If you haven’t heard of podcasting, then this post is for you.
Yesterday, one of our callers on the show brought up podcasting and we didn’t have time to get into it.
Well, here’s a long-winded answer of sorts.
Podcasting is like TiVo for your iPod. iPod + broadcasting = podcasting. Listen to web broadcasts anywhere, anytime. Podcast receiving software makes it easy to have fresh new content delivered to your iPod automatically… around the clock.
Simply, podcasting is the sending of multimedia content (like MP3s or videos) to your computer based on a subscription to a particular feed. For example, let’s say that there’s a site that posts a new Seinfeld episode every day. Well, instead of going to that site and downloading the episode, you can subscribe to their feed and automatically receive the new episodes whenever they’re posted.
To get a little more technical, podcasting works with the help of RSS feeds that make use of enclosures. RSS enclosures are links or pointers to multimedia content. If a podcast receiving program like iPodder sees a pointer to a multimedia file within an RSS feed, it will download that file automatically to your computer.
You don’t need an iPod to receive podcasts, but some podcast software is built to sync with your iPod automatically. If you have another brand of MP3 player, you’ll have the extra step of transferring fresh MP3s to your player of choice.
This technology works especially well for radio show broadcasts that have been saved as MP3s; which brings me to Adam Curry, the pioneer of this technology. Adam’s name might sound familiar because he was an MTV VJ in the late 80s. Adam worked to develop the podcasting concept and the iPodder, the first podcast receiver, using Applescript (Apple’s scripting language). Once Adam’s idea caught on, other developers began to code better programs to do the same thing and that’s where the iPodder came from.
If you have a portable MP3 player, this is a no-brainer: It’s the future of multimedia and radio. Here’s some starting points if you’d like to be on the bleeding edge of this multimedia revolution:
- Adam Curry’s Weblog – Home of Adam’s pioneering podcast show: The Daily Source Code
- Copy this RSS feed link into your podcast receiver to start getting Adam’s Daily Source Code show delivered to your iPod
- iPodder.org – A great resource for the latest news in the podcasting community.
- On a Mac, iPodderX is my podcast receiver of choice.
- iPodder – Another podcast reciever for Windows & Mac.
- Podcast.net – A great place to find new podcast feeds.
- Don’t forget del.icio.us as a resource for new podcasting sites.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Dang, that surely takes me back. Adam Curry, they need to get him on that reality show, what’s it called…. The Sureal Life or something.
Podcasting looks like fun, will have to put it on my weekend to-do list.
If your want to start your own podcast and have access to a web server with PHP, a really easy way is with dirCaster.
http://www.shadydentist.com/wordpress/software/dircaster
You just need to stick in a directory with some MP3s and you’re all set. New MP3s will be added to the feed as you upload then.
uhh.. i dunno what to say
SORRY
MANY MANY WORDS!!
LITTLE LITTLE TIME!!