Gadgets Inspector | Hot Gadgets and Gizmos

Digg is rolling out a new recommendation engine this week. The new feature’s goal is to help users discover content from like-minded individuals amid the clutter of the 16k+ stories submitted to Digg.com each day.

You know how when you are browsing Amazon.com and the site suggests related products based on what you are viewing and what you’ve already purchased? This new Digg feature works kind of the same way. It analyzes your previous “diggs,” or stories you’ve voted for, then lets you know what other users with similar tastes have recommended.

If you want to know more, Digg execs Kevin Rose and Anton Kast go into detail about how it works on the Digg blog.

Rose will also probably explain the new feature during his next Diggnation podcast.

methodshop

Last week Apple sent out an email (screenshot courtesy of TechCrunch.com) to video podcasters asking them to increase the quality of their productions and start formatting their videos for the big screen. Since the launch of the Apple TV (full review here) in March, Apple TVs have been selling like hotcakes and video podcast subscription numbers have skyrocketed.

Apple TV owners, who don’t necessarily want to spend lots of money in the iTunes Store, are gobbling up video podcasts like never before. Even though there currently isn’t any HD quality videos for sale in the iTunes Store, the Apple TV is capable of HD video playback. So several popular video podcasters, including The Washington Post, TWIT (MacBreak), Revision3 (Diggnation) and Vintage Tooncast, have decided to fill the void of HD content by distributing their podcasts in HD or hi res quality.

Why hasn’t everyone started distributing their video podcasts in HD? Money. Not only does producing an HD podcasts require extra hard drive space (roughly 4 times more), special cameras and editing software, but just hosting these giant video files on the Internet can be enough to bankrupt your entire production. For example, the iPod Video version of MacBreak episode 63 is 21 MBs. The HD version is 93 MBs. To help alleviate increased HD production costs, many podcasters have reached out to HD television manufacturers like Samsung and Panasonic to get them to sponsor their new HD podcasts.

For video podcasters who are still producing content at 320×240 but want to do something to increase quality, there is an intermediary step before going HD. Podcasters can start by migrating their productions to 640×480, or even 640×360 (letterbox). This way their video files will still be compatible with portable media players like the Zune and iPod, but will also work on the Apple TV. If the material is carefully encoded, it will look as good or better than typical TV.

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While we were browsing the web for a better mic-headset for recording the next podcast episode we found this Cyber Acoustics USB Headset ($25), while it’s not that special, nor currently available in stock, we assume posting it here is fair enough since it seems pretty good for mainstream podcasters and carries a reasonable price tag.

Remember our post on how to create a podcast? and some of you surely remember our first and only (until now) AHP podcast. Well now it’s time to master podcasts!

Lifehacker is linking to an extremely useful article on how to record a very professional podcast show of your own:

“An open source tool offers everything you need for mastering podcasts and other spoken-word recordings. Audacity is well-known among podcasters on all platforms for its ability as an editor; here are some tips and tools for mastering and adjusting volume, aimed at podcasters, but they could apply to anyone who needs to produce a spoken-word recording under less-than-perfect conditions.”

Mastering podcasts with Audacity

Currently in Alpha stages, PodServe offers free podcast shows host, â�?��?social podcastsâ�?� (allowing a number of podcasters to submit files) and public channels that anybody can add their content too.

If you’re a podcaster and would like a home for your show, PodServe is the place.

Via: TechCrunch | Tags: Podcasts, PodServe, host

That’s right, now you can listen to the first A.H.P episode, i’ve decided to start this as a tribute for my readers, because the blog has recently skipped the 100 unique visits a day.

The first show is gonna be pretty simple and amateurish comparing to the pro’s out there, but we’ll get better i hope.

Anyway, if you don’t know what’s podcasting it’s basically a radio show that’s recorded and can be downloaded anytime, you can read more at wikipedia.

The show notes are attached below & they are actually notes that you should take a look at everytime i post them to get the links and the stuff i mentioned.

Here are the show notes for Episode #1-Introduction episode:

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back in June 26th, in the opening post of this blog i wrote:

*Podcasts-Iv���?�e just brought a good Microphone, maybe i���?�ll use it to record some mini podcast shows

Since then, my interest in Podcasting just grew…here’s a comprehensive article about the next thing on the net, podcasting!

In this article you’ll find out:

How to make your own podcast

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