September 22, 2005

Cross-country aid

Looks like we got a little write-up about our trip to Louisiana published in the Glendale News-Press today. I thought I would pass it along in case anyone is interested. Here’s the link:

Cross-country aid – Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee does his bit to help victims of hurricane devastation.

September 21, 2005

My “Broken Records”

On my iPod and around my apartment I have several audio books that I would call my “broken records.” These are audiobooks that I’ll throw on somewhat continuously in the background when I’m walking places, cleaning, making something to eat, etc. I don’t necessarily listen to them in a linear, start-to-finish fashion. Rather I’ll just pick them up whereever I happen to be and listen to them for 10 to 20 minutes or longer.

With many audio books it’s hard to do this because there is some sort of sequencing required and if you pick them up mid-way through you don’t really have the proper context. And of course with many audio books you really don’t have much need to listen to them more than once. But my “broken records” are titles that I honestly don’t feel I could listen to too much. They serve as almost a kind of spoken word “soundtrack” for my life.

So without further ado, let me present to you my list of broken records along with some comments. I hope some of you will order these and allow yourself to become immersed in them as well. They contain timeless wisdom and are a great alternative to having the TV or radio blaring in the background during daily life:

My Broken Records

• Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill’s classic on achieving financial success. What I love about this book is that there is so much in here that can contribute to success in all areas of life.
• How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie’s classic tome on interpersonal relationships is a favorite of mine despite the somewhat cheesy title. What’s amazing is the fact that the vast majority of the advice in this book is common sense and yet it’s rarely practiced by most people.
• The Secrets of the Power of Intention, There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem and It’s Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile by Wayne Dyer – Dyer probably consumes a good 20% of the space on my iPod. He has a magical voice and I truly feel that listening to him is a superior experience to reading his books. His live stuff is particularly good and there is so much incredible wisdom in here that, if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself returning to it over and over again.
• The Bible – I certainly don’t listen to it as much as I should but I do find that having the Bible on my iPod makes it convenient for me to return to it when I have a few minutes waiting in line somewhere. (I don’t know exactly which version is on my iPod so I just linked above to our super cool “The Bible on Audio” page where dozens of audio versions of the Bible and individual books.)

I have a couple other broken records that run in the background as well during specific times of my day. Wayne Dyer’s 101 Ways to Transform Your Life wakes me up each morning from the stereo system in my bedroom. Pimsleur’s Spanish I runs in my bathroom while I’m taking a shower or brushing my teeth. Yup, I’m pretty much addicted to this stuff…not that that’s a bad thing.

Feel free to let me know if you’ve got other suggestions for broken records. I’d love to get your take on this.

September 19, 2005

32 GB iPod Nanos and a Podcast Directory on Your Phone?

I spent the better part of the day today immersed in the future of digital audio and video at the Digital Hollywood conference here in Santa Monica. I had a few cool chats with some people on the inside of what’s coming down the pipeline next. I had a particularly cool talk with the founder of Melodeo, a company that is bringing you podcasting to mobile phones. You can check out a demo of their “mobilcast” technology here. It’s a pretty cool technology and no doubt represents a part of the future for podcasting.

Speaking of the future, last week Samsung announced that they will be doing a flash memory chip that can hold up to 32 GBs of data. What does that mean? How about the possibility of a 32 GB iPod Nano? How cool would that be? Devices will get smaller and storage capacity will get larger, the latter being particularly relevant as “videocasting” (the video equivalent of podcasting) grows in popularity. Here’s a link to the Samsung announcement:

Samsung to do up 32GB flash memory chip

One final cool thing that I found today. The Digital Hollywood conference that I attended has put some sessions from their Spring confernece online as a free of charge podcast. I think you’ll see this happen for a lot more conferences. It seems that at least once a week a cool conference comes across my desk (like the M Squared conference next week in San Francisco). I certainly don’t have the time or the money to attend all or even most of these. Why shouldn’t they be made available as podcasts? Heck, I bet more than a few people would be willing to pay for that…

Here’s the link to those sessions from the Spring 2005 Digital Hollywood conference.

September 19, 2005

Stargazing Audio

I just had a pretty good idea for an activity to do while you learn on audio. How bout learning astronomy while laying down and gazing up at the cosmos? That’s something you can’t do with a book and it’ll let you contemplate the enormity and awesomeness of our galaxy while you learn about it. A few authors I recommend listening to while you gaze:

Stephen W. Hawking
Timothy Ferris
Seth Shostak

And don’t forget the many Astronomy Podcasts that are out there:

www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Science/Astronomy

Unforunately I can’t partake in this idea due to light pollution and smog. But for those of you outside the big city, take a moment at night to get your mind off this earth and onto the big picture with audio books and podcasts. Soon you’ll stop staring at the stars in puzzlement and you’ll start stargazing with intelligence.

September 18, 2005

Some Hot Deals…

We haven’t had any blog posts in our “Hot Deals” section for a while so I figured I’d blog about a few ways that you can save money while you are Learning Out Loud. Here goes…

4 GB iPod Minis for $149 at Costco – With the release of the new iPod Nano, Minis just aren’t as hot. But at $149 for 4 GB that’s one helluva deal. Sure they are a little bigger but for $100 less (plus the option for those nice pastel colors) it just might be worth taking on the extra heft…

10% off coupon for…EBay! – This is the first time I’ve ever seen EBay offer a coupon. You can find a ton of used audio and video material on EBay ranging from Tony Robbins to Pimsleur foreign language courses. This coupon will allow you to take off 10% of any purchase up to a max of $25.

Books on Tape 30th Anniversary Sale – Books on Tape has been around for 30 years?! Wow. And they are celebrating like they mean business. Pick up Deepak Chopra’s Golf for Enlightenment for $7, George Orwell’s 1984 for $14 or choose from hundreds of other titles.

That’s all for now. If you know of other hot deals related to audio or video learning, send me an e-mail so I can put them up here in the blog. Happy shopping!

September 17, 2005

A mini-Video Learning Manifesto

I’m in the midst of preparing a full-blown “Audio Learning Manifesto” which I’ll attempt to have published soon on ChangeThis (more on that later) but I wanted to step away from that to talk about something that we haven’t discussed much on our site as of late: video learning. In addition to promoting audio books and podcasts our mission is also to promote video learning products. It’s certainly been somewhat of a secondary mission to date as much of our focus is currently on audio but we plan to devote an increased amount of resources to video learning in the near future.

Why video learning you ask? I’ll offer a number of reasons. First of all, there is a lot of material that simply works better on video than on audio. Let’s say that you are interested in studying art history and stumbled upon the Teaching Company course From Monet to Van Gogh. Now while this could be available in audio format I think you’ll agree that trying to learn art history without actually being able to view the art being discussed is less than optimal.

Video learning can also offer a richer experience for the viewer. A good example of this is an excellent PBS documentary on the life of Benjamin Franklin that I just finished watching. This documentary contains actors playing the parts of Franklin and his contemporaries, reenactment of historical events and paintings and portraits from the era. While there are a number of good audio resources on Frankin’s life (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and the excellent Portable Professor course about him jump to mind), the PBS documentary was made truly special because some of the video elements that were incorporated.

Another reason why I love promoting video learning is that (for most of you!) it doesn’t require a huge shift in your behavior. According to Nielsen, the average person watches somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5 hours of television per day. I’m not asking you to give up TV cold turkey (although it’s not a bad idea) or switch entirely to educational content. But how about substituting some of those hours spent watching mind-numbing sitcoms and dramas with some cool educational and inspirational DVDs? Netflix has tons of awesome documentaries and other educational and self-development titles that you rent and their plans are now as low as $9.99 per month. Not a bad deal for what is essentially an unlimited supply of video learning material!

The final reason that I’ll offer for why I love video learning is that I think, like audio, that it’s an excellent opportunity for Dead Time Learning. At first glance this might not seem so obvious. After all, you can’t watch videos while commuting. But there are some creative ways to incorporate video learning into your daily life. Consider the opportunity to watch educational videos while you exercise or cook dinner. I just bought a new stationary bicycle and can pop in a DVD while I’m exercising. As a friend of mine recently told me, it’s like getting two workouts (a physical one and a mental one!) at the same time.

For these reasons and many more we’re going to continue to work hard to make it even easier for you to find good quality educational and self-development video content. It definitely falls under the category of “Learning Out Loud” and is something we’re very passionate about. We welcome your suggestions as to how we can best serve your needs.

September 16, 2005

New Volkswagens to be iPod-enabled

Earlier in the week I offered a statistic: In 2006, 30% of all new cars sold will be iPod/mp3-enabled.

That number might be heading north very quickly.

Today Volkswagen AG announced that it will offer a stereo component on all new vehicles that will allow drivers to plug in iPods and other mp3 portable players into directly into their car stereos. How cool does this sound?

Just plug your device into a built-in console in the center armrest. The option comes in two varieties, one for the iPod, another for other USB-based players. Up to six of the player’s folders will be displayed on the car stereo system, and the radio buttons can be used to scan, search or shuffle your mix.

Portable media. It’s the wave of the future. And as more vehicles become enabled for portable players it will get increasingly easier to Learn Out Loud. And as more automobile companies offer this service expect to see more hop on the bandwagon real soon.

Complete article from CNN

September 16, 2005

Podcasting the Classics

I came across this article today about Ron Evry, a guy who is creating a volunteer organization of sorts to start podcasting classic public domain texts. It’s a cool idea, almost a Wikipedia of sorts for the spoken word audio crowd. Here’s the link to the article:

Dear Listener: Podcasting Classics

So much is converging right now in the world of digital audio. There’s this huge influx of new content and Apple will most certainly sell millions of their new iPod Nano this holiday season. As commute times grow longer and people have less time to read they’ll be turning more and more to spoken word audio for their education and entertainment. To quote a line from Almost Famous (one of my favorite movies!), “It’s all happening.”

Please keep letting us know what we can do to help you make your audio learning experience more enjoyable. Send me an e-mail anytime at jon@learnoutloud.com and give me feedback on the site or suggestions for new things that you would like to see.

And have a fantastic weekend!

September 15, 2005

Best Actor Narrators

Sometimes when we listen to audio books we want to hear a familiar voice. Because the role of the narrator is to enhance and engage the listener, actors can provide the text a new life and understanding. So here are some of my favorite actors who narrate audio books:

Michael York
Ben Kingsley
Ellen Burstyn
Charlton Heston
Elliott Gould (who narrates many Raymond Chandler novels among other titles)
John Ritter
Vanessa Redgrave
Burt Reynolds
Edward Asner

To check out more actors who narrate audio books check our Celebrity Readers category.

September 14, 2005

Will Ferrell Pimps the iPod

An oldie but goodie…thanks to the gang at The Frat Pack for resurrecting this one!

Will Ferrell Pimps the iPod

My favorite lines?

“I’m usually shirtless…just for effect.”

“I say at least over 50 songs. I’m not quite sure of the amount.”

Good stuff…