Google Listen: Android Podcasts Gone Wild!
Now would probably be a good time to revive our Android Podcast. Google has just launched a new service called Google Listen which for all intents and purposes, is a Podcast Manager for your Android device! It allows you to subscribe to audio streams, search for audio, find audio searches and much more. Here is how Google themselves describe Google Listen:
Listen from Google Labs brings podcasts and web audio to your Android-powered device. It lets you search, subscribe, download and stream. By subscribing to programs and search terms it will create a personalized audio-magazine loaded with fresh shows and news stories whenever you listen. In this release Listen is indexing thousands of popular English-only audio sources.
The application looks INCREDIBLY polished – see for yourself (images failed due to below problem):
The application has obviously become IMMEDIATELY popular based on the “Over Quota” error I got when trying to access the application’s download page:
In fact, right now it appears that the beta version is completely inaccessible at http://listen.googlelabs.com – hmmmmm that’s odd? We’ll update this post as we learn more, but it seems that what you see is what you get although right now it will only be available for Android’s in the United States.
Is Google taking on iTunes?