My doctor told me to get more exercise, and so now I walk a couple of miles a day. I usually do it about 4 pm when “All Things Considered” is on NPR. There’s an app for that and I can stream the program or other NPR content while I’m walking, through my mobile phone’s data plan.
Today I looked at my mobile data usage for the month, and at the current rate I’ll use all my data allotment (I have a small plan) plus the rollover from last month, and next month I would go over. That’s a problem.
Then I had a radical, thinking out of the box idea to reduce my data usage: use a radio!
This little radio is about the size of a pack of playing cards and it fits in my shirt pocket. I get stereo with headphones. It uses rechargeable batteries, and it was just wasting space on the shelf. I reviewed the PL-118 radio on this blog in 2011 and you can read it for more information.
I tried it out today, and it worked great. It didn’t have any of those annoying gaps or replayed sections that plague the TuneIn app. A radio is a rather elegant solution for listening to radio. 😳
Even a better idea: use a designated podcast app such as pocket casts or overcast. There are many other good ones (TuneIn is not among them).
Download your favorite podcast over wifi before you go out for a walk. This can be done automatically for the ones you know you want to hear every episode two, or manually each time you see an interesting description.
Then buy an inexpensive but reliable Bluetooth headphones, such as the $25 model you can find on Amazon. Buy two pairs and you’ll never be without.
Your headphones will have a forward click which will advance 30 seconds to get past commercials and unwanted jabber. They also have a 15 second rewind. Welcome to 2017 🙂
The $25 Amazon model is made by Motorola, and sits behind the head.
Thanks. I can use my Bluetooth hearing aid 😉