It’s a little contraption
– about the size of a deck of cards – but it can almost
literally put heaven and earth at your finger tips.
It’s a little contraption – about the size of a deck of cards – but it can almost literally put heaven and earth at your finger tips.
The magic of MP3 players, such as iPods or Sony Walkman Beans, went beyond storing thousands of songs and into limitless possibilities with the dawn of podcasts.
Now anyone with an MP3 player can learn a foreign language, have access to narrated walking tours of cities on other continents, get the latest gossip on her favorite television series or hear what’s coming soon from a favorite author. People can hear the Sunday sermon they missed at church the previous weekend as they drive to work or search for a new home, all by utilizing podcasts.
A podcast is almost like an electronic version of a magazine or radio show that people subscribe to for free. The term is a combination of the Apple MP3 player “iPod” and the word “broadcast.” People then download the podcast, whether they be audio or video recordings, to their computer from various Web sites – iTunes is the most popular –and it gets automatically added to their MP3 player when it’s plugged into the computer.
Just about anyone can create a podcast. Ordinary people, business owners, students, hobbyists, enthusiasts, major corporations, radio personalities and celebrities have all created podcasts.
The weekly sermons at Shadow Mountain Baptist Church in Morgan Hill are available on the church’s Web site in podcast form.
“We wanted to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and the gospel to the South Valley and beyond, and we decided to do it using media that’s very popular right now,” said Morris Henriquez, the youth and associate pastor at the church. “We recently had visitors from England who said they found us through our Web site and podcasts. We had a young lady in the hospital recently, so she couldn’t make services, but she could use this avenue to hear Sunday’s sermon. It’s an amazing tool.”
Henriquez, who downloads the podcasts made from recordings of church services, said people will listen to the sermons as they commute to work or at the gym as they exercise.
Podcasts fill a much different role for Stu Carson, president of Carson & Team, Realty World Pacific Homes based in San Martin. On the company Web site, clients can download the latest real estate listings and take virtual tours of properties they’re interested in.
“We know about 85 percent of home buyers now start their search online, and that statistic keeps growing,” Carson said. “I’ve found what they have access to online is critical to whether they’re going to invest more time and decide to go see a property. A lot of younger clients – maybe people in their mid-30s or younger – like working with podcasts.”
An unexpected perk to offering podcasts is having the company Web site listed on a multitude of other sites that try to catalog podcasts, directory style, such as podcast.net and podcastdirectory.com.
Alex Englehardt listens to a wide variety of podcasts. The 13-year-old Hollister lad listens to a podcast put out by a radio station he liked to listen to when he lived in Southern California with his family. He also subscribes to a podcast that plays recordings of historic speeches.
“One of my favorite podcasts is Mugglecast, which is produces by Mugglenet.com,” Englehardt said. “It’s all about Harry Potter and they last about an hour and a half each week. One of the last ones was about the character Argus Filch and how his name has roots in Greek mythology.”
Mugglecast also provides subscribers with up-to-date information about future movie and book releases, as well as discussions of various plot lines in past books. Englehardt said he and his friends use iTunes to find any number of free podcasts that are tailored to their individual interests.
Travelers can get guidbook-type information from travel industry leaders such as Frommer’s, which lists podcasts such as “An Insider’s Guide to Maui,” “Spend Less and See More in London,” and “Chick Trips: What Makes a Great Women’s Vacation.”
National Geographic’s Web site offers walking tours of exotic places via podcast, as well as short wildlife videos, international music and news reports. Private podcasters have included the Hollister Independence Day Rally, the Gilroy Garlic Festival and other South Valley events in their podcasts.
Podcasts are also educational.
Sebastien Babolat, a native to France currently living in Hollister, produces podcasts for people who want to learn to speak French. They are available from his company Web site, www.frenchieproductions.com.
Various schools have taken advantage of podcasts as learning tools. Professors at University of Puget Sound have posted learning supplements to a linear algebra class as podcasts for students to download.
Still think MP3 players are new-fangled contraptions only youngsters use to blast that racket they call music? Think again.
