Como vem sendo alertado aqui no blog em outros posts, o celular vem se tornando o artefato mais completo ao convergir as diferentes mídias para um mesmo suporte. O iPhone foi o primeiro a permitir isso...
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Who, what, when we want it
iPod can be sports geek's all-encompassing radio and TV, putting everything from talking heads to fantasy football in your pocket
BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist
Do you TiVo the NFL in HD? Maybe you DVD-R the NHL. ''Must-See TV'' went bye-bye. With the exception of ''big'' weekend games or a rare Chicago playoff series, our TV viewing habits are ruled by two-syllable alphabet-soupy tools -- some real, some virtual -- that let us watch what we want where and when we want it.
Ah, but even in the world of cut-throat digital cable packages offering league-specific programming, some fans are still left scrambling helplessly around the Internet to find game highlights of far-flung favorites. Or maybe you just want that little something extra -- behind-the-scenes interviews of your favorite NASCAR driver after a race or your favorite football team's postgame news conference.
I'm going to help you get your hands on that extra.
Listen while you work
The Apple iPod is my radio and TV. Every day at 4, when ''Around the Horn'' airs on TV, I'm at my desk abusing my keyboard and can't catch the Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti. But with a quick Google, I found I could download the audio of Jay's segment as a podcast -- the name for a digital media file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia. A few clicks later, I was listening to that day's chatter.
Once I upgraded to the video iPod, I started downloading the segment as a videocast, which is how I got to carrying Jay's talking head around in my pocket and watching it on the train home.
If you already have an iPod, you may stick to just ripping your CDs and buying music from the iTunes store. But take a look around the podcasts page, and you'll find everything from the Sunday morning political talk shows I prefer to podcasts and videocasts about woodworking, wine-loving, how-to 'casts on every imaginable subject and commentary by regular Joes with a mic and an Internet connection.
The sports offerings are voluminous, and the iTunes software keeps the fresh ones downloaded and automatically slaps them onto the 'Pod. I download NPR's ''Sports with Frank Deford,'' as well as World Soccer Daily, Between the Ropes and CBS Fantasy Football Podcast, among many others.
''It's really unique. We've seen tremendous growth,'' the slickly named Eddie Cue, iTunes' vice president, told me over the phone last week. ''In June 2005, we started with 3,000 podcasts and zero video, and now it's gone up to 125,000 podcasts and 25,000 videocasts.''
He told me the vast majority of the offerings are free, but even if you have to pay, 90 percent of the time you'll be putting out less than two bucks. And those are worth it.
''If you purchase the NASCAR season pass every week, you'll see extras like interviews with drivers and team mechanics and crew chiefs,'' Cue said. ''With the NFL 'Follow Your Team' season-pass package, you get 30 minutes of highlights, all the key plays, no breaks, no intermissions, no commercials and you get the coach's press conference at the end. It's more than just what's on TV.''
Don't fear. The Pod people are not giving me a penny-per-download kickback. This stuff is almost always free and accessible, even if you don't have a thingamajiggie. You can download iTunes onto your computer for free or bypass it altogether because podcasts and their big-brother videocasts are not Apple creations or even iPod-specific.
Other ways and means
Mike Kastler, host of a weekly technology podcast called TechTalk and director of information systems for a Rosemont-based company, told me, ''If you don't own an iPod but have any MP3 player, there are lots of podcast collector software programs out there that help you gather them all and keep them current to be downloaded onto anything you want -- your desktop, MP3 player and, in some cases, your phone. I have my computer stream mine to my Wii and listen throughout my house.''
And to think just a few years back we were geeked about getting game scores beamed to our LCD-display pagers.
Get yourself loaded up, and you and your sportscasts will be ready for that next dentist appointment, endless clothes-shopping trip or DMV excursion. Ain't technology grand?
