Alternatives to TWiT Podcasts

06 Jan 2014

I had, until the end of 2012, been a fan of the TWiT podcast network. They do make a number of excellent audio and video shows on many things technology related. Unfortunately, I’m no longer a fan, for reasons I discuss in a different blog post.

In any case, here’s my list of possible replacements for the various TWiT shows I listened to. I would love suggestions for the shows I both did and did not mention here in the comments. I will update this post based on my own searches and your suggestions.

Last Updated: 26 September 2015

This Week in Tech

What I like about this show is the discussion and the week overview. I haven’t found a direct replacement for it (yet) but I’ve found a couple of alternatives that will likely work for now:

Saturday Morning Tech Show: A weekly podcast produced by Todd Cochrane’s, usually with guests.
The Vergecast: Basically the guys who write for The Verge sitting around, talking. Probably the most direct replacement for This Week in Tech.
Geek News Central (the “Geek News” feed): My only major complaint with is that it’s basically just Todd Cochrane talking for an hour or more twice a week. I like conversational podcasts more.
GeekSpeak, a program on Santa Cruz, CA-based KUSP radio. Different mix of stories and discussion.
PC Pro Podcast, a podcast done by the staff of PC Pro Magazine in the UK. (Suggested by Stuart Petty via Google+)
Current Geek, a podcast by Tom Merritt and Scott Johnson which relaunched in January 2014.

The Tech Guy

This is Leo’s weekly syndicated radio show which I only occasionally listened to.

Technology Bytes: a two-hour call-in radio show answering your tech questions. Dwight Silverman is on this program and is a frequent guest on TWiT. (Suggested by Michael Graves in the comments)
Tech Night Owl: Major complaint here is that it’s basically a recording of a radio show with commercial breaks consisting of some Alex Jones-style ads. Not quite for me.

Tech News Today

The Frequency: Since was not originally in my list since it did not exist when I started the list. This started as a daily show in 2013, but has moved to a less frequent format.
Marketplace Tech Report, which is a daily summary of various tech news items.
Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing, which publishes twice every weekday, is also another daily summary of various tech news items.
TUAW Daily Update, which is a 3-5 minute update that is Apple-specific.
Daily Tech News Show: Tom Merritt and TWiT parted ways at the end of 2014. This is the show he started to scratch his itch to do Daily Tech News. In my earbuds as this is the clear successor to Buzz Out Loud and Tech News Today.
The Morning Dump which is a tech news show for people who don’t mind poop jokes and F-bombs mixed in with their tech news. In my earbuds

iFive for the iPhone and iPad Today

I kinda put these in the same category, because they are basically podcasts that feature iOS apps.

AppAdvice Daily more than replaces both, though it is a video podcast only. That said 3-5 mins per-day is easy enough to watch.

MacBreak Weekly

I actually stopped listening to MacBreak Weekly well before I decided to swear off TWiT mostly because the shows were just too long and I was getting a lot of iOS content from other shows. That said, an Apple-specific podcast seems reasonable.

TUAW Daily Update, which is a 3-5 minute update that is Apple-specific.
TUAW Talkcast, which is an hour-long discussion of all things Apple in the past week.
The Critical Path: Rather than a podcast that talks about uses for iOS and other Apple products, this podcasts talks about the kinds of thing Apple does from a business point of view in traditional telephony and computing markets. It’s a surprisingly compelling podcast for me, and most definitely in my earbuds

The Giz Wiz

Thankfully, this is no longer a TWiT show and you can safely listen/watch without supporting TWiT.

The PhoneBoy Blog