I listen to a lot of podcasts, and my queue of things to listen seems to be growing constantly; I can never catch up. What's frustrating about this is that most people talk too slowly on podcasts. To be fair, they are speaking at a reasonable conversational pace, but when you are simply listening to a conversation rather than taking part in it, you can take it all in at a much faster pace.

While iPods have been able to speed up audio books for some time, the latest 3.0 iPhone / iPod Touch release has added the ability to speed up (and slow down) podcasts as well as audiobooks. That's the good news. The bad news is that whatever the algorithm is that is being used to speed up the audio ends up sounding quite rough.

For podcast listeners that are not using an iPhone or iPod Touch, there are not many options for speeding up podcasts, short of doing it yourself manually with a program like Audacity.

Luckily, there's a new site that is looking to take care of this problem for us. PodShifter is a site that will allow you to enter the RSS feed for a given podcast, and it will spit out a new feed URL that will deliver podcasts that are sped up to exactly the speed you prefer. You can choose from slowing down your feed to 0.6 times its original speed, all the way up to 3.0 times the original speed, in increments of 0.2. Based on the demo MP3s on PodShifter's homepage, the sped-up audio is quite smooth.

Unfortunately, in my testing PodShifter has generated new podcast RSS URLs, but when I put them into iTunes, the audio files that I get are exactly the same speed as the originals. I was surprised that they downloaded at all to begin with, so I'm hopeful that there is processing going on in the background and a new version of the podcast will arrive that actually is sped up.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it is quite likely that some podcast publishers will not be thrilled about a republishing service such as this. Larger podcasts that rely on download statistics for determining advertising rates could potentially lose track of the subscribers that sit behind a republishing service like PodShifter. And unfortunately PodShifter's site is not particularly forthcoming with information, so it's hard to determine whether they offer publishers some manner of tracking statistics properly.

In any event, the service that PodShifter provides is a very useful one, and one I hope will succeed. Now excuse me while I go refresh my podcasts to see if any of my PodShifter subscriptions have delivered on its promise.

[via Lifehacker]

NPR has rolled out a new feature that lets you build your own podcast by entering a list of topics you're interested in. Once you've finished building your list, you can subscribe to your custom podcast by hitting the iTunes or Zune buttons. Or you can copy the URL for the RSS feed into your podcast aggregator of choice.

Up until now you could subscribe to podcasts from NPR.org by selecting a radio program or by selecting one topic at a time. The topic-based podcasts include NPR news stories matching that topic drawn from a number of shows.

The new feature makes it much easier to find NPR content you're interested in. But I still wish there was a way to download entire episodes of Morning Edition and All Things Considered. With the Bryant Park Project having been pulled off the air this year and with Day to Day and News and Notes disappearing next year, soon there won't be any full length NPR news magazines available for download.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

iPhone and iPod Touch users can upgrade their software to version 2.2 today. The update, which weighs in at around 250 megs, adds some highly-anticipated features. The two biggest for me are Street View in the Maps app and the ability to download podcasts from the iTunes Store. There are some smaller tweaks that you might appreciate, as well: that bug that sometimes kept messages from downloading in Mail is fixed, and you can click the home button when you're on any page of the home screen to go back to the first page.

Street View on the iPhone is every bit as cool as it sounds. It looks good in landscape and is really smooth to control. I suspect it won't be long before we start seeing photos of people holding up iPhone street view pictures of the place they're standing. Less flashy, but just as useful, walking and transit directions are available in maps now, as well. If you're an iPod Touch user, you're unfortunately out of luck on Street View for now, so far it's iPhone only.

Downloading podcasts was at the top of my wishlist for the iPhone (although I know a lot of you have lists of your own). It's always frustrating to finish an episode of a good podcast while you're out walking or on a train, and then wait until you get home to hear the next one. Not a problem anymore, thanks to the latest iPhone update. All in all, 2.2 offers some excellent new features. The only thing I have to complain about is the new Safari layout, which feels cramped with the address bar and the search bar smooshed in next to one another.

It seems like the days of the family computer have come and gone already, and more and more people have their own individual computer to use. In my house, everyone over the age of 3 has one (plus a couple of extras), and keeping data synchronized amongst them all is a bit of a nightmare.

Our main two machines are the Macs that my wife and I use. In our family, I'm the techie one, so over the years I've spent a lot of time ripping our CD collections into MP3 files. Though she certainly enjoys listening to music, she's never bothered to do the same on her machine. The other day she decided that she should have access to all of the music that I've been dutifully ripping from our CD collection, and since 1/2 of the CDs were hers in the first place, she's right.

So, what's the fastest way to get my iTunes library over to her machine, while maintaining the song ratings and playlists that we've come up with together? I found an application called Syncopation that fits the bill perfectly.

Syncopation does exactly what I've described - it allows you to grab an entire music library from another machine over your local network. It even supports synchronizing podcasts, movies and TV shows! The process is very straightforward:

1. Install Syncopation on both the machine you want to synchronize from, and the machine you are moving the music to
2. Set your preferences; do you want to transfer videos and podcasts, or no?
3. Subscribe to the other machine that should be showing up in Syncopation's browser
4. Press the Sync button, and wait.
   
5. And wait, and wait, and wait.

Depending on how big your library is and how fast your network is, it could take a number of hours to transfer everything across. On our 802.11g network, it is taking about an hour per gigabyte transferred.

You'll have to keep Syncopation running on all machines that are actively synchronizing while they perform the transfer. Syncopation supports up to five Macs, though the trial verison only supports two, and the trial is good for 30 days. I see myself purchasing this tool when my trial period is up, because it makes keeping our iTunes libraries in sync a snap.

If you're as busy as rest of us, you may not have time to catch all the latest presidential election details on the evening news. Fortunately, you can still keep up by listening to a few really excellent podcasts while you're commuting or working out. [Note: All links open in iTunes.]

Listen to selected speeches from the Democratic National Convention in a podcast series put together by the DNC. It's got all the usual suspects like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but you can also catch speeches given by Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, and some of the governors in attendance.

The Republican National Convention will also have speeches available as the event gets underway today in Minnesota.

For a general overview of what's happening with the election, have a listen to National Public Radio's "It's All Politics," a weekly podcast covering news and events in the presidential race. If it's political punditry you're after, choose from Bill Maher, Dan Carlin, Bill Moyers, and others.

Download Pod is an occasional series about our favorite podcasts. If you have suggestions for podcasts you think we should check out, let us know in the comments or via our tips page.

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.

The nearly unpronounceable but endlessly creative Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich turn their microscope towards the podcast with this excellent series from New York's WYNC. Tackling issues as diverse as Laughter, Sleep, Time and 'Who Am I?' these uber-geeks play on the fringes of radio documentary, journalism and sound art. Abumrad comes to the series with a pedigree that includes composing music for films and television and extensive radio documentary work while Krulwich comes to Radiolab as the much lauded Science Correspondent for the US National Public Radio network.

Radiolab takes on themes relating to science, nature or culture and examines them through a prism filtered by scientific method, social history, personal experience and sound production methods. Produced in series of 5 parts at a time, with its innovative subject matter, high quality production, creative writing and detailed research Radiolab is one of the most innovative podcasts available for download online.

Click here to subscribe to the Radio Lab RSS Feed.

Click here for subscribe to Radio Lab via iTunes.

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.

If you named your dog Spike, dream of vacationing in Sunnydale, and never quite got over what happened to Jenny Calendar, then you'll love the gem of a podcast we've uncovered for you. Buffy Between the Lines is original fan fic written and produced by a group of volunteers who probably know more about Xander, Willow, and Buffy than Joss Whedon himself.

Season One is, as they say, already in the can and all the episodes are available for download right from the site. All the usual suspects are featured, including some special appearances by Angel and his crew. The dialogue is snappy and spot-on, right down to the barbs Spike trades with, well, everyone.

Hurry up and get caught up with Season One. The cast is getting ready to start taping the second season and it should be available soon.

We spend a lot of time in front of our computers. But when we finally step away, you know what we like to do? Relax with a good book. No, just kidding! We download digital media from our computers and enjoy it on the go. With that in mind, today we're starting an occasional series bringing you reviews of some of our favorite audio and video podcasts.

We're going to try to avoid the big names at the top of the iTunes charts and bring you some of the more obscure podcasts we think are worth listening to. But that doesn't mean we won't don't love us some Science Friday from NPR or Diggnation. It just means that you're probably already well aware of them. We'd rather tell you about the Naked Scientists, Digital Planet, and Love & Radio.

If you have suggestions for podcasts you think we should check out, let us know in the comments. And stay tuned for our first irregularly scheduled review.

Podcast aggregator and search engine Odeo is beta testing a new web site, and from what we've seen so far, it's a vast improvement over Odeo's existing page. The first thing you'll notice (if you're invited to join the beta after signing up for an invite), is a new, cleaner look that makes it easier to find featured podcasts and browse by categories. But much more impressive is the new search feature. We didn't realize how poor the old search feature was until we tried searching for podcasts using the new search box and actually got accurate results immediately.

Here are a few other features of the new site:

• Users can rate and comment on shows
• Users can now submit feeds for podcasts that aren't included in the Odeo library
• There's a pretty new Flash player
  

The beta page is still a work in progress and not every feature is available. For example, in order to get embed code for placing podcasts on your web site you have to click through to Odeo classic. But we're pretty excited at the direction Odeo is taking.

Too busy campaigning in South Carolina to read Download Squad this week? We understand. Running for President is tough. Don't worry though, we've got you covered. Tell one of your aides to hold all your calls and take a few to catch up on what's happening around your favorite Squad.


Mozilla's 10th Birthday - We baked a cake!

Ten years ago this week, Netscape announced that they'd open source the code to the in-development version of the next Netscape browser. That announcement eventually led to the founding of the Mozilla foundation, and the birth of our favorite browser, Firefox. We got so excited we enlisted the help of Slashfood blogger and pro-pastry chef Shayna Glick to bake a cake fitting of the occasion. What we ended up with was almost to beautiful to eat.

Find missing files with ease, under Linux.

Our lovable Linux Librarian, Kristin Shoemaker, checks in with another installment of her Linux Switcher series. This time, Kristin gives us the 411 on how to quickly locate those pesky files we just knew we saved, somewhere.

Five Smart Sex Podasts

Amber Rhea checked in to drop some science on us about a few pro-sex podcasts which manage to assume you have a brain in addition to a few other organs. This is part of her newly launched, ongoing series dealing with sex and the internet. Warning, these columns acknowledge the existence of sex, and even go so far as to suggest it might be a good idea.. if that offends you, skip ahead.

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.)

Looking for a good, free podcast aggregator/player for Windows? For a long time, Juice (formerly known as iPodder) was the reigning champ. But it's kind of a pain in the behind to get Juice working with Vista. So we're always looking for a better solution.

You can use Miro to download audio podcasts as well as video, but that's sort of like using a tank to drive to the supermarket.

Ziepod, on the other hand, is a bit more like a corvette. It's pretty, easy to use, and fast. The built-in podcast directory is also excellent if you're browsing for new podcasts. Notice we said browsing? There's no search button, which is a bit baffling.

Another odd choice is that while you an set Ziepod to automatically delete podcasts that have been sitting on your PC for a certain period of time, there's no way to customize that setting for different feeds. So if you download some podcasts on a weekly basis and others on a daily basis, there doesn't appear to be an easy way to keep the last 2 days worth of one and 3 weeks worth of the other.

That said, Ziepod does a great job of pulling in your podcasts, storing them, letting you listen on your computer or synchronize with an iPod. There's also a commercial version for $20 with a few additional features like download bandwitdh speed control, and a dockable video bar.

[thanks booblik!]

Yahoo! is closing down Yahoo! Podcasts on October 31. And the 2-year old site never even got to shed its beta tag. So tragic.

The site is actually one of the better podcast directories on the web. Yahoo! has indexed a large number of podcasts, and the site is easy to navigate. There's even a handy player for streaming podcasts without downloading them.

But while podcasting was all the rage a few years ago, it seems like internet video gets all the attention these days. And we're guessing it's not just because people like to watch video more than they like to listen to people talk. Video is also easier to monetize with pre-roll or embedded advertising. It's incredibly easy to skip past an audio advertisement on your MP3 player, and while you could try to include video ads with every download, they won't be too effective if you keep your iPod in your pocket.

If you're looking for a new place to find your podcasts, you might want to check out PodcastAlley, Podcast Pickle or Odeo. NPR also maintains a great list of public radio shows available as podcasts.

[via Read/WriteWeb]