Instructions
What is a podcast?
A “podcast” is a buzzword to describe a very simple concept: an audio or video file available on the Internet for you to listen to and/or watch. A podcast can also refer to a series of these audio or video files (similar to how a TV or radio “show” can be a series of shows or just one show). When using the word “podcast”, most people refer to the entire series and not just one audio or video file.
Audio and video files have been made available on the Internet for years. Why is a podcast different?
Break PODCAST down into two parts. First the POD: you can either listen to a podcast on your computer or transfer it to your portable audio/video device, which means that file is Portable, and it’s On-Demand because you can listen to or watch it when you want, where you want. The CAST means the file is sent out to you over the Internet, in the way a “broadcast” comes to you over the radio or TV airwaves. But instead of using a radio or TV, with podcasts you use a computer connected to the Internet, and on that computer you have a program that allows you to subscribe to, manage, and listen to or watch your favorite podcasts.
can also refer to Wikipedia’s entry on the definition and history of the word “podcast”.
How to subscribe to a podcast
For those of you who are new to podcasting and do not know how to subscribe to a podcast, I’d like to explain how easy it can be.
| STEP 1 Install a podcatching client. There are several out there. One of the most popular is iTunes version 4.9 or later. Another very popular one is Juice (previously known as iPodder), which is free, and runs on Windows, Macintosh and Linux. | This video shows you how to install Juice on Windows:
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| STEP 2 Once you’ve got your podcatching client installed and running, you copy the link from the RSS feed. This is usually an orange button marked XML or RSS. | Click here for screen shots. | This video shows you how to do steps 2 and 3 with Juice:
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| STEP 3 Paste the link into your podcatching client. | Click here for screen shots | ||||
Alternatively, if you have iTunes installed, you can simply click on the 
button.
Then, every time a new show is released on the podcast, you’ll get it downloaded automatically. You can configure your computer it to download all the available shows. If you set it up correctly, the MP3 files will even end up right in your music library or on your MP3 player, all automatically.
You can have any number of subscriptions in your podcatching client, so with just one click you can check for shows from all your favourite podcasts.
You’ll see it really doesn’t make any sense visiting lots of web-pages every day and clicking on links to download individual MP3 files.
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