I download loads of podcasts and almost never listen to them. My excuse (other than being poorly organised) is that I've only got a gig of space on my MP3 player - and I prefer to fill that with music I can work to during the day - content with the full intention of listening to my many podcasts when I get home at night. You know - after I've done all my chores and run all my errands and finished travelling to and fro.
After all that to-ing and fro-ing, I find I often don't have the energy to listen to my growing podcast collection attentively. This is why I'm so intrigued by Podlinez, a free web-based service that allows users to get their favorite podcasts by phone. All podcasts submitted are assigned a phone number, which users can then call and listen to at will, using their mobile's keyboard to advance or rewind the podcast.
Caveat: although the service of having your favorite podcast being made available by phone is free, all standard phone apparently apply - so mind your long distance charges and your minutes. With overages in mind, I don't imagine this service will supercede the practice of downloading podcasts to be listened to at a later time - but it's nice to know they're there, in the ether, for those times one finds themselves in an unexpectedly (and irritatingly) long bank line.
Podlinez [-via Lifehacker ]
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Podcasts by phone? I just don't see this being popular unless you are in an office with low bandwidth and you have a speaker phone with an unlimited long distance calling plan. Otherwise I don't see much value added to holding a phone up to your ear for 20 minutes, especially since a lot of us listen to podcasts during the daily commute.