One Stop | Directories | Search U of M

submit feedback | contact us

Tech Talk Home>>Episodes>>Season 4>>

Podcasting

On this page:

• Guests
• For Your Files
• Links

What is a podcast? Do I need an iPod to listen to one? Is it just an expensive radio? Find out on this episode.

Guests

For Your Files

Peter Weinhold, information systems coordinator for the University of Minnesota's health science libraries, said:

"Podcasting is essentially really an extension of something that's brand new that's called RSS. RSS stands for 'really simple syndication.' RSS feeds are primarily textual in nature. They refer to an article that's been posted on a Web site, for most part. What it does is, it allows you to actually attach audio files and eventually video files to the RSS feed so that people can actually download that content. One of the things that you can do to it—which is why it's called podcasting—is you can sync it up with your iPod or other mp3 device."

Peter said iTunes, Apple's music management program, is the most seamless way to download podcasts. But you don't have to have an iPod—or even a Macintosh:

"Apple's iTunes is really the most seamless way to download a podcast and get it into the iPod. But if you're married to the Windows format, it's a little more complicated but still eminently doable. You must use something like Windows Media Player to be able to take that content and sync it up with the mp3 player. You usually need a third party piece of software like iPodder or Doppler and then you will download the RSS feed you want in that particular application. And then you'll kind of configure Windows Media Player to read in the directory where the podcasts are. You can create a list within Windows Media Player and then by means of that then sync with your mp3 player."

Peter also said you can listen to podcasts on your computer:

"The majority of podcasts—at least in audio format—are mp3. And it's like downloading any mp3 file: you can play it through your computer if you've got a media player like Windows Media Player or iTunes. You can play it directly on your computer. You don't have to push it out to a mobile device like an mp3 player."

Hope Johnson, a technology specialist at the U, said you can also use the software that downloads podcasts as a content management tool:

"One of the really nice things about podcasts is you can control how many of them you have stored on your computer. Actually, you can control how you subscribe to different podcasts under the settings, so you can tell it to check for new episodes. It also does a little content management so if you're lazy and you don't want to clean off your computer all of the time, it will go in and delete some of the played files. And in this instance we've got it set to keep only the unplayed episodes."

Hope added that there are ways to subscribe to podcasts not listed in iTunes:

"In order to get your podcast listed you have to submit it to iTunes. Other places might not list their podcast with iTunes or iPodder, so you can go to sources of information that you like to check on and see if they have a podcast available and you can actually manually subscribe to them. That really means: get the URL of the RSS feed of the podcast and just add it to your podcast list here in iTunes."

And Hope said in order to let the software know you're done with a podcast you have to:

"Sync your iPod. So if you haven't done that it won't know that it's on your iPod. And if you listen to it on your iPod, it won't know that you've listened to it in iTunes until the next time you sync."

Links

• QuickTime 7: Download the Free Player
• Audacity: The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor