Each morning, Dave Winer talks to me about his thoughts on blogs, RSS newsfeeds, and programming in general. As one of the prime movers in the development of blogging and its offshoots, Dave's well worth listening to.
Dave talks to me, and thousands of others, via his podcast, Morning Coffee Notes. It's a very personal take on technology. Today, for example, his comments on a new outlining program he's developing are interspersed between massive thunderclaps as a huge storm sweeps over his house. I keep hoping he has really good surge protection and a UPS at hand.
Listening to Dave, I'm struck by the Internet's knack for transferring the tools of the few into the hands of the many. Podcasting is the latest example of this phenomenon.
What is podcasting?
Podcasting is radio on demand. It is personal audio books and personalised TV. It's mass media in miniature.
Podcasting is many things, but one thing it is not is an Apple iPod technology. If you've heard the term floating around and thought it was something purely for the Mac crowd, think again.
While the name certainly owes its heritage to the wildly popular iPod, podcasting is just as much a technology for Windows and Linux users, for Creative Zenners and iRiver owners.
Podcasting takes audio or video Web content and delivers it to your desktop or to your portable media player. What distinguishes podcasting from other types of streaming media is that it is a subscription service: once you subscribe to a podcast, your podcast software automatically downloads new 'episodes' as they become available and then syncs that content with your media player.
Sound familiar? Something like a multimedia version of RSS newsfeeds?
That's exactly what it is. A podcast is a multimedia file inside an RSS wrapper; or, more technically, an RSS 2.0 subscription feed containing a multimedia enclosure.
As the meeting point for audio blogging and RSS, podcasting delivers weblogs to new audiences and – via an iPod, iRiver or other portable media player – onto the road.
Podcasting and blogging
Podcasting has two huge advantages over text-based blogging. First, it's supremely personal; a text-based blog has nothing on hearing someone speak their thoughts. Second, it's non-visual (unless, of course, it's a video podcast you're watching). It provides a break from the stream of stuff you have to read; instead, you can give your eyes a rest, sit back and listen. If you commute to work, just sync the podcasts with your media player and you have your own radio station, filled with news, commentary and entertainment, to while away the journey.
Podcasting is such a powerful tool it has been adopted by mass media organisations as well as individual bloggers. Radio National, Triple J and SBS, among others, are all podcasting in Australia. In the UK, the BBC, known for being quick on the uptake of new technologies, is podcasting many of its shows. Lance Armstrong and his team podcast daily during his successful attempt to secure a 7th Tour de France win. Governor Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger podcasts regularly to his constituents. St Mark's Church in Clayfield, Queensland, podcasts Sunday evening talks.
Tuning in
Subscribing to podcasts is easy. All you need is:
- a computer with soundcard and speakers
- a high-speed Internet connection
- a media player
- a podcatcher
- a portable media player, if you want to take your podcasts on the road
You're almost sure to have everything on that list except the podcatcher. For your media player, Windows Media Player (WMP) will do just as well as iTunes; with a little fiddling around you can use alternatives such as WinAmp, too.
| geekgirl.tip: dump the dial-up |
| If you're still using dial-up Internet access, here's yet another good reason to upgrade. Most podcasts are sizeable downloads, unsuited to slow connections, and your podcatcher works best if set to update your subscriptions on an automated schedule, which requires an Internet connection. |
In essence, the podcatcher is an RSS feedreader with support for enclosures. Many classic feedreaders are now adding podcast support. FeedDemon, for example, provides excellent support for podcasts in its latest version. Apple added podcasting support to its media player, iTunes, in version 4.9.
Alternatively, you can take your pick from a bunch of purpose-built podcatchers, including iPodder, Doppler Radio and Primetime Podcast Receiver.
Which to choose? Doppler provides the best integration with WMP, but sometimes has trouble accessing feeds. The iTunes podcast support is neatly done, but iTunes doesn't always play nicely with other media software on Windows, so I don't recommend it unless you're already an iTunes user. Probably the best option is iPodder. Its WMP integration could be better and it displays podcast notes (a text summary of the podcast's contents) in a separate browser window instead of within the podcatcher itself, but in most other ways it's the podcatcher to beat. It's free, it includes a good directory of podcasts, and it's a delight to use. And, as you'll discover, with a little fast footwork you can make it work hand-in-glove with WMP.
Using iPodder
To discover how easy it is to join the podcasting flock, I'll show you how to add your first podcast using iPodder:
- Install iPodder and open the program. iPodder inserts a little lemon icon in your taskbar tray, which you can right-click to open the program full screen. During the iPodder installation, you'll be prompted to choose a folder in which to store your podcasts. I recommend you create a folder within My Music called Podcasts. WMP monitors all sub-folders within My Music, so this will help sync your podcasts with your media player.
- In the main iPodder window, click the Podcast Directory tab. This is a great place to start if you don't know where to find podcasts for yourself. To see the contents of a folder in the directory, first click the folder itself; this will download the currently available podcasts in that category. Once you've done that, click the + sign beside the folder to view its contents.
- Click a podcast's name and then click the Add button.
- In the Add A Feed dialog, make sure the Go To Subscriptions Tab To See This Feed's Episodes box is ticked then click Save. The feed will be added to your subscriptions list. You'll see it on the Subscriptions tab, with its episodes listed below.
- You can download a single episode or as many episodes as you like. Just tick the box to the left of each episode you want, then click the Check Selected Feed button in the toolbar. The Downloads tab will appear, showing the download progress.
- To play a downloaded episode, click the play button to the left of the episode, or right-click the episode (either in the Downloads tab or the Subscriptions tab) and choose Play Episode In Media Player.
iPodder includes a handy podcast directory (click the image to see a full-size screenshot).
If you already have the URL of a podcast, you can add the podcast to iPodder manually:
- In the main iPodder window, click the Subscriptions tab.
- Click the Add New Feed icon and copy-and-paste or type in the URL. iPodder automatically adds the title of the podcast and checks for available new episodes.
- Now follow steps 5 and 6 above to download the feed.
Scheduling
Most podcasters produce new episodes on a regular basis. To keep up to date, set your podcatcher to download episodes automatically. In iPodder, select Tools -> Scheduler, tick the Enable Scheduler button and select a schedule from the options. If you have trouble accessing certain podcasts – some of the popular ones get inundated with download requests – use the Check At Regular Intervals option and repeat every 2 to 4 hours.
| listen to this article |
| To give you a taste of home-brewed podcasting, I've created a podcast of this article, so instead of reading it, you can listen to it by adding http://www.dvinewrite.com/podpeople.rss to your podcatcher. |
Step-by-step: Automatic synchronisation with iPodder and WMP
iPodder adds your podcasts to Windows Media Player but, because of the way the MP3 meta tags are (mis-)handled by many podcast creators, this doesn't work as effectively as it should. Here's a workaround which will let you create a podcast Auto Playlist and synchronise that playlist with your portable media player. (Click the images to see full-size screenshots.)
- In WMP, open the Library, right-click Auto Playlist and choose New from the pop-up menu. The New Auto Playlist dialog will be displayed. Type Podcasts in the Auto Playlist Name box.
- In the Music In My Library section, click the plus sign, choose More from the dropdown list and then select File Name, and click OK. Type in the name of your Podcast folder (or open the Podcasts folder and then simply copy and paste it the pathname from the folder's Address Bar).
- That's all you need to do to add your podcasts to a WMP Auto Playlist automatically. But if you want to sync them with a portable media player, you'll need to limit the number of episodes you sync, or things will soon get out of hand. So, while still in the New Auto Playlist dialog, in the Music In My Library section, add an additional criterion by clicking Click Here To Add Criteria, select Date Added To Library, and set the Is After period to Yesterday. Then click OK.
- To set this Auto Playlist to synchronise with your portable media player, right-click the Podcasts playlist and choose Add To Sync List from the pop-up menu.
| podcast links |
Podcasts
Podcasting directories
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© 2005 Rose Vines
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