Lust List: MV51 microphone by Shure

Looking like something Elvis Presley would rock, the Shure MV51 is a handsome, retro-styled microphone well-suited to podcasting with an iPad or iPhone. Sturdy and portable, I find it great for recording on the go. It’s small enough to throw into a jacket pocket and, because it’s made of all metal, it’s nigh indestructible.

Paired with an iPhone and Shure’s well-designed recording app, it’s a lot more compact than most podcasting rigs, and versatile enough for most recording situations. Best of all, the audio it captures sounds great.

When James Savage and John Leake uploaded the first episode of their RetroMacCast, they were thrilled with the number of downloads: 18.

Not exactly a meteoric start, but considering neither host ever had that many people at one time interested in hearing them talk about old Apple computers, this was a pretty big deal.

You don’t need a high-frequency antenna or FCC license to be a broadcaster in the 21st century. Anyone can have a podcast – well, that is, anyone with the technical know-how and money for equipment, such as a good microphone, to produce their work.

A company called Zula wants to eliminate what might be the last barrier for the DIY media star. It launched an iPhone app called ZCast, which allows users to produce an audio podcast anywhere with just an iPhone or Mac computer.

Ever wondered which episodes of our own CultCast feature conversations about WWDC? Or which episodes of the original The Talk Show have Dan Benjamin and John Gruber discussing a Bond movie?

Then try Poodle.FM, an experimental search engine for podcasts from the folks behind the podcatcher app Instacast.

While some radio stations started sending out recordings of broadcasts in 2001, podcasts came onto the scene in 2004, got onto iTunes in 2005, and have since “transformed the media landscape,” according to Apple’s new iTunes splash page celebrating a milestone one billion podcast subscriptions.

Those billion subscriptions are held up by 250,000 unique podcasts across over 100 languages. More than eight million episodes have been published on the iTunes Store, according to Apple.

Logitech’s new Broadcaster webcam is just what it says it is: a webcam for live-streaming video, and for shooting podcasts. But that makes it sound boring, so how about this: The Broadcaster shoots 720p video, can connect to your Mac, iPad or iPhone via Wi-Fi and works with most of your built in (Mac) apps.

And, amazingly, there’s more:

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD / IWORLD 2012 — One of the Macworld Best in Show winners that caught my attention during the past few days is an audio solution by Australia-based Dev-Audio. The Microcone features a revolutionary technology that innovates the way multiple tracks are produced.

The Microcone is an incredibly intelligent microphone that is unbelievably simple to use and can help anyone manage group conversations. While it’s not going to be something everyone can use, there are some practical applications beyond traditional meetings that are worth looking at.

Is your New Years’ Resolution to start video or audio podcasting? Mac OS X Lion includes all the tools you need to produce professional results. Here’s how.