Listen From Google Labs – Free Podcast Application

13 Oct, 2009 | Written by Gagan | under Audio

Listen from Google Labs brings pod casts 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.

Listen from Google Labs is part of Google Labs, a playground for Google engineers and adventurous Google users. Google staffers with wild and crazy ideas post their prototypes on Google Labs and solicit feedback on how the technology could be used or improved.

Use the Search bar from the home screen (or “Menu -> Search” from other screens) to search for audio programs. If you know the name of a specific podcast, you can search for that, or you can search for a topic such as “Google”. Once you find search results you like, press on a result to start listening right away or press and hold (long-press) to see more options.
Subscriptions allow you to keep up to date with specific programs or specific search terms. After you press on any search result you’ll see a check box in the upper right; just select it to subscribe to that program. Listen will then always show you the latest episode on the Programs tab of the My Subscriptions screen.

To subscribe to a search term, select the checkbox when you are viewing the list of results. Listen will then always show you a recent episode whose content matches that search term on the Searches tab of My Subscriptions. Your Queue is a way for you to chose specific episodes to hear in a specific order. Listen will play the items in your Queue in order before playing your subscriptions. If your Queue is empty, or you run off the end of it, Listen will play through your subscriptions automatically.

You can also use your Bluetooth enabled headsets. We all love using Listen with wireless headsets. Using a headset with A2DP capability, you can get you audio content right in your ear, and often use the headset controls as well.