What is Podcasting?

The word "podcast" is a concentration of the words iPod and broadcast. Podcasts are usually audio only, although some contain images and video. To download podcasts you need a piece of freebie software called a podcatcher, which you use to subscribe to podcasts. Once your podcatcher has details of the poscasts you're subscribing to it will automatically update them and add new broadcasts.

Unlike conventional radio, podcasts are available to play when you want to hear them, so, if the phone rings during the Archers just as Ruth's about to answer the door, you'll never have to worry if it was the yoghurt delivery man or the cheese rep. You can just resume your podcast whenever it suits you. In fact, podcatchers like iTunes will actually remember where you got to last time you listened to a podcast.

To subscribe to a podcast, either look one up in a podcast directory like iTunes, or simply paste the podcaster's syndication information into your podcatcher and your software will do the rest.

The underlying technology used for podcasts, called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), is capable of containing any type of media including audio, video, graphics and more.

Podcasting is a way of publishing podcasts to the Web, allowing people to subscribe to a podcast and receive new "episodes" automatically through an RSS feed. Podcasting consists of publishing XML files which contain references to media (called "enclosures") to a Web site. Podcast aggregators (often called "podcatchers"), then read these XML files and download all the linked enclosures.

Unlike terrestrial and Internet radio, podcasts are time-shifted, meaning that listeners have control over when and where they hear their favourite programming. And, the episodes are delivered automatically to a subscriber on iTunes so the latest updates are always readily available with no effort required by the listener.

Podcasts offer iTunes users and iPod owners the same freedom and level of control they are familiar with when listening to their own personal music collections.

How does iTunes support podcasts?

iTunes versions 4.9 and later allow people to subscribe to podcasts and automatically download new podcast episodes as they become available. Podcasts can be played within iTunes on your computer or downloaded to your iPod and listened to on the go.

iTunes also features a directory of podcasts within the iTunes Store. People can browse through thousands of podcasts by category, search, preview podcast episodes and subscribe.

Podcasters have the ability to submit their podcast for consideration to be included within the iTunes Store.

How much do podcasts cost?

All podcasts on the iTunes Store are free.

This information is from www.apple.com and is provided for information only. If you prefer not to use iTunes as your podcatcher software we recommend iPodder, which is available free at http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/download/index.php