Health News Archive

Why buying an iPod or MP3 player can improve your life

Sure IPods are great for listening to music but you can do so much more with them.

Music can be a healthy stress reliever as long as you don't listen to it too loud.An ipod with upbeat music can enhance your morning workout or evening walk.You can count time or the duration of your workout by the number of songs you listen to. The average song length being around 3 to 4 minutes in length. 

If you can exercise for the duration of 3 or 4 songs 3 to 5 times a week then you will really benefit by achieving the recommended exercise level needed for optimal health especially if you ordinarily lead a sedentary life. If you can last for 5 songs then you are building up your endurance which will lead to more energy to get you through the dull spots in your working day.

Music Facts

People with an appreciation for melodic music are more intelligent.  Listening to soothing music reduces stress.

But apart from music and all of the related health benefits there is a wealth of audible content to use and most importantly to learn from.In just about every field of interest, there are now experts who are willing to publish and share their expertise with you for free. They make this free knowledge available in the form of Pod Casts. You may ask, "How and why do they bother to do so"?

The business model is usually driven by paid advertisements included in the Pod Cast. So if you were a self proclaimed expert in something and could build an audience you could have another revenue stream in Pod Casting.

What is a podcast?

The word is derived from iPOD (coined by Apple Computers) and broadCAST from the radio industry.You can think of a podcast as an mp3 file containing audio, usually spoken word, that has been published with a technology called RSS.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is like email. You subscribe to it (an RSS Feed) or choose it rather than it being sent to you in your email inbox. Instead your RSS reader will update your articles from the feed address by downloading or pulling down the articles to your computer. You can read them at your own convenience.A Pod Cast is an RSS Feed with MP3 File attachments that are published in an RSS feed.

How to find a Pod Cast of interest

There are search engines or directories that provide the specialized service of helping you to locate and download pod casts. One of our personal favourites is PodNova.com. They even include a little flash program that allows you to listen on line during your work day. And of course you are able to download a program from their site that will automatically download your favourite programs to your personal computer where you can they use your media software (iTunes or Windows Media Player) to transfer it to your ipod or other mp3 player.

So why bother?

Knowledge and wisdom help you to meet life's challenges and handle it better than someone who is ill equipped by a lack of knowledge.

Many of the wealthiest and most successful people in any part of the world are often the most informed and well connected. Knowledge really is power. Life is spent making decisions that lead us from one moment to the next.

Your life is the sum of the decisions you have made up to this point.

Better knowledge = Better Decisions = Better life.

They say that a mind once exposed to knowledge never shrinks back to its original size.

When we make a bad decision we often call that a mistake or a hard lesson. What if you could learn from the mistakes of others and not have to suffer the pain of those events yourself. What if someone could show you all the pitfalls to avoid and show you the path to success. What if you could learn from their successes and best practices and not have to reinvent the wheel your self?

You can now make better decisions based on this new knowledge. An informed decision is ususally a better decision.

What does a Pod Cast cost.

Ususally Pod Casts are made available for free. Again, the better quality ones are supported by advertisements. It's almost the same model as television where the televsion shows were a vehicle for paid advertising.Of course there are a lot of MP3 players besides the Apple IPod. We really like the IRiver for its features and durability.

It also doubles as a great hand held audio recorder with its built in microphone. You could actually use it to make your own Pod Cast.

Back 08.04.2006.