Tech Tweets Mickey at the BetaMouse Podcast

I don't usually review a podcast so soon after it starts, but I needed to make an exception with this one. The BetaMouse Podcast uploaded its first show on Feb. 3, 2010 so it is still young.  But, I always like to point out, that for a podcast to succeed it must find it’s niche. With Disney podcasts it can take a number of shows before the host(s) are comfortable enough and have decided what their focus will be. Not true with the BetaMouse Podcast. Simple and to the core from show #1, their niche is how all of the new Tech. being released can and will relate to the World of the Mouse. In their words, “Born of a friendfeed discussion, the betamouse podcast covers disney/tech stuff with a crack team of disney geeks. We produce weekly episodes.” Even in their About us statement they mention another great tool out there for online chat, Friendfeed. And here are the Disney Geeks:
The Betamouse Podcast is headed up by Henry. Henry is the Web Developer at TouringPlans.com, the official site of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (ding!). He is also the developer of the Smart Phone app, Lines. This App is amazing because it not only estimates the line wait times for you for all of the WDW parks, it also lets you keep track of live updates of wait times to boot. Not to mention the key information from Touringplans.com‘s Crowd Calendar. It’s a pretty nice tool. The price at this point is just right also…Free. Although I am a member of Touringplans.com, so charge away.  In all seriousness, there are two or three trip planning resources that I use and Touringplans.com is one of them.  And I can vouch for their crowd calendar.  Along with Henry are Jeff, a life-long Disney World visitor and tech. geek. Nate, a former cast member and co-host of the WEDway Radio podcast is also a life-long WDW visitor with plenty of info to share. Scott is the fourth member of the team. He’s a web developer and will be debuting a web site soon at Dizcollect.com. The last but not least member of the team is Katie. Katie has the DVCLife Blog and shares duties with WDW Today’s Matt at the Disney in My Life photo blog.


The BetaMouse team is without a doubt qualified for the topics that are discussed on this show. Their first seven shows covered topics such as location apps in the parks,  going to Disney with your laptop, Camera Gear, and a great Smartphone Survival Guide.  In this guide, they point out places in the parks where you can recharge your phone.  You'll need to listen for those tid-bits.  But I'll tell you now, there is a prime one in the Magic Kingdom that I would never have thought of.  It's great having this new resource to appreciate and learn from.  I've got an Iphone and plan to load it for bear for a couple of up-coming trips to the world.  Mainly sound-recording and Tweets, but we'll see what I hear about next.  That Foursquare and Gowalla sounded interesting on show #7.  Maybe I'll check them out.

If you have any kind of electronics that you take down to the world, or even not as these are a great group to listen to, check out the BetaMouse Podcast.

PS: Cool logo and very aproppriate opening theme song.