Good news, Androids. Google Labs has busted out a new podcast / web audio-centric app, Listen, for your droiding pleasure.
In particular, Listen from Google Labs:
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.
Google Listen joins Doggcatcher, another podcatcher, in bringing podcasts to your ‘droid. However, besides the fact that Doggcatcher isn’t free (whereas Listen costs nothing), the biggest difference between the two is, well, Google being Google. Where Doggcatcher requires users to enter in the particular RSS feeds they want to follow, Listen allows users to search for any and all podcasts / other web audio from across the Nets.
For example, say you want to learn more about oh, I don’t know…healthcare. Or perhaps you’re interested in listening to something slightly less controversial, say NFL pre-season analysis. With Listen, you’d simply enter in some keywords (“public option” / “Washington Redskins”) and “press on a result to start listening right away or press and hold (long-press) to see more options.”
Not only can you search and subscribe to podcasts, but you can also create playlists with the “My Listen Queue” feature. Listen also works with Bluetooth headsets.
At the moment, Listen is available only for Android-powered devices and is limited to English-only audio podcast.