Archive for the 'Information' Category

At first it’s amazing that a huge corporation like Apple could ignore Podcasts for so long. Then it’s amazing that a huge company like Apple could take any notice of Podcasts at all. It’s even more amazing that Apple should integrate Podcasts in such a way that they do not seem like poor cousins to their on-line musical purchase cousins. Are you listening Microsoft?

iTunes is currently in it’s 6th revision and has supported Podcasts since version 4.9. Wow you might think that a long time, but Apple has gone from version 4.9 to 6 pretty quickly, in a couple of months in fact.

So iTunes, why should I use it and what does it give me that other Podcast clients don’t. Well let me say that firstly, if you are a current iTunes user and in fact download your music to your iPod, then iTunes is a natural choice. It becomes a natural extension to the existing iTunes functionality and therefore adopting iTunes as your Podcast client seems like second nature.

Upon launching iTunes, you will be presented with the usual starting screen, but when you look at the options on the left hand side you will notice a new Podcast option. When you select this for the first time you get the following warning:

Make sure you select the “Do not show this message again” checkbox before you press the OK button, so this message does not appear any more. You will now notice a “Podcast Directory” option towards the bottom centre of the screen. You will now be taken to the usual music store, but the difference is, instead of purchasing music, you are subscribing to Podcasts.

Just browse the music store, looking for Podcasts. When you find a Podcast that looks interesing, click on it to get more information . You can then select single episodes to download or subscribe to the feed, which will appear in your Podcast directory. You may also notice that Podcast websites you visit have the iTunes subscribe button . You can just click on this and the feed will automatically be added to your iTunes directory.

You can pick up iTunes from here. Please be aware that it’s a pretty hefty download as it also now comes with Quicktime, but it’s worth having. You can download version of iTunes for the PC and Apple Mac. Shame here’s no Linux version, but I suppose that is a little too much to ask.

One of the major things that put’s people off investigating Podcasts, is the word ‘Subscribe’. Firstly let me put this one to bed, with haste. 99.9% of Podcasts, out there are free. That’s not to say that no money ever change hands. Please realise that although it takes very little equipment to start a Podcast, there’s lots of equipment and software that can aid greatly in recording, editing and publishing Podcasts. All off this stuff costs money and someone has to pay it. We’re fortunate that Podcasters give of their money and more importantly their time. So if they have a donate button, please think about how much you enjoy a particular podcast and consider making a contribution. Remember, every little helps.

In the mean time, feel free to subscribe to as many podcasts as you want, there’s no hidden costs involved.