they come in, they get stacked in a corner of my room waiting to be read. Sometimes this stack can be a couple of feet thick before I finally get the time to catch up.

Now, there is a quicker way to stay on top of my news. Newspapers like The International Herald Tribune now offer free audio news which can be downloaded and listened to on your iPod while driving to work or traveling. It’s a great idea, but still has a few kinks.

The problem is that The International Herald Tribune does not employ an army of readers to record every article in the paper. Instead, according to their website, “Articles are read by the latest text-to-speech technologies using professional readers whose recordings are converted into language dictionaries.” Unfortunately by using such a process, the words sound automated and emotionless and slightly like Stephen Hawking.

It’s a little painful, but I’m still going to give it a shot. Once this technology is perfected–the site is still in beta–I can see myself subscribing to more of their feeds. In the meantime, I think those stacks of literature on my bedroom floor will continue to grow.

Gadling Podcasts on iTunes

by Erik Olsen on

Just a little note here to let you know that we’re actually available on itunes now. It’s still not perfect. The image is our old one and the list of available podcasts doesn’t show up properly, but you can now go to itunes and download all of our podcasts. Or, better yet, you can subscribe to them and have them synched up with your ipod. We did a new podcast just yesterday, a quick talk with Nicholas Butterworth, the CEO of a new travel video company called Travelistic, which officially launches on Monday. And before that, we did one with guidebook writer Joshua Berman. Coming up next week, we have one with one of the guys who started Road Trip Nation. So you see, there’s lots of good reasons to subscribe over on itunes. Go for it.

Other podcasts:
Diver John Chatterton of Deep Sea Detectives and Shadow Divers
Undersea explorer Fabien Cousteau.
Josh Davis, author of The Underdog
James O’Reilly, Executive Editor of Traveler’s Tales
Lonely Planet’s Don George
Eric Stiller, kayaker and the author of Keep Australia on Your Left
Jim Benning, co-editor of the online travel site Worldhum
Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea, travel authors
Cafe Reggio

Gadling Podcast: Travelistic

by Erik Olsen on

The online video space right now is hotter than Georgia asphalt…hotter in fact than a griddle sitting on a bonfire burning on the surface of the sun. YouTube cashed in to the tune of $1.5 billion when Google scooped them up recently, making several lucky individuals quite rich, and leaving the rest of us wondering whether GoogleTV will come to dominate the online video space. I, for one, hope not. And given the nature of the Web, I doubt it. New players are constantly emerging, finding satisfying niches to fill and offering legions of camera-toting Spielbergs the opportunity to become stars…even if just to a few friends and family members.

One genre that seems ripe for new players and opportunities is travel. You and I both know that if you were heading to, say, Cambodia, in a month or two, you’d love to peruse the various travel vids that others have done. Especially if they were informative (as opposed to people lighting their farts on fire in front of Angkor Wat) you’d get to find out what the best hotels are, and which ones you should avoid. You’d meet all sorts of new people, right from the cozy confines of your cubicle. Video is the new word, as it were, because we all know that a picture can be worth a thousand words.

And it is with real enthusiasm that I announce another Gadling podcast with the leader of a new company called Travelistic who is squaring off to compete in this new travel video space. We blogged about them earlier, and drew their attention, and so their CEO Nicholas Butterworth asked us to come down and have a quick chat. Which we did. The new site officially launches on Monday, but we got a sneak peak and learned a bit more than we knew about online travel video. There’s a lot to learn, including how YOU can possibly become the next “Rocketboom” host of a travel show.

We offer you a chance to hear that conversation, here and now.

(Time – 10:30)

Backpacker Podcasts

by Erik Olsen on

For those who like their podcasts raw, but directly from the source, Backpacker Magazine is now offering a series of podcasts wherein the magazine’s Rocky Mountain editor Steve Howe blabs about his experiences hiking the Sierra High Route in California. Or at least, that’ s what the first page of podcasts embedded into the page here, are about. I listened to several of them and thought they could use a little production work .The audio is poor quality and tinny, but Howe takes them seriously, offering useful, sometimes philosophical, information about hiking. One feature I like a lot is the “track Steve’s Progress” feature on Google earth. A nice touch.

Although they are a little boring at times, hard-core hikers will probably find them interesting for some of the technical info Howe discusses. The first file on the page has Howe pleasantly surprised that a hike he took brought him near a place called Frozen Lake Pass that he’d never seen before. Another has him giving tips on how to properly haul your way up a wall of scree. If I were Backpacker, I’d make sure these got into itunes so that people can subscribe…something they may have done, but that they do not advertise well enough on the site. Also, most people will probably want to listen on their ipods or MP3 players, so you probably want to use the feed if you’re to keep up on this podcast.

Podcast Reminder

by Erik Olsen on

One of the things with being a blog is that the need to constantly post new information is unrelenting. I think we now do between 10-15 posts a day here. That’s a lot of work and a lot of useful (and sometimes not so useful) information for gadling readers. But the problem is that sometimes things disappear really quickly and get lost in the digital annals. So I just wanted to remind folks with this post about the podcast we did last week with guidebook writer Joshua Berman. But also, if you look back in the gadling podcast category, you’ll see we’ve done a whole host of cool podcasts that you can listen to now on your ipod or computer or via that chip the government implanted in your skull.

Who else have we done podcasts with, you ask?

Well what about one of the hosts of Deep Sea Detectives, a very cool fellow named John Chatterton (whose exploits will also be featured soon in a movie directed by Ridley Scott). Then there is the talk we had with undersea explorer Fabien Cousteau. Of what about Josh Davis, author of The Underdog. There are more, and, in fact, here is a quick list for you. So click away and listen up:

– James O’Reilly, Executive Editor of Traveler’s Tales
– Lonely Planet’s Don George
– Eric Stiller, kayaker and the author of Keep Australia on Your Left
– Jim Benning, co-editor of the online travel site Worldhum
– Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea, travel authors
– Cafe Reggio

And we are also on itunes, so feel free to subscribe for your ipod.