Today Rob Fahrni ponders whether a Palm podcasting platform makes sense:
It’s new and it’s hip. It’s the perfect time to create a new piece of hardware to support this endeavor. I myself this Palm is in the best position to make it work. Why Palm? Well for one thing you can write code to run on it! That’s absolutely critical. My question is how good is the microphone on the Treo 650? Could someone get enough recording time on the device? Why hasn’t Palm jammed a 5 GB hard drive into one yet? Is it because it would increase the size of the device too much? I think Palm is in the best position to create the ultimate Podcasting device; not Apple, not Microsoft, Palm.
I agree completely — the Palm platform has definite potential in this new podcast space. A notable example is Russell Holliman who records his podcasts on his Treo directly; they sound great. Being a programmable system opens up all sorts of application possibilities, such as a dedicated podcasting application that handles recording, posting, and listening duties.
On the receiving end, the drop in memory card prices has made PDAs usable for listening to your favorite podcasts. Dedicated MP3 players generally have a file transfer speed advantage (FireWire/USB2.0 vs HotSync speeds), so some improvement is needed there. I’m planning to look closer at this part of the problem to see what can be done with today’s devices.
I'm still on a quest for the perfect mobile podcasting platform. I had high hopes for my Motorola mpx220 smartphone, but its builtin voice recorder is useless in all but the most quiet environment (I suspect that automatic gain it uses causes all sorts of choppiness when used where there is ambient background noise). Ideally, I'd like to use a PDA with builtin 802.11 and a camera. I kind of like the Palm Zire 72, which has everything but 802.11: now that I've got bluetooth setup perhaps it would be adequate. The camera seems better than the crappy pictures I'm getting from my cell, too.
It really is about lowering the barrier between living your life and "creating content". Ideally, they should be one and the same.
I developed a script which takes the data from the ipodder application and transfers it to my SD card each morning. Not to eligent, but it is helpful.
I wish there were more tools for the podcasting and Palm platform.