Freeloader Friday Download of the Week

Get in on Podcasting!

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by "DigitalBill" Douthett and "MisterMarc" Asturias, The Wizards of Technology

The last couple months have seen a lot of buzz generated over a new trend in communicating on the internet, called PodCasting. You may have heard some geeks talking about it. The New York Times has even written an article on it. But what is this internet phenom (besides a word that rhymes with 'broadcasting')?

Essentially, podcasting is a new way to combine RSS and MP3 files with iTunes and a little program in the middle to bring you fresh new content every time you sync your iPod. This new media was cooked up by none other than Userland Frontier's Dave Winer and former MTV VJ and internet entrepreneur Adam Curry. It's not hard to podcast - basically all you need is a Mac and a mic. But this week we'll focus on the receiving end of the process, which some are calling "podcatching".

(In case you're wondering how this is FREEloader Friday... all the content we're about to go after is... FREE!)

For example, we do a weekly show, in MP3, and upload it to the website. Of course you could click on a link on the website and listen to it in your browser, or download it manually. But, we use Macs. We like our Macs to do stuff for us. So, to really take advantage of Podcasting, get yourself one of the iPodder clients linked below (for Mac, but also for Windows and Linux), and add in some of the RSS feeds below for the Podcast. Then, when we publish a new show, your iPodder Client will automatically download the MP3 and add it to your iTunes in its own playlist, so you will have it ready in your iPod the next morning. (If you don't have an iPod, why not? But of course you can listen in iTunes too!)

The iPodder clients are what does the heavy lifting here. An iPodder is an RSS Reader that's media-saavy. There are a lot of iPodder Clients popping up. In fact, even though this is only about a 2-month old technology, some of the clients are already at version 2.0. They're evolving very quickly. And thet're not limited to MP3 files, by the way -- it can also get any kind of media file in the RSS embed tag: QuickTime, MPEG, even BitTorrents!

We know. You're asking, "Wizards, now that I am interested, how do I find podcasts?" Well, besides finding them on your favorite websites or at the other sites in this article, there are a few websites that list popular podcasts for you to peruse at your leisure. And soon, you'll see podcast directories built-in to iPodder applications, just the way RSS feed listings are built into newsreaders (more on that in a second). You can find everything from talk to music and everything in between. A great place to start is iPodder.org's original directory of podcasts at http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/podcasts, then head over to http://audio.weblogs.com/ where you can check out the hundred most recent podcasts and listen to them without having to subscribe. There's also a growing directory at http://www.podcast.net/. Subscribe, take a listen, and decide for yourself. Besides being a great forum for tech talk, political talk, and rants on every subject under the sun, indie bands have found it to be a great distribution method. Check out http:/www.indiefeed.com/. Or perhaps, you would like to hear a tech show in Spanish http://www.informediario.com/comunicando.html, or learn a little more about Krishna at http://www.dentonharekrishna.org/prabhupada-casts/.

Of course, this wouldn't be Freeloader Friday without a great Shareware program to help you find your podcasts. The Wizards are big fans of iPodderX, which can just run in the background and bring in all your podcast subscriptions. It's really easy to use. Just find an RSS feed for the podcast you'd like and copy the URL. Then open iPodderX, click the ADD button, paste in the URL, set any custom options you would like, and off you go! If you have a broadband connection, go to preferences, and tell iPodderX to Check for Updates automatically.

iPodderX Subscribe dialog
iPodderX subscription dialog
(click for full-size)

The next thing that will happen is that you will start to see playlists added to your iTunes. The playlists will be named according to the names of the Podcasts, and the shows will be in the playlists. Next time you sync your iPod, you'll have all the podcast-y goodness right there with you!

A tip from the Wizards: if you subscribe to a lot of Podcasts, you're going to end up with a lot of playlists and files... We create a "meta-playlist" that is a Smart Playlist, and adds in the names of the other podcast playlists. This lets you see all your podcast files at once.

meta-Playlist of Podcasts
Combined playlist with all podcasts
(click for full-size)

Then, if you want to know what you can delete - shows you've listened to - it's easy to create another Smart Playlist that picks out the shows with a playcount greater than 1.

podcasts to archive
Smart Playlist to find old shows
(click for full-size)

So, where is this going to go next? No one knows. But the guys over at iPodderX have an awesome idea. The next version of iPodderX will have the podcast directory built into it. We were lucky enough to get a beta of it, and it's awesome. Since the iPodder directories are in OPML, it's easy for them to add it in, plus suggest recent and favorite podcasts as well.

iPodderX 2.2 beta
iPodderX 2.2 Beta!
(click for full-size)

Here's a list of Podcasts we enjoy. Right-click or control click to copy the URL to your iPodder client.

You name it....it is all there just waiting for you! Remember, the content of these podcasts are at the discretion of their podcaster. They are free to use any language and behavior they deem fun.

If you have podcasting, or podcatching questions, we'll be happy to answer them for you. Email us at questions@wizardsoftechnology.com, and we'll try to answer it in the next show. If you're interested in making your own podcast, let Rick here at MacMerc.com know, and we can do a story on how we produce our show, and what we've learned along the way.

Links to Clients: iPodder, iPodderX, iPodder.net (Windows), Doppler (Windows), iPodder Clients at iPodder.org

About the Wizards of Technology:
"Digital Bill" Douthett and Marc "MisterMarc" Asturias are life-long technology geeks. And so they teamed up make today's complicated technology simple for non-geeks! Their website wizardsoftechnology.com, and twice-weekly podcast exist to help you understand technology... not just computers - PCs and Macs - but all kinds of technology, like cell phones, digital cameras, digital video recorders, anything you can think of... they've probably used it!
  


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