Podcasting, a format to publish rich media like audio and ultimately video by use of RSS, has come of age in 2005 with an estimated world wide audience of 4.8m people compared with just 800k in 2004. As main stream media giants begin to see the benefits of this emerging technology and bandwidth becomes more readily available (broadband internet access has overtaken dial up in the UK for the first time this year), using RSS perhaps combined with bit torrent will become the formats to publish video. For now I am enjoying this, not so amateur, radio that is easily downloaded directly to my PC and walkman.
In my opinion, these are the 10 best podcasts from 2005. If you think I have missed any podcasts that should have made it into this best of 2005 let me know!
Diggnation w/Kevin Rose & Alex Albrecht subscribe to audio feed 
“Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories.”
With the meteoric rise of Digg.com this year this accompanying podcast has got to be a surprise success of 2005. The popularity is due in part to a great combination fronting the show. Kevin and Alex, of TechTV and The Broken fame, have a dynamic rapport and have created a witty and entertaining podcast also available in video format.
“News, reviews and technology updates from ExtremeTech.com.”
All the latest high end tech products reviewed for the business and home. Quality informed discussion on the current technologies for the enthuisiast.
"GameSpot editors recap the hottest news and trend in the gaming industry from the past week!”
Quality reviews and production values from the Gamespot crew covering all the headline gaming events, launches and news.
“The official podcast of PC Gamer Magazine”
Hardcore PC gaming through and through, these guys a passionate about their PC gaming.
“We are a podcast about the “new” web. We interview web service developers as we try to gain insight to their thought processes.”
Chris Saylor and Josh Owens have come out of nowhere with ‘The Web 2.0 Show’ to pull in some of the biggest names in the Web at the moment for some really fascinating interviews. Aimed at the “new web” as they put it, the shows indirectly cover some of big news events from the inside point of view. From the likes of Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc and Om Malik to name but a few, they’re relaxed style and well thought out questions makes for a quality show.
“This podcast covers all things relating to web design. Whether you are a website owner, designer or developer hopefully this show has something for everybody. Each episode includes news, review and hints and tips.”
British podcasting at its best, Boagworld is the brainchild of Paul Boag and is a podcast that manages to be entertaining and informative in the world of web design. A web design/ accessibility specialist in the same mould as Zeldman, Paul is joined by Marcus Lillington a colleague from their Web Design agency from which they take their practical knowledge and experience share with the world.
“Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, John C. Dvorak, and other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in digital technology. Winner of the 2005 People’s Choice Podcast Award for best overall podcast and Best Technology Podcast. Released every Sunday at midnight Pacific.”
One of the big hitters, This Week in Tech could possibly be regarded as the Slashdot of the podcasting world. TWiT, with Leo Laporte, is slickly produced, topical and regularlt has top guest spots from the world of technology and the web. This is quite rightly one of the most downloaded podcasts available.
“Engadget’s up to the second coverage of consumer electronics and technology.”
The Engadget team making your gadget porn audible, with current news opinion and reviews.
"A Macintosh show for Mac geeks by a Mac geek. News, reviews, opinions and commentary about all things Macintosh. The MacCast also offers Mac help via email and a call in Hotline.”
All the Mac news and opinion well served in the best Mac podcast out there?
“Daily Gaming Podcast and Free Video Reviews of Games”
RubbaD, Cycon, Cyborg, TopaZ and Agent J make up another entertaining podcast that has now been going for a lot longer than anyone probably expected. Made up of mostly teenage (?) guest speakers these guys make up for in enthusiasm what they lack for in age and are true gamers in every sense of the word. While not quite daily they regularly cover independent games and often rightly give as much coverage to a quality Russian top down shooter as the latest EA blockbuster.
Update: Thanks everyone for commenting.
RT, Sprog and Matt, gave a big heads up to Command N and rightly so, it is a quality show and deserves its place amongst the list. I was trying to make the distinction between podcasts and their video (or vidcast) brethren though as 2005 has really been the year of the audio podcast. 2006 will inevitably will be when many of the more popular podcasts, budget permitting, make that transistion into video and I am looking forward to it. With Apple’s Ipod with Video joining the Sony PSP and the maturing 3G technologies, this next year there’s gonna be a whole lot more to come for the portable video market.
check out dreamstation.cc podcast. It’s pretty funny and still covers a ton of gamer news
eat steak eat steak eat a big ol’ steer eat steak eat steak do we have one dear
By far the best tech news…hands down.
You did not metion techphile, security now, and In the net, Those are good podcast too.
I think that TWIT should have been rated higher. I also think that Security Now whould have made the list.
over all a good list though
Dude, You forgot CommandN out of Canada.
http://www.wehatetech.com
Much more informed than TWIT since they actually work on PCs and aren’t journalist like Leo.
For those of you that like Linux—LUGRADIO is the best Linux podcast around. Four funny foul-mouth British guys ranting about the latest Linux news.
Very nice. I can agree wiht all the ten podcasts. Very good choices.
Why did you leave out the Gilmour Gang? Just curious, since it’s a favorite of mine and was one of the first tech podcasts.
Hi. Good post – will gave to check some of these out. Did a similar post myself a couple of weeks ago if you’re interested in decent techie podcasts – http://robmongoose.blogspot.com/2005/11/podcasts.html
Cheers.
wow, the comments section must be broken. poor coding i suppose. here i go again:
Good list. I’d expect Diggnation and TWIT to be on there. Not to mention, Extreme Tech and Engadget. Maccast is great. However, I was a little disappointed to not see CNET’s Buzz Out Loud on there. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a daily tech news podcast that runs about 30 minutes and is hosted by cnet’s senior editors Tom Merrit and Molly Wood. They cover a wide variety of tech news from every angle in an appropriate amount of time. Basically, it combines good hosting with good production.
P.S., when I say Extreme Tech I mean Digital Life TV; but that’s not on there as well.
Wizards of Technology
http://www.wizardsoftechnology.com/podcasts/rss.xml
Security Now
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml
The Linux Link Tech Show
http://www.thelinuxlink.net/tllts/tllts.rss
The GNU/Linux User Show
http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/linuxuser/feed/
The javaCast is now the javaposse….clearly your list should have been at least 11 long..www.javaposse.com
You guys forgot PhotoshopTV …
No TWiT or MAKE???
What…no DL.TV? Digital Life has Patrick Norton and Robert Heron and does a good job where The Screen Savers left off. Digg is fun, but DL.TV is more informative.
http://digitallifetv.com/blogs/digitallifetv/default.aspx
Digg sucks, it jumped the shark a long time ago. Get over it.
Kinda heavy on the gamer side. if you ask me (or anyone at TechTV/G4) geeks and gamers are two different breeds…
Great list! I was already aware of some of them, but some were new to me. I’m excited to check out the “new” ones. Thanks!
Surely you’ll get a ton of suggestions / things you missed etc. but in case you somehow missed the CBC Radio 3 podcast, I had to let you know.
It’s amazing. A weekly hour’s worth of the best in Canadian indie music.
Hmm three gaming podcasts and no IT Conversations? Hmmm….?
What no mention of REAL tech podcasts?
try this one http://www.binrev.com/radio/
This is a garbage list, should’ve just made Diggnation all top10.
Hi guys,
Just wanted to say that if anyone is interested in a slightly more targetted tech podcast, we run one all about the Java development platform called the Java Posse. It was born from the ashes of the JavaCast which many people have heard of, and retains many of the same goals – a split of Java related news and interviews with Java Luminaries – we even had Jonathan Schwartz on for interview a few weeks ago. It’s a vertical market for sure, but if you are interested in Java you might want to check it out.
The Java Posse
What about CommandN. Amber, Mike, Jeff, and Brian do a great job with CommandN. Amber and Mike are on Call for Help and Amber has also been on TWIT a few times. CommandN is in my top 10 for sure!
you missed digitallifetv.com (or dl.tv) which is far better than most of the podcasts listed. and i hardly think the gaming-centric podcasts qualify as “tech.” this week in tech (twit) also has some other great podcasts that feature real tech stories… like “Inside the Net” and “Security Now”
[...] read more | digg story [...]
I think you were more focused on gaming here not just tech. What about Security Now that is a great podcast or Command N?
Nice list!
But, you’ve got to add the cream of the crop for “serious” tech: IT Conversations (http://www.itconversations.com/).
It is the only place where you’ll hear all the tech “rock stars” discuss (and argue with each other about) far-reaching trends and innovations.
No self-respecting futurist or future groupie should be without it. Seriously.
Geek News Central is one of my favorites.
One you left off is urbancoffee.net, their only on their 16th show but I think it is one of the better shows out there. A bit of funny a bit of geek.
Disclaimer, I have no affiliation with the website or podcast what-so-ever.
-Jeff O’Hara
http://blog.zemote.com
Great list of tech-specific podcasts
Interested in podcasting about technology-related stuff but aren’t sure where to start? Check out Ben Bishop’s list, the 10 Best Tech Podcasts of 2005….
I am a TWIT fan and would count them at the top except I have not listened to the rest except for digg.com’s.
I’m also a big fan of the CreativeCow.net podcast (for video and graphics), and the Massmug.com podcast (for another macintosh podcast)
I think “The World Technology Podcast” should be on there, they focus on expanding your world view, and helping you to see how technology is actually helping people in the developing world of technology, instead of how it’s just entertaining the priveleged masses.
I think “BBC’s: The Worl Technology Podcast” should deffinatly be up on the list. Though the host can be a tad bland, he’s a very articulate journalist, and the stories he highlights help to expand your world view, and show you how technology is being used to help humanity in the developing world and as a whole, instead of just how it can entertain the priveleged 1st world masses.
I think the Technically Tech Podcast should be on this list! Check it out at, http://www.technicallytech.com
Shameless self plug for my tech podcast, http://geekmuse.net.
It hasn’t made any top ten lists, and hopefully it never will.
You must have forgotten Poweruser.tv!
This has certainly caused some heated and abusive comments (which I have deleted) that I wasn’t expecting, though I did state at the start that this was a subjective list of the 10 Tech Podcasts that I found the best! To Midbach, Rama Llama and Matt, I agree in hindsight that gaming perhaps shouldn’t be on the Best Tech Podcast list but I still look at it all in the same light and there is undoubtably some crossover.
Thanks for all of your suggestions though, its certainly gonna keep me entertained over the Christmas period that’s gonna be filled with bad re-runs of dodgy sitcoms!
The MacCast is very dull, the guys voice just puts you into a coma. Try the MacObserver, they’re a lot more fun.
Hey, you forgot Coolness Roundup, the best podcast of the year. Those two guys know their stuff, and aren’t afraid to tell all about the inside stuff.
What about G’Day World from The Podcast network:
http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/gday_world
Molly
The 10 best tech podcasts of 2005
Yesterday the tech news website digg.com promoted an article on its front page covering the top 10 tech podcasts of 2005. Winners included diggnation, this week in tech and you guessed it boagworld.com!
[...] PARA OS interessados: The 10 Best Tech Podcasts of 2005. [...]
[...] Via Wired.com: The 10 Best Tech Podcasts of 2005 [...]
[...] * The Ten Best Tech Podcasts of 2005. Who’da thunk we’d get to the point where such a list could be created? Remember when everyone said that podcasting was just for shut-in LiveJournal losers who wanted to whine to themselves? Now, podcasting is the word of the year, thousands are available, you can listen to them through iTunes and TiVo, and the categories they include are more numerous than any of us could ever have imagined. Interesting. [...]
How the hell did I end up on this list! Wow, I am in shock and awe
You guys missed Geek News Central if anyone should have been in this list that show should have.