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Battle of the iPod books (continued)
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
What should you buy?
So, we've now looked at seven books and we have three strong winners. All are reasonable books, but three stand out as best buys. If you want a general, overall view of how to use your iPod and iTunes, iPod & iTunes (The Missing Manual) is the right choice. If you want to go into your iPod and tinker under the hood, go ahead and get iPod & iTunes Hacks. And, if you want to get started in the wonderful world of podcasting, you'll be quite happy with Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide.
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.
For more than 20 years, David Gewirtz, the author of Where Have All The Emails Gone? and The Flexible Enterprise, has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com and you can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.
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