Launched in summer 2005 on iTunes, Apple’s podcasts have now racked up 1 billion subscriptions with the store offering around 8 million episodes from 250,000 different podcasts in more than 100 languages.

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Let it bead: Amazing Radio presenter Ruth Barnes

The week in radio: Ruth Barnes is a pop pioneer who knows what women want

It's official: the gender imbalance is on radio is real, and it's a problem. Of course, for those of us in possession of both ears and ovaries, this is hardly breaking news. But for the benefit of all the knuckle-dragging nitwits who like their ironing done by someone else and who say we should stop whining because we have Radio 4's Woman's Hour – a whole hour! Every day! Entirely to ourselves! – it's now here in black and white.

It's usually the sort of thing you’d expect to see at Glastonbury or Notting Hill Carnival, but is musical cycling likely to break through to the two-wheeled mainstream?

Speakers on wheels: What’s that noise? It’s the sound of cyclists

If you spend a lot of time on your bike, you might have already spotted the latest audio-cycling craze: cyclists jerry-rig a speaker system to their handlebars and take their tunes with them.

Simon Read: Travel cover has fallen behind the times

A Which? investigation published today shows that travel insurance policies have failed to move with the times, giving inadequate cover for the full costs of lost or stolen valuables abroad and potentially leaving holidaymakers hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

Beyond easy to set up: the Bayan Audio Streamport

A week with: The Bayan Audio Streamport Universal

Digitise your old stereo in style

Next-generation Xbox 'reveal' planned for May claims tech blogger as rumours and rows continue to swirl over 'always-on' device

Seasoned Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott has claimed in a 'What the Tech' podcast, that the console will be unveiled at a 'reveal' event in May

US men's fashion goes postal

Diffusion clothing lines have long been in vogue in the fashion world. But it is unusual when the thing doing the diffusing isn’t some proud fashion megalith but a postal service instead.

<p>Seven Watthana</p>
<p>This design-led address offers six rooms, in six different colours, with a reception area that promises to take guests to seventh heaven. All rooms have outdoor spaces, iPod docks and Bath&Bloom toiletries, but the centrepiece in each is a vibrant mural, dotted with deities, dragons and lotus flowers. A sun deck on the roof, lined with well-tended plants and daybeds, offers a serene reprieve after a day browsing the busy shopping street of Sukhumvit outside.</p>
<p>Seven, 3/15 Sawasdee 1, Sukhumvit 31, Watthana (00 66 2 662 0951; sleepat seven.com). Doubles from 2,790 baht (£57), including breakfast.</p>

The Big Six: Boutique beds in Bangkok

Seven, Watthana

This design-led address offers six rooms, in six different colours, with a reception area that promises to take guests to seventh heaven. All rooms have outdoor spaces, iPod docks and Bath&Bloom toiletries, but the centrepiece in each is a vibrant mural, dotted with deities, dragons and lotus flowers. A sun deck on the roof, lined with well-tended plants and daybeds, offers a serene reprieve after a day browsing the busy shopping street of Sukhumvit outside.

Seven, 3/15 Sawasdee 1, Sukhumvit 31, Watthana (00 66 2 662 0951; sleepat seven.com). Doubles from 2,790 baht (£57), including breakfast.

The 10 Best tech gifts

Treat the gizmo-lovers in your life with these great gadgets - from fun and funky to game-changing

AlunaGeorge: It’s pretty much perfect modern pop. Aluna Francis is a really fascinating frontwoman and it’s nicely produced by bandmate George Reid

Introducing… the music you'll be hearing on your radio next year

An Irish country-rock band and a Native American rapper are among 15 acts vying for the title of the BBC's Sound of 2013 – the annual award which attempts to predict which musicians are due to hit the big time next year.

The 10 Best headphones

If you’re looking for cool, Seventies retro, earpads as comfy as old cushions or cans that keep your music private, this selection has it all...

Bob Marley is sold out

How the Marleys sold out (in style)

Bob Marley's image, like Kurt Cobain and Michael Jackson's, has been used and abused. Since his death in 1981 his visage, often smoking, often smiling, has become a symbol of pretty much anything anyone with a poster press and T-shirt printer fancied.

The Imaginary Radio Programme: Drennon Davis, Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh

If you add “with Monique Moreau on keyboard” to the self-explanatory title of this show then you get exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a simple recipe to prepare and serve: the American duo pretend to dial surf through the airwaves in order to pastiche various musical styles.

George Galloway, the Bradford MP, made a 30-minute defence of Julian Assange in a video podcast

Gorgeous George joins the Assange backers who don't think rape is rape

Galloway sparks outrage with claim that alleged crimes are part of 'the sex game'

Here's the pitch: Bill Granger's campfire recipes

If your idea of campfire cooking extends no further than toasted marshmallows, let Bill Granger show you how to become an expert in the field.

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Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
Lure of the jingle: Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life

Lure of the jingle

Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Guest List: IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

Here are the potential stars of the World Championships which begin on Saturday
The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end