|
  What
is a Podcast?
From
Wikipedia... A podcast is a digital media file, or
a series of such files, that is distributed over the
Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable
media players and personal computers. A podcast is a
specific type of webcast which, like 'radio', can mean
either the content itself or the method by which it is
syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host
or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term
"podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's portable
music player, the iPod, and broadcast[1]; a "pod" refers to
a container of some sort, and "cast" to the idea of
broadcasting.
Download Free Podcast Software:
iTunes
•
Juice •
Doppler
Think of a podcast as a collection of files (usually audio
and video) residing at a unique web feed address. People can
"subscribe" to this feed by submitting the feed address to
an aggregator (like iTunes - software that runs on the
consumer's computer). When new "episodes" become available
in the podcast they will be automatically downloaded to that
user's computer. Unlike radio or streaming content on the
web, podcasts are not real-time. The material is
pre-recorded and users can check out the material at their
leisure, offline.
|
|
Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download
or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished
from other digital media formats by its ability to be
syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically,
using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed
formats such as RSS or Atom.
|
An
orange square with waves indicates that an RSS feed is
present on a web page. This icon was introduced by Mozilla
Firefox and by mutual agreement the same icon has also been
adopted by Microsoft Internet Explorer and Opera. The feed
which the icons represents can contain links to podcast
episodes.