San Francisco Consult

The iPod blues, and the Wonder of iPod and Podcasts

I came down with a serious case of an illness I hadn’t experienced before in May: The iPod Blues. My two year old Mini iPod had given up on life, it had left me with a sad face – truly, just like this :-/. All my attempts at restart served no use: pressing all the menu and play buttons together for a good 10 seconds, or plugging the iPod into my computer, nothing seemed to revive him this time.

I was upset to lose this companion I’d acquired barely two years before. I thought: ” a computer lasts longer”, ” a walkman used to last longer, why should I lose a 200 Euro iPod so soon?”

So I decided not to go out and get a new one. I looked into the refurbished option, but never saw the one I thought I wanted.

FYI, Apple sells refurbished iPods in its online store. The models are garanteed for one year and can cost about 30% less than the new ones.

I thought, I’ll manage without one for a while, I don’t need this thing.

Well, soon after is when the iPod blues hit me.

• What was I to do to keep up on search engine news without listening to The Daily Search Cast podcast by Danny Sullivan? This is on search engine positiong, the art of having your site rank among the first responses to a set of keywords entered in Google, Yahoo or AOL. I had no time to read the hundreds of posts on the topic…

• How could I listen to US and French web and technology news without the very classy NPR on Technology podcast and the humourous ‘ Atelier Numérique‘ show podcast from French radio B FM.

• How could I follow the latest trends in social or green capitalism, the real estate market for new buyers in California, or new trends in dating without the San Francisco based CommonWealth Club’s meetings podcast?

I discovered with my limited free time as a consultant, a web publisher and a mother, I NEEDED the iPod to keep up on the themes that interest me – and to a lesser degree, listen to music!

Every ‘wasted’ moment is now made to good use, hell, great use : a car drive, a metro or train trip, a walk for an errand, a wait at the doctor’s office or at the Post office, the occasional sit in the park while the children are playing, I NEVER leave my iPod at home. Now these moments almost seem like fun, as I listen to François, Danny, Anne, and the others talk, and talk, and talk..

Oh, I forgot to mention those sleepless nights when stressful thoughts keep me awake: iPod helps ease the tension and put me to sleep.
I am now seriously equipped: because the street, the train and the metro are so loud here in the Paris area, I couldn’t hear my shows very well outside the house with my first gear, so I invested into deluxe headphones from Shure for a serious 90 euros that are noise reducing. So now I can truly block out all 80% of background noise.
I’m thinking of podcasting myself, just have to find out how!

My favorite podcasts and accessories:

–> DailySearchCast site and podcast
–> Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco

–> L’Atelier Numérique radio show on Radio B FM ( in French)

–> Podcast 411 site and hundreds of podcasts

–> NPR on Technology radio show on National Public Radio in the US
-> Shure headphones on Amazon.com, only $77 in the US…