Comments on: Finding travel podcasts: am I a tech knucklehead?

By: Sheila

Sheila — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:06:52 +0000

Wow, Lisa, thanks VERY much for such a long and helpful comment about where to find podcasts and what to look for in terms of podcast quality.

I feel a follow-up post a-brewing….

By: Lisa R. Tucci

Lisa R. Tucci — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:32:40 +0000

There are plenty of excellent downloadable audio tours ready & available, in a point & shoot kind of way. The problem is (once you’ve figured out the download), the quality. Most are produced by amateurs, often offered even for free. Quality audio comes from content production companies who know how to show you things in an interesting way.
Incredibly, the audio experience should be a highly visual one, so, listening to audio passively on a plane (many are made for that), is actually a very unengaging and unpleasant experience (akin to having someone read aloud a travel guide while you’re in flight). So Caveat Emptor (listen to the demo files first).

Having said that, here are a few pointers:

- In Chicago, http://www.downloadchicagotours.com was produced by Acoustiguide, the leader in the field. It’s an excellent video tour too.

- Lodingo.com has developed a software which works seamlessly for direct download to iPods, which is really what you need. Again, they offer everything audio including tours and books.

- My own tours (touringtracks.com) can be downloaded with a simple click to your computer. Each file is numbered and titled so you don’t lose your way. Once on your pc or mac, it can be uploaded in a playlist to your iPod.

Hope this helps.
Lisa R. Tucci
Chief Creative Officer
Artineraries Tours

By: Sheila

Sheila — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:37:12 +0000

Hi Chris – Thanks, I’ll be first in line to click that post!

Hi Mark – Yes, I was surprised that my iTunes searches returned such a mess, but I didn’t spend much time at it, I’ll admit. Since I’ve never uploaded a podcast myself, I don’t know if they can be tagged or made more searchable in some way.

I did notice that some “big names” in travel publishing did a bunch of uploads 2005-2008 and then mostly came to a roaring halt. Interesting.

By: Mark (TravelCommons podcast)

Mark (TravelCommons podcast) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:10:48 +0000

Besides the frustration of getting the Big Blue Q, your other point — the inability to find what you really want in iTunes through search — is spot-on. With the explosive growth (and subsequent abandonment)of podcasts, I think iTunes has degenerated to just a “podcatcher” — a tool to manage podcast subscriptions, to move podcasts on and off your iPod.

By: Chris (Amateur Traveler podcast)

Chris (Amateur Traveler podcast) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:38:18 +0000

rapidly writing a blog post called “What To Do If You’re All Messed Up And Can’t Download Stuff Without Getting a Giant Blue Q”

By: Sheila

Sheila — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:00:16 +0000

Hi Craig,

Gosh, thanks, that was really helpful! I’m on a PC with Firefox, and will try the right click option that you’ve described.

I appreciate you dropping by so quickly; I hadn’t even tweeted about the post yet.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:29:32 +0000

I’m glad Indie Travel Podcast is one of the shows you were after, but I’m kind of biased

The problem isn’t with you, it’s with your browser! When you see the “download” button it’s linked to an mp3 file. Your browser tries to be smart and open the file for you.

If you right-click on that link, you’ll be able to “save file as” and put it on your desktop. If you’ve got a Mac, you should have the option to open audio files directly in iTunes.

The best way to follow podcasts though, is through subscribing in the iTunes store. Just visit the page (through the big purple button on our site) and then hit “subscribe”. It’s all free and your computer will search for and download the latest episodes of any shows you like. You can set iTunes to download everything, or just the most recent show. It’s so easy and they’ll transfer directly over to your iPod too.

Hope that helps! I’m half way through editing a video to help people subscribe right now. I’ll publish it on Indie Travel Podcast tomorrow.