There's never been a better medium than the internet for beaming our thoughts into homes and offices on the other side of the planet, and podcasting is fast becoming the most affordable means of earning international fame and notoriety.
X-oom's Podcast Studio appears to be perfectly placed, positioning itself as the easy route to creating your own podcasts and sharing them with the world. But is it? Not really.
The core of the package is the podcast manager and director programs. The podcast director is a good idea, but oversimplified, which can be misleading. There is a wizard to help novices, but while it points to which parts you need to fill in, it doesn't give clear advice on exactly what information you need.
The podcast manager is much easier to use. This works in a similar way to iTunes, giving you a means of storing different podcasts and allowing you to include broadcasts from different sources as well. As is the nature of podcasts, though, it's not easy to tell what's going to be in a podcast before you download it.
Once you have subscribed to a feed, you can then update it and select the nature of the download. Podcasts can be transferred to USB sticks, iPods, PDAs and similar units.
A number of extra utilities are included. One useful tool allows you to rip CDs directly on to your hard drive – as OGG Vorbis or MP3 files – while the audio editor can embellish songs with extra effects, such as fading in and out, or remove unwanted sections.
Comments