If you haven't yet tuned into a podcast, we'll show you how in three easy
steps.
What it is
 Podcasts,
like other audio files, can be manually downloaded by clicking on links
provided by the publishers of the audio. (Like this discussion
of Getting the Little Things Right with SolidWorks CEO, McEleney) But podcasts
differ from other downloadable audio in one important regard: Listeners
can subscribe to podcasted audio in such a way that the audio is automatically
loaded onto their computers or portable media players as soon as the publisher
makes the audio available online. Since the subscription mechanism is based
on the RSS protocol, podcasts represent the marriage of downloadable audio
to RSS.
(If you want to create
your own podcasts , CNET has a good primer.)
What you need
To
start listening to podcasts, all you need is a computer with an Internet
connection and a portable media player. Strictly speaking, even the portable
media player is optional, since you can listen to podcasts right on your
computer.
To subscribe to podcasts for
automatic downloads and to sync the audio files to your portable media
player, you'll need to use podcatching software. iPodder
is a free, open-source client that is available for Windows, Linux
and Mac OS X.
What to do
Go
to the iPodder site to
download and install the latest version of iPodder.
Launch iPodder and you will see
a picklist of podcast feeds that you can subscribe to. (Feeds are text
descriptions of podcast shows, and they give iPodder or other podcatching
software the information it needs to know when new podcasts are available.)
You'll want to add feeds for
shows that you're interested in, and delete the others. IPodder also allows
you to manually enter the URL of an RSS feed to which you want to subscribe.
When iPodder is done downloading,
it will create a playlist in iTunes, listing the podcasts you've downloaded.
Click on the play button, and you can listen to the podcast on your computer.
Now that the podcast is copied into iTunes, you can use it like any other
audio content.
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