I like to listen to a particular podcastable radio show that lasts, with the dopey commercials they recently added, about 85 minutes. When I'm going to be driving in a car that only plays "real" CDs, I'm in trouble.

What to do? I'd really rather not burn two CDs, and I sure don't want to listen to Alvin and the Chimpmunks when I'm driving.

Whaddya know? Audacity wins:

My old MP3 player allowed me to speed up playback to 130%, which was really handy for listening to the 3-hour's worth of podcasts I'd listen to every week. Unfortunately my new MP3 player is missing this functionality, and I'm missing it as well. Anybody know of software that can 'convert' my MP3's to a faster speed?


(Answer included. Basically, you want to know Effect--Change Tempo. Makes it faster without changing pitch. Pretty 1337.)

Of course this has the added bonus of letting you listen to more podcast-ness in the same amount of time. Just previewing, it seems like 25% faster isn't too bad, though 130% faster was a little disorienting when I tried it. I'm willing to accept that 25% faster sounded okay only because I'd listened to 130%. It's all relative. I shoulda gone with 250% faster, and I coulda been happy listening to twice as much junk as before.

Seriously, this is apparently a player-side option in newer iPods, and it's a pretty cool thing to be able to do.