Save a little time by fast-tracking through podcast intro chatter and cutting off movie credits in iTunes by using the custom Start and Stop times on your songs and videos. Macworld explains that you can right-click on the item in question, and choose Get Info. In the Options tab, check off Start Time or Stop Time to set it. (Use this same technique to create a perfectly timed interval training iTunes playlist for your next trip to the gym or the track.) If you convert the item to another file format, only the snippet will go into the new file.

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Podcaster Brian Ibbott has turned out Coverville, a 40-minute podcast of cover songs and commentary, three times a week since September 2004, with only a few misses here and there. Ibbott works freelance as a web consultant in the mornings, listens to and sorts dozens of requested songs every afternoon, and shuts down his laptop at 5PM to spend time with his wife and child. When he hits 500 episodes of Coverville on August 15, it'll happen at a five-act Las Vegas concert he booked and organised mostly himself. Brian Ibbott, in other words, is a busy man, but his show is a light-hearted breath of fresh air for roughly 15,000 music fans each week. We spoke with the man behind one of the net's earliest and most consistent podcasts about his organisation techniques, working as a true freelancer, and what it's like to manage 108 GB of music as part of your job.

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Apple has been pushing out podcasts from universities under the iTunes U brand for a while now, but the concept just got more interesting with the addition of half-a-dozen Australian universities:  Australian National University, Griffith University, Swinburne University, University of Melbourne, University of NSW, and the University of WA (for New Zealanders, Otago University has also signed up.) Content includes audio and video versions of guest and regular lectures, as well as research profiles. Shame we got stuck with the US-centric 'U' branding; frankly, if you want to go to university, you need to be able to pronounce words of more than one syllable. Though admittedly 'iTunes College' wouldn't be much better.

iTunes U

iTunes, Amarok, or any podcast aggregator of your choice—they do a great job of fetching and organising your favorite periodic mp3s, but what if you just have one or two shows you occasionally listen to? The Geeks are Sexy blog recommends using an Rss-to-email service to have your podcasts sent directly to your email. For podcasts that regularly turn out smaller mp3 files, it's a feasible solution, and it gets you the shows immediately, rather than relying on your memory or an always-open pod-catcher to check for them. Better still, users of Gmail and other web-based email can often play the files directly from the message with built-in players. For another podcast alternative, try using Netvibes as your aggregator.

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MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey reveals his secret to recording the MeFi podcast between two Macs with simple software sans expensive hardware. Matt says:

I read a lot of podcast how-tos when I set out to do my own, and almost all of them are mired in technical details about microphone quality and USB vs. mixer board audio wankery. Most every tutorial about doing a podcast interview focuses way too much on studio-like sound quality achieved through your equipment instead of through software and a bit of clever thinking.

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Previously mentioned file sharing site Drop.io has added a neat feature: the ability to record and share MP3 audio from your phone. Create a new voice "drop" and get a phone number and extension. Call it, and start talking or recording a lecture, podcast, or interview, and when you hang up, the recording's available as an MP3 download for sharing at a custom drop.io URL. Store up to 100MB "drops" (that's shared files and/or MP3's) for free or upgrade for 1GB of storage for 10 bucks. Update: This post giving you déjà vu? Our apologies for the duplicate.

Pediaphon is a website which lets you convert Wikipedia articles into audio format. It lets you search for Wikipedia articles and uses text to speech technology to automatically generate audio files which can you listen to in your browser or download.
It's a very quick process to search and generate the results. It gives you an MP3, a playlist for Windows Media Player, a playlist for Winamp and a podcast (.xml) which you can drag and drop into iTunes.
You can even request Wikipedia articles via your mobile phone, although at the moment that requires sending an SMS to Germany - plus you'd need to beware of data rates on your mobile phone. The other option is to download a WAP application to your phone which lets you search on the phone, and then get a download link for the converted MP3.
For podcast and audio book fans, this sounds like an awesome way to be able to browse and learn from Wikipedia while on the go. For example, you could set up your own self education course by selecting a topic and putting together related Wikipedia articles.
Say you're travelling to Italy. You could set yourself up an Italy 101 course by listening to the entry on Italy, followed by the articles on Italy's geography, government and politics and culture. You could add in information on the specific areas you plan to visit, like the Amalfi Coast or Rome.
I downloaded the entry on Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, and although the sound quality was good, the speech quality was disappointing. I expected a robotic voice, but at times it spoke a little too fast to be quite clear. It also sounded like a robot for whom English was a second language - it had a European accent which was fine except when pronouncing names or other words which it approached phonetically. With a more sophisticated speech to text program, this service could be a nice way to access Wikipedia on the go, but if you're used to audio book quality, you might not enjoy it so much.
Thanks for the tip, Aseem!

Convert Wikipedia Articles from Text to Speech MP3 podcasts [Online Tech Tips]

With a new generation of iPods on the market this holiday season, your reliable old iPod may not seem as shiny as it once did. But with the help of third party applications and utilities, you can unlock tonnes of useful functionality you never knew was there and revive that aging iPod so it doesn't look quite so bad next to its successors. Whether new or old, the following 20 iPod utilities can help you get the most from your iPod.

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