What is a podcast?

A podcast is an audio “show,” typically made up of MP3s, available online for downloading with a free subscription via an automatic “feed.” Podcast producers refresh the podcast with new episodes that are automatically added to your subscription. You can listen to the podcast on your computer or on a portable media player.

Over the Internet, the feed file of a Podcast (1) is collected by a computer program that receives Podcasts (2). iTunes, version 4.9 and newer, is one such program. The program will automatically download the feed file when there are updates to it.

The program will then examine the feed file for linked audio files and automatically download them. You can also change the program's settings to manually download the linked audio file.

The Podcast audio file (3) can be set to transfer automatically to a portable media player (4) when it's connected to your computer. Now you can disconnect the player and listen on the go.

The first thing you need is a podcatcher. With a podcatcher (also called a podcast aggregator), you can subscribe to your favorite podcasts, then sync them to your iPod or other portable media player.

You can download a free podcatcher, or subscribe to any number of Web-based podcatchers. With the Web-based podcatchers, you don’t have to download anything. Simply subscribe to a free online service. With the desktop podcatchers, you’ll need to download and install free software to your computer. The links to some popular podcatchers are listed below.

Some Popular Free Web-Based Podcatchers
(listen online):

           

Some Popular Free Desktop Podcatchers
(requires download to your computer):

iTunes | Yahoo! Music Engine

               

View more desktop and Web-based podcatchers or here.

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