Easy Audio Blogging on the iPhone with AudioBoo

Listen above as my 2 year old son Spencer and I take AudioBoo for a spin on my Ipod Touch.

Posting audio to the web just got a whole lot easier thanks to a great service and iPhone app called AudioBoo.  AudioBoo allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to record and playback digital recordings up to 5 minutes long which can then be posted on the AudioBoo website where users have their own pages or channels similar to Twitter or YouTube.

I love to test out new technology (in fact I’m kind of addicted to it) so when I heard about AudioBoo I just had to give it a spin.  I have an iPod Touch – not an iPhone and despite it not having a built in mic I have an external add-on mic (more about that below) so I am able to use any of the recording apps for the iPhone.

I figured to make the test a bit more fun I would ask my 2 year old son Spencer to test it with me. He was having a ball with this and occasionally put the mic too close to his mouth so you will have to forgive some of the audio spikes.

He definitely follows in his Dads footsteps and seems to love technology as much as I do (he’s a born button pusher . . .). In fact he quickly mastered my iPod Touch almost instantly when I got it last Christmas.  He knows how to turn it on – swipe through the pages to find the games and programs he likes and play them all without any help from me.  And if you think that is crazy – you should see him wield a mouse on the Noggin website – lookout!

The iPod Touch is an amazing device and I will be writing (and shooting a lot of video) about it in the near future to let you know how it has replaced my laptop for many of my mobile work tasks – but back to AudioBoo.

Portable Audio Blogging Made Easy
It couldn’t be easier.  I setup a free account on their website and then downloaded the program (also free) to my iPod Touch.  One quick touch of the account button to plug in my account info and we were ready to record.  We plugged in the Phillips Mic – tapped the START button on the record screen and after a 3 second countdown we were recording.  When you are all done you hit the pause button and then the publish button.  It allows you to type in a short message, add a photo, and even post the location you are publishing from. Within minutes it uploaded our audio over our wifi connection and we were able to listen to it.

The audio quality is pretty amazing and the whole process really was really simple.  While you can listen to the audio on their website or from my AudioBoo page – they also give you an embed code so you can post it on blogs and other websites – like I did above.

A microphone for the iPod Touch

The iPod Touch is missing a few features that come with the iPhone including the built in microphone and camera. I read some great reviews on the web about an inexpensive mic made by Phillips that worked with the iPod Touch.  It’s actually a headphone adapter that has a mic built in.  I was able to score one at Target for $10 and it works great!  It has opened up a whole world of applications to me on the iPod Touch that used to only be available for  iPhone users like VOIP programs like Skype – as well as audio recording program like Griffin iTalk and the new Voice Memos feature that is built into the newly updated iPhone OS3.

Unfortunately these mics seem to have vanished and are almost impossible to find. However, don’t despair iPod Touch users – the Griffin SmartTalk and the Monster iSoniTalk are similar headphone adapter/mic devices – both selling for about $20. I’ve read good reviews about both of them.

I look forward to recording more with it in the future and it’s good to know that my partner in crime is willing to help test new technology with me!

Post a comment below and let us know what you think of our first Boo!