I have an iPod (generation 3 20 gb version). I won it while attending one of the conferences.
Since I was an engineer, I value function over fashion much more. That’s why I never really liked the iPod. Most of things I listen to are audiobooks, and if I don’t buy the audiobooks from the iTune or Audible.com, I’m left with MP3 files that are not bookmarked.
I have two other small flash based players, one from iRiver and one from SanDisk. They both work well, showing up as USB mass storage devices when connected to my computer. However, the SanDisk requires a music management software to put the MP3 to remove mp3 files, which is a bit of pain.
I’ve recently discovered a great use of the iPod though, to download PodCast from the iTune store.
A lot of the podcasts used to be fee-based. I had a friend telling me he pays Audible.com to download all the WallStreet Journal news on a dailly basis to his portable mp3 palyer.
Well, if you look at the iTune store now, there are tens of thousands of free podcasts now. I initially brought out the iPod so I can listen to Jack and Susie Welch’s Business Weeks podcast. When I went to iTune store though, I found so much more free podcast, I now subscribe to at least 15 of them.
My favorite one so far is still The Welch Way. My second favorite is actually David Linthicum’s podcast on Service Oriented Archiecture. I really enjoy listening to his insights. A lot of people thinks he’s kind of high-level, but as an enterprise architect, he’s speaking to me at exactly the right level.
So enjoy all the great content from thought leaders of today, and hope you learn much from what you hear.
Until next time.