Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide
With Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide by Todd Cochran, we diverge slightly from the prosaic world of iPods and iTunes and into the incredibly exciting world of podcasting.

Sadly, we haven't covered podcasting extensively here in Computing Unplugged. It's one of the most exciting trends to hit mobile computing since, well, mobile computing. Essentially, podcasting is the world of user-contributed audio broadcasts you can download to your mobile audio player. These broadcasts are wonderful. Some of them are just radio station broadcasts, repurposed for podcasting. But the best of the podcasts are honest, irreverent, open-ended discussions on wide-ranging topics, by experts and ordinary people alike.

Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide, shown in Figure H, opens up the world of podcasting to everyone.

FIGURE H


If you want to learn about podcasting, this is your book. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Cochran starts with the history of podcasting, what it is, how to find podcasts, how to "catch" podcasts for your MP3 reader, and how to use podcast readers. He then goes on to how to produce your own podcasts and even how to set up your own podcasting studio.

Because podcasting arrived on the scene and took over the world by storm in the space of only about twelve months, much of what's in Cochran's book is likely to be dated in a relatively short time. That's not his fault. It's just moving that fast.

On the other hand, if you do want to get a good view of what podcasting is and what it may mean for you, this is the book.

OUR RATING: 5 of 5

None of these books cover the iPod nano, the video iPod, or, with the exception of Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide, podcasting. As a result, most didn't reach our coveted five-plug rating. That said, the books described above are good buys and we recommend them strongly.

Finally, we're trying something new in this article. Amazon has long been after us to use our Amazon Associates ID with our book reviews. Amazon offers a program called Amazon Associates where, when you send them a visitor from a link, and that visit turns into a purchase, the sending "associate" gets a small cut of the sale. In theory, if you click on any of the links below and buy one of the books, we'll get a teeny little payment back from Amazon. It's sure not going to make us rich, but perhaps it'll pay for a portion of our downloading addiction on the iTunes Music Store.

Dr. Humayun Bakht completed his Ph.D at the School of Computing and Mathematics in Liverpool at John Moores University. Prior to his current course of studies, he has successfully completed his MSc Software Engineering and BSc Electronics Engineering from University of Liverpool UK and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. Humayun's research interest is mobile ad-hoc networks, in particular, the development of a new routing algorithm for this type of networking. He can be reached at humayunbakht@yahoo.co.uk and you can visit his Web site at http://www.geocities.com/humayunbakht/.