Wonderful world of podcasts
Posted on December 6, 2006, 5:41 pm by cipher27 under Software & ToolsA podcast is an audio file provided on the Internet for offline playback on MP3 players,PDA's & computers. The term "Podcast" was first used in 2004 in an article for The Guardian. The old timers among us might remember the time when Portable radios and transistors were toted about and listened to the Podcast revolution is bringing back those nostalgic times.The success of the iPod and MP3 players in general naturally lead to the birth of podcasts. A Google search for podcast gives about 126,000,000 which should give you an indication about its popularity. Increasingly podcasts have become the preferred method of sharing information on the Net. The phenomenal growth of podcasts can be attributed to the resurgence of radio on the net. Streaming news stations and entertainment stations have obtained a strong foothold on the Internet and have lead to to the popularity of podcasts.
Podcasts are usually encoded in MP3 format and are available as subscriptions. Most sites syndicate their content thru RSS format . The new Segment of the program can be set to automatically download to the media player or the computer using various freely available software. Some sites do not allow download of their content but instead stream their shows. Another new trend that had grown out of the popularity of podcasts are vid-casts and screen-casts, video shows and screen captures that can be downloaded and viewed on the Portable media players.
The advantage of podcasts is that you can carry them any where since it is nothing but an recorded audio program which can be downloaded and listened to, you don't need a net connection or a special radio to listen to podcasts once you subscribe to the service and download the audio file on to an MP3 player or burn it onto a CD you can carry it anywhere and listen to it at your leisure.
Finding Podcasts
If you own an iPod then you need to look no further then the iTunes music store.The iTunes music store lists both free and commercial podcasts on their podcast section and allows you to easily subscribe, download and listen to Podcasts in a simple user friendly interface.
Do not despair if you don't have an iPod if you have an MP3 player or even a CD player you can still listen to podcasts using free and open source software tools. several sites also
cater to the growing podcast community by providing podcast directories that can be used to find the kind of podcast you want.Podcasts can be available on virtually any topic for e.g. podcast to learn math or a foreign language or Better parenting are some of the topics available.
Juice the open source podcast software allows you to subscribe to podcasts and download episodes directly onto the MP3 player.
iTunes can be downloaded at here.
Juice Podcast software can be downloaded here.
A list of podcast directories is given below
Yahoo podcasts
Podcast.net
Podcast resources at iTunes
Podcast alley
Ipodder.org
NPR podcast directory
Happy Listening!!!
