(* Source: Marta Strickland *)

There was an interesting article today on Last100 about Apple and a new patent they have on a podcasting mash-up service.

It is a little embarrassing, but the idea of podcasts has never really appealed to me. I mean, I understand why they are great and I could honestly see a use for them in my daily life, but I have been intimidated to get involved. I felt kinda the same way when RSS first came out. I was excited, but the idea of searching for places that had feeds and incorporating them into this extra tool known as an RSS reader that I would have to remember to visit… it just seemed like too much of a bother. It wasn’t until RSS readers started to become integrated into anything and everything I was already using (browsers, start pages, mobile phones, etc), that I began utilizing RSS with a passion

Last100 suggests that the patent recently filed by Apple might mean that they are building a took that allows users to easily “look inside” podcasts for certain keywords, aggregate snippets together, and then publish that to a service that can be accessed by iPods, iPhones, and AppleTV. This finally perked my interest. Sure it will be a while before this service becomes more automated and available outside of the realm of Apple. But, the thought of being able to assemble my own daily “best of” on a topic that gets automatically pumped into my phone or car stereo (even better for commuters like me) is a tantalizing daydream that has finally got me seriously considering latching onto this whole “podcast” thing.