Keeping up with Java through podcasts

Java news comes at us from all sides. A new framework here, an interesting article there, a new technology somewhere else. Even staying within sight of the latest information can feel like a superhuman task. Every morning my RSS reader is fit to burst with new posts, so for the sake of my sanity I leave most of the links unopened. I recently found a way to keep my finger on the pulse without going crazy. The answer is the spoken word, and the magic word behind it is podcast.

The word podcast comes from iPod, Apple’s hugely successful digital music player, and broadcast. Podcasting simply means broadcasting music, and of course speech, to MP3 players.

A podcast works very simply and isn’t tied to particular hardware. Anyone who wants to broadcast a podcast creates an MP3 file and puts a link to it in an RSS feed. When the RSS sources update, the listener’s reader downloads the file. What happens next depends on the software and player. A podcast-ready reader such as iPodder can flag the MP3 file for iTunes, the program that synchronizes music between a PC and an iPod, to transfer it to the iPod. With other readers and MP3 players, users still have to copy the files to the player themselves. Once the files have been synced or copied, the podcasts are on the player and you can listen whenever you like.

From Patrik Zandl’s article Podcasting, a revolution in internet broadcasting

Spoken-word audio on your MP3 player has one lovely advantage. You can play it anywhere. Whether you’re riding the tram or the subway, which we jokingly call the “welfare ride” and the “mole,” working out or soaking up the sun, it’s a perfect time to catch up on Java news and pass the time.

Probably the best podcast, at least to my ears, is The Java Posse. There’s a new episode every week. Sometimes Tor Norbye (Sun Microsystems), Carl Quinn (Google), Dick Wall (New Energy Associates) and Joe Nuxoll (Apple) discuss the latest news. Other times they bring you an interview or report from an event such as JavaOne, which had its own podcast. If you’re interested in the NetBeans IDE, I highly recommend the podcast by Roman Štrobl.

More links

• OnJava.com The Java Podcasters, Part 1
• OnJava.com The Java Podcasters, Part 2