[LM_NET] Tutorial: How to Create Podcasts with a Smartphone

[Andy Carvin <acarvin@EDC.ORG>]

How to Create Podcasts with a Smartphone

    Originally posted on Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth, 1/15/04

    http://www.andycarvin.com/000711.html

A recent conversation on PODCASTERS list got me thinking about how to
create podcasts using nothing but a smartphone -- a mobile phone with
Internet access. I'd used my smartphone (a Handspring Treo 600) to posts
blogs and audio recordings, but it was before I'd set up my blog to
create enclosure tags for my RSS feed - the key ingredient for turning
an audio blog into a podcast. The enclosure tags allows MP3 player
owners to use software like iPodderX to automatically download new
podcasts from your blog into the MP3 player. Hence the name podcasting:
iPod + webcasting.

Given that I'd had some experience as an audio blogger, it seemed like a
fairly simple proposition to take the next step and create a mobile
phone podcast, hopefully without requiring that much technical savvy. I
picked up my phone and went into my home office; five minutes later I
posted my first smartphone podcast:

http://www.andycarvin.com/000710.html

Here's how I did it.

Ingredients:

- a smartphone with email and Web access

- a free account on Audlink.com

- a blog that supports enclosure tags and RSS feeds (such as Radio
Userland or Movable Type used in conjunction with the MT-Enclosures plug-in)

Optional:  Blogging software for your smartphone, like mo:blog

Getting Started: Create an Audlink Account

The very first thing you need to do is set up a free account on the
website Audlink.com. Audlink is a tool that allows you to call a
telephone number and leave a voicemail message that's automatically
converted into an MP3 file and placed on the Audlink website. It also
has the ability to post your MP3 in a directory on your blog; this will
work for bloggers using Movable Type, Blogger/Blogspot, LiveJournal,
JournalSpace and Nucleus.  When you set up your account, you'll have to
come up with a numeric voicemail password; this will be used to when you
call the Audlink phone number to record your voicemail. You'll also need
an admin password, which you can use to access your Audlink account
online and change your settings if needed.

Once your Audlink account is set up, create a new contact in your phone
for the number 1 (214) 752-7621. You should also make a note of your
Audlink account number and your passwords, since you'll need these on
hand whenever you use your phone to create a podcast.

Making the Podcast

Essentially, creating the podcast follows three basic steps:

- Record it
- Find it
- Blog it

Step One: Record It

Once you have your Audlink account set up,  you'll need to pick up your
smartphone and call the Audlink voicemail number:  1 (214) 752-7621.
Please remember this is not a toll-free number, so long distance charges
will apply. After dialing the number, you'll be prompted to key in your
account number and your numerical password. Then, you'll be able to
record your voicemail. You can record a message up to five minutes in
length. Since there isn't an easy way to edit your voicemail on your
smartphone once you've recorded it (well, at least not yet), you may
want to practice what you're going to say. If you screw it up, you can
always call back and make another recording.

When you're done with your voicemail, hang up. Audlink will then take a
minute or so to process the voicemail into an MP3, which means it's now
time for

Step Two: Find It

Now that you've recorded your message, you'll need to find it.
Unfortunately, Audlink generates a long file name for your recording
based on a timestamp (for example,
http://www.audlink.com/mailbox/1587/0501151149.mp3), so there's no
convenient way you'll know ahead of time exactly what the URL will be.
So you'll have to do one of two things to find it.

The easiest thing to do is to go to your in-box on the Audlink website.
All Audlink in-boxes follow a similar pattern, like this:

http://www.audlink.com/mailbox/XYZ/

The XYZ would actually be whatever your account number is. For example,
my Audlink account is #1587, so my in-box URL is this:

http://www.audlink.com/mailbox/1587/

If you've set your Audlink account to FTP your voicemails to a directory
on your blog's website, then you'll want to go to that directory instead.

Whether you go to your Audlink in-box or you use a directory on your
blog, you'll have to go to that URL to find the voicemail. If this is
your first voicemail, it'll be easy to find it; just look for a file
name like this:

0501151149.mp3

If you have more than one voicemail in your in-box, you'll have to
figure out which one is your new recording. Since the name of each file
is basically a time-stamp, you just need to figure out which one looks
like the right date and time.  For example, if you break down the file
name 0501151149.mp3 you'll see it means this time-stamp:

Year: 05 (2005)
Month: 01 (January)
Date: 15
Hour: 11
Minute: 49

Hence, 0501151149.mp3.

Once you've figured out what the proper file name is, make a note of it.
It's not a bad idea to write it down, but otherwise you can use your
phone's copy-and-paste feature to copy the file name and then go to

Step Three: Blog It

There are various ways to blog from your smart phone. For example, some
blog tools have the ability to send an email to a particular address and
automatically post the text of your email as a blog entry. Or, you can
use your Web browser to go to the URL you use for posting new blog
entries. Additionally, there's mobile phone software you can download
into your phone for posting blog entries. For example, I sometimes use
Mo:Blog (http://www.tektonica.com/projects/moblog/), a shareware
application available for the Palm operating system. It's like a simple
notepad that will post the note to your blog.

Whichever way you choose to do it, the key thing is that you'll want to
use the phone for posting a blog entry to link to your podcast. When you
fill out the blog entry, create a link to your voicemail MP3 file. If
you're using Audlink, you'll want to link to the file inside your
voicemail in-box, which will look something like this:

http://www.audlink.com/mailbox/1587/0501151149.mp3

If you've set up Audlink to post to your blog, the URL would look
something like this:

http://www.andycarvin.com/audio/0501151149.mp3

Whichever way you do it, the key thing is to create a hyperlink that
points to the voicemail URL. Then, when you post your blog entry, the
blog will link to the voicemail on your blog homepage and in its
accompanying RSS feed.

And that's it. Instant mobile podcasting in three (relatively) easy
steps. Happy MoPodcasting! -andy




--
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.tsunami-info.org
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
-----------------------------------



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--
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.tsunami-info.org
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
-----------------------------------

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