Podcasts and MP3 Players

I've become hooked on these little internet radio shows called podcasts. My fascination was sparked after they were mentioned on my favourite tech show, Call for Help, which is shown on the Foxtel How To channel.

So I downloaded a couple of the 'This Week in Tech' podcasts which is hosted by Leo Laporte from Call for Help. So after listening to a couple sitting at my computer desk, I felt there must be a better way to listen to these broadcasts... So I'm thinking hmmm... these shows are in MP3 format, what I need is an MP3 player. This would allow me to hear the shows while I am away from my computer, much to the disgust of my fiance. Selective hearing has gone to a complete new level... :-D

So which MP3 player to buy?. The obvious first player to pop into my head would be the Apple iPod in all its various guises. What erred me from choosing one of these machines was the price (AU$449 for 20GB) and there was no reason for me to need a 20GB iPod, as I would never fill it. The average podcast is around 30MB and runs for between 30 mins and an hour, so with the above iPod I could fit over 600 podcast episodes... Hmmm, I'm thinking overkill. The 512MB iPod Shuffle was the right size (would fit 15 or so episodes), but the fact that it had no screen didn't thrill me... Various other machines are around, similar in features to the above, but at slightly cheaper prices in most cases.

So to my all time favourite shopping centre I turned, eBay. To my delight I found a 512MB MP4 player, meaning it can play little movies, which plays MP3s, records voice, shows pictures, has an FM radio and allows you to transfer normal files from one place to the next.



All for $100 delivered to my door. I read somewhere that the battery life supposedly wasn't that great, but with the settings set to turn off the screen after a few seconds, I am relatively happy. Playing pretty much only MP3s, I got about 5 hours from the enclosed lithium ion battery.
Charging is performed by using the supplied wall charger or by plugging the USB cable into your computer.

Here is a link to an eBay MP3 Players Buying Guide, which is quite informative.

Here's some links to podcast sites.

Odeo
Podcast Alley
The Podcast Network
iTunes Podcasts