luminary blur

Yes, I’ve finally decided to actually do an audio podcast as a compliment to my wildly successful video podcast, The Ben Show. It’s called The Switchcast and is essentially a podcast about Apple vs. Microsoft, OS X vs. Windows, iPhone vs. the rest of the phones, etc. I’m serving as the resident Apple evangelist and my cousin Tim Wachowiak is providing the alternative, Microsoft-oriented viewpoint. So far we’ve got one episode up although it’s so far off from what we intend the podcast to eventually become that I haven’t even assigned it a number—it’s just a “feed test.” I’ve included a link below that will allow you to play it inline if you so choose.

Switchcast Feed Test [128 kbps MP3, 11.45 MB, 12:24]

Tim and I had originally settled on a weekly Friday evening recording schedule but we’ve already missed our first Friday so I’m not sure what will happen at this point. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get around to recording Episode 001. The hardest part about a regular show—as I’m sure veteran podcasters can attest to—is finding enough stuff to talk about. I’m trying to come up with a set of “features” that we’ll have every episode. Borrowing from Leo Laporte, I’d like to have a “tip of the week” for both the Mac and Windows listeners. i’d also like to highlight something each of us has found useful in the past week, whether that’s a new app, a web service, or some sort of gadget. I’m entertaining ideas for other segments so if there are any suggestions out there please send them to switchcast@gmail.com.

Finally, if there’s anybody out there who would like to get in on the debate, I’d love to have guests on from time to time. The only requirements are Skype and a decent microphone (I’d recommend a Logitech ClearChat Pro USB Headset). I’ll take anyone but it’d help if you had some strong pro-Apple or pro-Microsoft feelings. Let the debate ensue!

On to purchases, I’ve been debating what to buy. I have $200 in Amazon gift certificates coming my way and I’ve had my eye on a Panasonic HD video camera for a long time. Specifically, Amazon is selling the HDC-SD9 which has a couple of things going for it: it records to SD cards (much more preferable to me over tapes, discs, and hard drives), has 10x optical zoom, and some fancy 5.1 sound recording, plus a 2.1 megapixel still camera. That’s great and it’s on sale for $675 which means I’d need to come up with $475. Oh wait, I’ll probably want an 8 or 16 gig SDHC card. And a tripod. So… probably way more than $675. Maybe I need to be more economical…

I’ve been hearing a lot about the Flip Video Ultra camcorder. It’s cheap (currently $139.99), records 60 minutes of video, and plugs in via USB. It’s not HD, heck it’s barely SD, but it’s simple and easy to use. Do I really need HD videos of my cat? Do I really want to go through the hassle of importing, editing, encoding, and uploading HD video? Or would a dedicated video device serve my needs? And… do I really want to spend all that money? Decisions decisions…

The best thing about getting the Flip over the Panasonic is that I’d still have some money left over. That means I can finally get that awesome coffee maker I’ve been lusting after…

written by Ben \\ tags: Podcasting, Tech, The Switchcast, Web