Ever think of the convenience of dialing a number and listening to a podcast? It is possible thanks to two services, Podlinez and Fonpods.

Podlinez is essentially a portal providing you with podcasts and telephone numbers that correspond to the podcast so you can simply dial up and listen. There’s no sign-up required. As of this writing, there are 15 pages of podcasts in the directory (25 per page) and counting. You can browse the podcast directory for the corresponding telephone number or you can input an RSS feed URL of the podcast so that you can access it immediately thereafter. It has been so popular during its launch that the service provider is already ordering new telephone numbers (I tried to input a new RSS feed and was unable to at this time.)

Fonpods: Contrary to Podlinez, this service has a single access number and many more podcasts. Users can dial this number and hear an automated lady bot offer different categories of podcasts. If you do choose to sign up for an account (which is optional), you can configure your favorite podcasts on the website and listen to them offline by phone by dialing the same number and then inputting your 10-digit phone number as identification.

I found Podlinez pretty easy to use compared to Fonpods — its web interfaces compared side-by-side seem to reflect what you hear once you dial in. As a new user trying out Fonpods, unless I knew the web ID of the podcast immediately, it seemed like I had the option to listen to NPR, ESPN, and National Geographic, and there was no easy way to back out (eventually, I discovered that pressing # enough did the trick). Fonpods seemed to have a lot of “headlines,” indicating multiple podcasts, not playing just the most recent podcast, which is interesting because Podlinez doesn’t seem to support multiple podcasts, just the most recent one.

Both options seem pretty practical depending your needs. If you want to access an old podcast, Fonpods seems doable. If you want centralized access to multiple podcasts, Fonpods is also the choice product. If you want really simple access, Podlinez is the way to go.

I stumbled upon an interesting resource for podcasts today at the Productive Strategies blog.  The list covers a variety of universities’ lectures, from computer programming to biology to aviation to food analysis to Shakespeare.

If you’re looking for a centralized location to further your studies, be sure to bookmark this site.

If you don’t know Engadget, you don’t know one of the biggest blogs in the world in the area of techology, and of course, gadgets. The site is filled with gadget reviews, new technology products on the market, do-it-yourself tutorials, and contests (for cameras, MP3 players, laptops, and more).

Engadget has a pretty cool biweekly podcast that reviews products (e.g. the new Treo 680 PDA cell phone, which was announced last week), discusses new products not yet on the market, offers even more giveways (as if reading the blog wasn’t enough!), and features industry news. The podcast, which runs between approximately 40 minutes to an hour and a half, is available in MP3, AAC, OGG format.

If you check out Podfly often, chances are you do like those gadgets too — and therefore, you shouldn’t miss this podcast.

Podcasts have gone above and beyond technology. There are thousands of podcasts to choose from, and if you like sports and want to soak in all the information you can about your favorite teams and the athletic happenings of the week, there are a multitude of places to check out for your sporting needs.

MySportsRadio has a huge number of podcasts, from your average varsity sport (football, baseball, and basketball) to Nascar and to Poker. In addition, there’s a fitness blog as well.

The Sportscolumn Blog features the latest news in national and college sports, both in blog and podcast format.

The weekly/biweekly podcasts at Round 10 Sports remind me of the Super Bowl. Hmm, I wonder why.

There are even fan blogs too that are featured on individual school teams, such as the SEC Podcast Network.

If sports interests you, there’s much to talk about and plenty of podcasts to check out.

Ever since I wrote about Leo Laporte, I’ve been hearing more and more about his adamant stance to change the term “Podcast” to “Netcast.” Apparently, a lot of people disagree with him (myself included).

What’s your preference? Do you think Netcast is the better name?

Want to be on top of the new technology trends in cyberspace? TalkCrunch, the podcast of TechCrunch, reviews web technologies and the “social web.”

Past podcasts have delved into Digg, the social bookmarking site, S3: Amazon’s online storage service, RSS feed readers, and Wikia, an online encyclopedia.

To keep on top of new Internet ideas and startups, TalkCrunch definitely has a lot of potential. Its founder, Michael Arrington, is known as an expert in the “new in tech” industry.

Are you looking for a specific mention in your podcast and need to find it quick?  Pluggd is your answer.  Pluggd uses HearHere(tm) technology, combining speech recognition and advanced search algorithms to allow you to find the chunks of a podcast that interest you.  You can skip the unnecessary babble and just listen to the stuff that you want to hear.

Debuted in May, Pluggd allows you to search through nearly 40,000 podcasts and find podcasts based on user reviews and opinions.

With HearHere technology, you are presented with a search window that enables you to enter a concept term.  It searches the podcast for that term and highlights the portions of the podcast that relate.  You can then click on this portion and listen.