Making a podcast can be a pain in the butt. Most of them are distributed via RSS or Atom, to make it as easy as possible for listeners to get new episodes. What if you want to save a bunch of audio as a podcast, but lack the technical expertise or the patience to make an RSS feed for it? Or what if you know how, but you just don't want to bother? Well, that's why there's Huffduffer.

Huffduffer will stitch audio files into a podcast for you, and put them into an RSS feed automatically. You can add your own styff, or throw together some of the great "inspiration" that's already on Huffduffer. They've linked some of the best free content on the web, like TED talks and This American Life. To make things even easier, there's a browser bookmarklet you can save, to easily Huffduff any interesting audio you run across. I'm already thinking of Huffduffer as the Tumblr of podcasting: good concept, great ease of use, definitely worth checking out.

After spending a few months in private beta, Odeo has launched a new version of its podcast aggregation service. OK, actually it looks like the new version of the site launched a few weeks ago, but we just noticed it, thanks to a short writeup over at TechCrunch. The updated site features a sleek new design and video. Lots and lots of video.

Odeo now has videos from about half a million different partners, including major content partners like Blip.tv and Revision3. There's also an improved Flash player for watching videos or listening to audio on the site. At its heart, Odeo is still a podcast aggregation site, which means that there are download links for most audio and videos. Because while you can spend all day watching videos online, sometimes you want to download them and take them with you on your portable media player.

Users can also create profile pages, create playlists, rate podcasts, and share content using email links or embed code. The developers are also working on an improved version of Odeo Studio, a utility that lets users record or upload podcasts using a web browser.

Been so busy trying to buy Pope bobble-head dolls on eBay that you've fallen behind on the week's software news? We've got your back. Here are some of our favorite stories from the past week.

Comcast shuts down Dave Winer

Ever wonder if those unlimited bandwidth internet service plans are really unlimited? Tech analyst Dave Winer found out the hard way that there's unlimited, and then there's Comcast. The cable and internet provider cut him off for excessive use. Download Squad's Christina Warren interviewed Winer about his Comcast woes,

Amazon MP3 has little or no effect on iTunes

Amazon's MP3 download store might look like a great alternative to the iTunes store. It has a ton of music, it's well priced, and all the tracks are DRM-free. But it turns out that iTunes is still king. By a long shot. Less than 10% of Amazon MP3 customers are iTunes converts.

Want to start a podcast, but don't know the first thing about audio engineering, web hosting, or RSS feeds? Blogtalkradio's newest service makes podcasting a cinch, which is probably why they call the service Cinch.

All you have to do is a call 646-200-0000 from any phone and start talking. Cinch will record your conversation and create a feed with your call as an MP3 enclosure. You never even need to visit the Cinch web page or sign up for the service. So how do you find your feed? Simple, just add your phone number to the end of the Cinch URL. For example, if your phone number is 555-253-4756, your feed would be published at http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/5552534756.

Now, the audio quality isn't going to be amazing. We're talking about recording telephone calls here, after all. If you're serious about podcasting, you're going to want to get a decent microphone, some audio editing software, and so forth. But if you just want to record short interviews on the go and you don't have any other equipment handy, Cinch could be a lifesaver.

And if you're worried about sharing your phone number with the general public through the URL, you can always use FeedBurner to republish your feed with a different URL.

[via Scripting News]

Like podcasting? Like sex? Like not being spoken to as if you're slightly more intelligent than a paramecium? If you answered "yes" to all three of those questions, here are some podcasts you might enjoy.

(Warning to readers. This column both acknowledges the existence of sex, and explores the ways sex and sexuality relate to and are enhanced by the internet. If you're offended by such content, don't take the jump.)

Podcasting might not be easy, but it isn't as hard as you think. Christina and Grant catch up with Amber Rhea to talk about the benefits of starting your own podcast.

Not into this whole "creation of new media" thing? Only want to listen? We offer a few tips for getting started as a podcast listener, too!

The Squadcast's "The Five" this week features Download Squad's five favorite podcast tools, sites and tricks.

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Take the jump for show notes and links to items discussed in this episode.

For those non-Mac using readers, today may well have been just your normal day. However for us Mac-loving folk, today saw a special event at Apple HQ. Whilst Apple unveiled some shiny new hardware, they also unveiled arguably the most long-expected software upgrade ever: the iLife '08 suite. So what's new? Well from the look of things, it's a fair bit. iPhoto and iMovie saw the most change, with iMovie apparently undergoing a substantial re-write.

iPhoto brought us a whole new set of consumer-friendly tricks, such as 'events' where instead of simply going by date you can effectively stack a number of images into one group, set a 'poster' image which represents the event, and easily 'skim' through the contents of an event, without having to expand the event's pictures within the user interface. Whilst some sites' initial reaction seemed to simply claim these as glorified albums, the implementation of events seems similar to 'stacks', a feature from Apple's professional photography application Aperture, allowing you to group photos in expandable stacks based on periods of time between shots. On top of Events, there's a far more complete set of editing tools, and the ability to easily apply a set of adjustments from one photo to another. One final, rather important feature to note was the integration with an enhanced .Mac service, allowing you to upload photos from your Mac, iPhone and even you PC to the service. Photos are then added to the online Gallery, and even sync back to the original iPhoto library the gallery came from. Apple have even provided a demo of the new gallery, which can be found here.

According to Apple chief Steve Jobs, iMovie was significantly re-written following an Apple engineer's inability to make a movie of footage within 30 minutes and the result is a significantly changed application, which not only offers enhanced editing, but also a neat media cataloguing ability, similar to the third-party iDive application. The new version is seemingly designed with quick, polished results in mind with more ways to "add polish quickly" throughout. There's even a super-handy 'Export to YouTube' option, thanks to the Google - Apple partnership.
iWeb saw yet another extension of the partnership with Google, allowing users to easily add Google Maps, Adsense and YouTube clips and more via Widgets in an iWeb page. iWeb '08 also allows the use (finally) of custom domains, and creates "enhanced photo pages" which allow you to share yet more photos via an iWeb site.

GarageBand '08 also offers you yet more tools in the digital armoury, with Magic GarageBand creating bands for you (!) by choosing a style, instruments in the band, and then allowing you to plug in your guitar or keyboard and get recording. Other tools such as the Arrangements tool (where you specify a section of a song as a chorus or verse etc) and Automation of tempo effects will undoubtbly help new users organise their next hit song better.

The $79 upgrade fee for current iLife owners seems, perhaps unusually, a very fair price for a compelling upgrade. The new version is available today, although there's a few days wait via Apple's online store.

Disclaimer: I am a part-time support ninja for the company behind the product I mention in this post.

Back in September last year, we covered RapidWeaver when back at version 3.5.0. Since then, version numbers have increased, and today sees the release of RapidWeaver 3.6.2. The release includes not only bugfixes, but a few new features too: Aperture support in the Media Browser; Dynamic PHP Sidebar to "significantly reduce upload times when posting entries, particularly on larger sites"; Customisable RSS URLs (for integration with services such as Feedburner) and more.

The upgrade is free to registered customers of RapidWeaver 3.6.x users, owners of versions of RapidWeaver 3.5.1 or earlier can upgrade for $25, and a new licence costs $49.

Odeo, an early pioneer among podcasting sites, is up for sale. Odeo's creator, Evan Williams is aiming to be open and honest about the sale, and wants everything out on the table so he's blogging about it. The creator of Blogger and the founder of Obvious Corp who is the web development company behind Twitter, admits that Odeo has not gotten the attention it deserves.

Back in the day, Odeo did receive funding, but when things didn't work out; Evan bought it back and was trying to rehash a business model. Twitter has taken off, and they must spend their time with that application, so Odeo is on the market. As an alternative to a buyout, Obvious is currently looking at looking at different investment situations as well, from a cash offer to equity. The full Odeo pot includes selling the odeo.com domain as well as the studio.odeo.com platform, including all code, the brand, and a database of three million MP3s. So, if you're interested, drop Evan an email.

UPDATE: Evan was reported to have paid $5 Million when he bought back ODEO from investors.

[Thanks Jordan Running]

Obvious Corp? Curious name for a company, but this is Web 2.0, right?--At least it's not Obviousr. Obvious Corp is a brand new company founded by Blogger creator Evan Williams and his Odeo co-founder Biz Stone. As its opening move, Obvious Corp has acquired Odeo, Inc.'s assets including Odeo and Twitter. Williams explains the move in his blog, saying, "I believe there is a lot of value in what we've built-both Odeo and Twitter-but I did not believe the structure was going to lead to the kind of success we wanted. In the new company, with a new structure, and a new model, I think they are great investments." He also describes how Obvious will be doing things differently than the Web 2.0 status quo, and the Obvious web site makes clear that it will be launching new products in the future, but "not until we get our current projects on the right path and also find the right people." Having been a fan of Williams since his Blogger days, I wish him lots of success with his new venture, and look forward to seeing what Obvious Corp creates.

No, I didn't spell it wrong, I meant "godcast" not "podcast." A new trend in religious circles is the godcast. See, I told you. As you might imagine, this is the weekly sermon, teaching or other Church service available on your iPod in podcast form. Godcast1000.com wants to help you put "God on your pod" and is apparently one of the largest godcasting sites according to the LA Times. Many churches are now starting podcasts of their entire service, or of just the sermon portion.


Either way listeners can carry "church" with them everywhere they go, which is helpful when traveling or home sick. This growing trend is another way that religious folks can keep in touch and feel connected to what is going on back home. Things that make you go "they can do that?"

Podcasting portal Odeo has announced a couple cool new features in its official blog. The first is a "Starred Audio Player," which could be described as a Flash widget that you can add to your blog or web site that displays and plays all of cool audio you've found and "starred" on Odeo. It lets you customize the colors and change how items are displayed. You can see an example of the Starred Audio Player in action here.

The second new feature is much smaller, but just as welcome: Resume Play. if you're listening to something on Odeo and close the page, when you go back to Odeo it will automatically resume where you left off. Excellent.

Pocket Podcasts is an open source podcatcher application for Windows Mobile powered Pocket PC and Smart Phones. Being a member of Podcast Listener Anonymous (as well as Downloaders Anonymous) when I heard of this application today I went and downloaded it straight away. I may not be able to fully review this for a few days until my 2gb MiniSD card I purchased this morning arrives. Well I could not wait and decided to start playing with the application now and hope I have enough room to test it out.

Read my full review after the jump.

Looking for an easy way to record a podcast? Check out Gabcast. It's a service that makes podcasting (almost) as simple as making a phone call. You just dial one of Gabcast's access numbers (there are local and/or toll-free numbers for the U.S., U.K., Canada, Holland, and elsewhere) or connect via VoIP and record your podcast, and Gabcast does the rest. You can also do conference calls for multi-person podcasts. Gabcast comes in three flavors: Free, Pro, and Premium. The Free account gives you 200MB disk space, RSS feeds, and blog integration via a Gabcast-branded Flash widget. Pro costs $6 per month and gives you 400MB of storage and lets you upload episodes and create "hidden" episodes and channels. Premium costs $12 per month, gives you 1GB, adds password protection, and lets you customize the Flash player's branding. Though I'm somewhat skeptical of the audio quality possible with Gabcast, if your primary concern is just getting it done, Gabcast might be a good option.

If you live in the North East of the US, will be in the area, or just want to attend a podcasting Unconference, then Boston is the place to be the weekend after Labor Day. "PodCamp is a FREE BarCamp-style meetup..." is how the PodCamp Site describes the event.

Anybody can attend, you do not have to be a podcaster, so listeners are welcome, as well as anybody who wants to register and attend. It is free but you do not to go through the registration to get the event swag that will be there. The final venue is still undetermined, but they know it will be in the Boston area and accessible by public transportation to ease attendees getting to the event.

[Via Dave Winer's Blog]