What? You're still listening to audio broadcasts in real time? Discover podcasts.

So you are one of those people eh? Still listening to the radio in real time? Ever stopped to wonder what those podcast things are they keep mentioning?

Podcasts are like the radio equivalent of your PVR - audio on demand, and video too.

I've written before about some of my favourite podcast resources for astronomy brainfood, and there are several others on my subscription list - 36 all up at this point in time. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National have a heap of top picks on world and national affairs, science, medicine, environment, media, history. There are TED Talks, RadioLab, and my friends over at ScienceOnTop.

The things I like most about podcasts are that you can listen to them anytime that suits, anywhere on your smartphone.

And you can listen to them faster. You know what it's like - sometimes they just talk so s l o w l y...


Well with a podcast app you can typically speed it up. Now people around you will give you funny looks if they can hear it seemingly jabbering away at top speed. But you'll be surprised at how much you can absorb at up to double speed! There are some things that demand normal speed - heavy accents, subjects you are really trying to learn like some of the amazing free university course downloads, and just really fast talkers (Californians - I'm looking at you!). But for a lot of other listening, normal speed will soon seem painfully slow to you.

Now if you are interested in giving podcasts a go, you'll need an app. If you have an iThing, you already have the iTunes player and that will work. You can double speed on audio files but there are no speed controls on video files. But you are handcuffed to the desktop version of iTunes for file syncing. And that app is a total dog.

But there is one worse - Apple's new Podcasts app. Do not go near this steaming pile of vomit. Sigh...so many hours lost...

This is where you should head: Podcruncher. It costs a half a coffee. Whoopee do. Incredible fine-grained control over individual subscriptions will have you forget the cost in seconds. I have many set at 1.75x, a few at 1x, even video playing can be sped up - with a maximum of 1.5x, which is quite enough. Downloading and retention of files or just episode details is customisable, you can tweet or email a link to a pod you want to share. Playlists are dead simple to set up and use (so many lessons for Apple right there...). You can lock out downloading or streaming except on WiFi to prevent those ugly download bill shocks. There isn't an Android version, but there are other options for folk who've avoided the iThing closed ecosystem.

So if you are considering podcasts, or frustrated with your current app, you now know what to do. Enjoy feeding your brain - using it instead of losing it.