Over the past few years RSS feeds have been transforming the web. Automater on OSX 10.5 allows you to transform RSS feeds from text to your own audio files or podcasts that you can take with you on your iPod.

RSS FEEDS TO AUDIO FILES

To transform your favorite RSS feeds into audio files open Automator in OS X 10.5 and add the following steps:

1. Get Specified URLS (Add the URL of the RSS Feed you want to convert to an audio File)
2. Get Feeds from URLS (This extracts the actual feed from the URL)
3. Get Text from Articles (This step pulls out the text from your RSS feeds and saves it to a text file)
4. Text to Audio File (Have OSX read your new text file and save it to an audio file. Be sure to select the voice of the file, I suggest Alex, and where you want to save it)

If you’d like to import the new audio file into iTunes you can add the step: Import Files into iTunes.

From here you can take your favorite RSS feeds on the go with you. Listen to the articles at your convenience.

Try it out with the maciverse.com RSS Feed.

For those of you that like things the easy way, you can download the Automator workflow here.

Related posts:

1. Automator Tip #5: Add Address Book Contacts to Gmail
2. Automator Tip of the Week #4: Show & Hide Hidden Files in Finder
3. How To: Import your iWeb Blog to Wordpress
4. Record Streaming Audio
5. Embed Custom RSS Feeds Into iWeb