During my bus commute to work every day I spend a large amount of time listening to podcasts on my iPhone. And while video podcasts can be great, sometimes I just don’t have the stomach to hold my iPhone to my face for 40 minutes on the bus.

The thing is that a lot of my video podcasts (diggnation, TED Talks, Wine Library TV) are great to listen to with just audio. And in fact I find the extra battery life saved can be a welcome benefit. Well, about two weeks ago I figured out how to listen to audio from video’s on the iPhone with the phone locked. Here’s how:

1. Start your video from the iPhone iPod app
2. Lock the phone. At this point your video and audio will stop
3. Double tap your home button to bring up iPod controls in locked mode
4. Select play and the audio from your video will start playing while the phone is locked

I’m not sure if this tip is published but it’s been super useful for me. Hope it helps you all out too.

Update: Just realized these steps also work if you want to listen to audio only with the phone unlocked. Simply do the above and then unlock your phone, wala!

About three months ago I was convinced by some of my fellow co-workers that the TWiT (This Week in Tech) podcast was something that I desperately needed to start following. If not for the information itself at least for my own geek street cred.

Realizing my co-works know my geek tendencies better than most, I agreed that I needed to give Podcasts a second look. I had used them here and there but never really gotten much out of it. In fact, I found that for the most part they just sat around in my iTunes taking up space. So, reinvigorated I subscribed to This Week in Tech, along with a few other Podcasts from my favorite tech websites, notably The Talk Show, and Diggnation.

Then over the course of the next month I started listening on a consistent basis. What I found was not surprising: podcasts were just what my tech diet had been missing — a dialogue by fellow geeks that could finally match my own level of interest in the field. And the best part? It didn’t take hours of reading tech sites and scanning RSS feeds. I would simply turn on a few Podcasts while coding and by the end of the day my level of geekdom was up a few mana.

Well, this was just the beginning, I soon started subscribing to all sorts of Podcasts. And like smack is to a crackhead, the NPR podcast directory was to me.

ESPN, This American Life, The Web 2.0 show, Car Talk, XM Unmasked, etc. My podcast directory started to balloon, in fact it is quite plausible that I was downloading more podcast air time than I had hours in a day. I needed to get control.

I set two rules. First, only subscribe to 10 or less podcasts. Anything more and the overall value of them goes down because I become too flustered trying to keep up. Second, stick to a routine. For me, podcasts are best digested at certain times of the day. Sticking to these general times makes it easier to stay on top of my favorite podcasts without getting behind.

Luckily these rules seem to have solved my podcasting bloat. And I feel strongly that my listening level is right where it should be. Granted certain weeks (like the MacWorld expo week) deserve more attention, but overall my current selection of podcasts seems to match perfectly my free listening time.

I can’t recommend podcasts enough, especially to those looking to be more socially well-rounded. It is a great way to keep up on the latest news in all areas of life without having to sacrifice time and productivity.

Lately, my favorite podcasts are increasingly utilizing commercials to subsidize their expenses and maybe earn a bit of cash. While I’m 100% behind this, I’ve been increasingly frustrated with podcasters lack of audience understanding.

Podcast listeners are different from radio listeners in the following ways:

1. We listen on our own time, when it is convenient for us.
2. We are usually listening on our iPod, with headphones on.
3. We have the ability to fast forward commercials.

On of my favorite podcasts is the Daily Search Cast, and they are a great example of how not to implement podcast advertising.

1. The opening 1:45 of the show is loud, car dealership-ish commercials. Topically, I might listen to them if only the audio levels didn’t blast out my eardrums.
2. There is no interim commercials to interject a brief 10-15 second commercial.
3. The end of the show is followed by more commercials. Once the show is over, why should I continue to listen.

Now, let’s look at This Week in Tech (TWiT). TWiT does the best job at inserting advertising into the podcast.

1. In the opener they casually mention the advertiser.
2. During the show they mention the advertiser(s) again.
3. They end the show with a brief commercial which I may listen to.

The bottom line, commercials shouldn’t be more then 10-15 seconds. Be sensitive to audio levels, we are wearing headphones or earbuds. Randomly place the commercials throughout the podcast, mix it up a bit.

Hopefully podcasters begin integrating commercials in a more listener-friendly way.