The demise of Google Reader and Google Listen

Like many other people I was surprised to hear about Google cancelling two of my favourite tools - the Google Reader service for managing your RSS feeds and the Google Listen podcast player.  Apparently the reason given is that they could not see any way to make revenue from these products, but I would have though that the users of Google Reader would have been a gold mine of data in relation to what feeds are most popular through the number of reads/favourites/shares etc..

I like the simplicity of Google Listen and you can still install Google Listen, but only if you have  saved a link to it (it no longer shows up in search results). I occasionally find that Listen will crash at random times and since Google have cancelled the project they are unlikely to fix it (I wonder why they didn’t Open Source the project like they did with Google Wave),  As a result I have switched to BeyondPod as a replacement. Overall I find it reasonably easy to use - I have paid for the Pro version, but I don't think I really use any of the Pro features so the free version is equally good from my point of view.

Apparently Google Reader site will be shutting down in July, so while there is no mad rush to get off the platform, it is still a good idea to find some other tool to replace it. The consensus on the internet seems to be that Feedly is the best alternative - my initial experiences seem to back up that claim.

Playing podcasts of music through a Bluetooth Headset on Android

I like to listen to many podcasts on my Android phone. When running or on my bike I tend to listen through headphones. However, it feels strange to plug in headphones while driving in my car. I bought a lead which allows me to connect my phone to the sound system in my car via a cable plugged into the headphone socket on my phone.

This arrangement worked reasonably well until recently when the cable connection started to get loose and crackly. Rather than buy a replacement cable I thought it should be easier to use the Bluetooth hands-free unit to connect  my phone to the car's sound system, but I searched in vain to find a system setting on my phone which would allow me to direct the Bluetooth connection.

After a bit of searching on Google, I found the BTmono application which adds this simple feature. This application is very simple, but effective. When the application is running audio which is normally directed to the headphones (e.g. music or podcasts) is instead sent to the connected Bluetooth device. This means that I can now listen to my podcasts in the car via the sound system or even use a Bluetooth   headset to entertain me while running.

I think this is a clear example of why the Android open model is better than the close system run by Apple for their iPhones. I am guessing that this application would probably not have been allowed into the Apple AppStore.

World Radio Day highlights how a technology with a long past can also have a bright future

Monday of  this week was the officially declared by UNESCO to be  World Radio day. I was listening to the latest episode of the BBC click podcast which was devoted to this event while out jogging and I was struck by how the audio broadcasting technology has both a long glorious history and a bright future.

Here are a few facts worth thinking about:

• Radio was effectively the first world wide web. Modern radio stations tend to broadcast at frequencies that have a relatively short range so that neighbouring radio stations won't interfere with each other, but in the early days of radio stations tended to use Long Wave transmission which had a much longer range. In fact the BBC World Service has been broadcasting globally since 1932 by using a network of transmission stations strategically placed throughout the globe that would re-transmit the programs originally transmitted from London (an architecture which is strikingly similar to that of the Internet). Of course they were assisted in the early days by the existence of the British Empire, but this network is still apparently reaching and audience of almost 200 million listeners every day.
• Radio stations were probably the first  users of social media. As soon as telephones became widespread, many radio programs adapted the phone-in model whereby listeners could phone the radio station to contribute to the discussion happening in the studio. In recent years the technology has been updated to use Twitter and similar tools, but the basic idea has been popular for many years.
• Radio technology is cheap and truly ubiquitous. While many people listen to radio programs on very sophisticated and hence expensive devices, cheap radio receivers are affordable for even the poorest of people. In fact their power consumption is also so low that batter powered models can be used in remote areas where no mains electricity supply is available. In fact it is even feasible to have devices whose battery can be recharged by manually winding a handle.
• Audio broadcasts can reach people even when they are busy. For example, many people listen to the radio while preparing breakfast in the morning and almost all cars come equipped with a radio that you can use to stop yourself getting bored on long journeys. I know that some people might read blogs while driving, but this is definitely not to be recommended for safety reasons. However, listening to the radio while driving is perfectly safe.
• Modern distribution techniques like podcasting complement rather than compete with radio. I follow may different podcasts and I notice many (but not all) of the best shows are radio programs that are simply recorded and turned into a podcast with minimal effort. The skills that radio broadcasters have learned over the years enable them to produce a very high quality product and for minimal extra effort they can transform their existing radio content into podcasts that can reach a much wider audience that are outside the reach of their transmitters. In fact I know that many colleagues who are not natives of Ireland really enjoy the fact that the Internet allows them to easily keep in touch with home by listening to the local radio station from their home town.
• Audio broadcasting is a field that is open to both professionals and amateurs at the same time. While I was in secondary school, I had great fun working as a part-time DJ on our local pirate radio station. The technology we used was amazingly cheap and low-tech even by the standards of the time. The production standards were not very high and were not really capable of competing with the real professionals, but we did nevertheless manage to build up a loyal group of listeners. It is no surprise that there never was a pirate television station in the west of Ireland despite the fact that there was a clear demand for an alternative to the single station that was available at the time - the costs of setting up even a very basic television station would be several orders of magnitude higher.

When you consider all of these factors it is clear that audio broadcasting is a technology which will flourish in the years ahead even if the tools and techniques we use to produce the program and/or listen to the content will continue to evolve.

Where did you hear about Steve Jobs passing away?

People of a certain generation always remember where they were when they first heard the news that John F Kennedy had been assassinated. I was only 14 months old when JFK passed away, but I still know where I was when the news came through because my father said that he had just come home from work and I was sitting on his lap when he turned on the TV news.

Hearing about the passing of JFK was a real shocking moment for Irish Americans of my father's generation. In many ways the passing of Steve Jobs was an equally tragic moment for geeks of my generation. Apple computers was founded around when I was finishing up in secondary school and was learning about computers for the first time. When I was in college I followed with envy the exploits of the two Steves. I was personally more of a fan of Steve Wozniack than Steve Jobs, but I must admit that I would have loved to be more like either of these giants in the computer industry.

I use Google Listen application on my phone to listen to a selection of Podcasts on my commute to and from work. On Thursday morning I was reviewing the podcasts that had been downloaded overnight to see which I should add to my Listen queue when I noticed that the TWiT network had just published a Steve Jobs Special episode. I suspected that the reason for the special episode was because he passed away, so added the episode to my Listen queue and then I checked the RTE news app to see that there was indeed a short story about Steve passing losing his battle with cancer..

Listening to the show was a great review of a wonderful life. Steve Jobs was 7 years older than me and Steve Wozniack was a further 5 years older than him, but their growing up closely mirrored my growing up and the growing up of the computer industry. I know Steve Jobs would have probably preferred if I had been listening to the program on an iPhone rather than on an Android phone, but it was nevertheless a tribute to his contribution to the change in the computer industry that I was getting my news through a podcast from the other side of the globe rather than a local TV or Radio program.

#shotofjaq is destined to become to most popular open source podcast

Jono Bacon is fairly well known in the Open Source community as the Ubuntu community manager, co-presenter of FLOSS Weekly and most recently author of the Art of Community book. So when he teamed up with one of his UK friends Stuart Langridge to create a new podcast called ShotOfJAQ, I decided it was worth checking it out despite the weird off-putting name.

It seems that Jono is following his own advice and is building a really vibrant community around the podcast. They publish a 10 minute episode twice a week about "the goings on in the Open Source, Free Culture and technology world". Each episode is about a single topic which is currently generating a lot of interest in the community. Due to the short length of each episode, they effectively just introduce the topic and wait for their listening community to start discussing the topic by leaving comments on their web site.

So far they are keeping to their twice weekly schedule and each episode so far has generated over 30 listener comments which is pretty amazing for a new podcast. Of course it is to early to be certain if it will be a success (it has only been just over 2 weeks since they launched), but my my prediction is that this podcast will grow a lively fun community of listeners (just like Ubuntu has a lively fun community of users). I recommend you check it out for yourself - it will only take 10 minutes to hear an episode.