What is a podcast?
Go to podcasts
A podcast is a sound file, recorded in a compressed format called an MP3. The compressed file takes up less space on your computer and can easily be downloaded to any MP3 player or i-Pod.
What makes a podcast unusual is that not only can it be listened to on my website or downloaded to your computer, but you can subscribe to it, which means you'll automatically receive it without having to return my site to check for updates.
Subscription is free and easy. To check out my podcasts, click on the link towards the bottom of this page to see my blog. You can listen with the player provided or download it to your computer so you can hear it later.
On the right hand side of the blog page you'll see an area called Syndicate. Underneath that you'll find orange buttons, these are known as RSS icons. The orange button in the bottom of this area says "podcast RSS 2.0". If you click directly on these words you'll have the opportunity to subscribe through Live Booksmarks if you use Mozilla Firefox, or through RSS feeds if you use Internet Explorer. The entries will be saved in a folder in your bookmarks or favorites section of your browser. To listen to them you would click on the entry you want to hear and the default player on your computer will do the rest.
However, the player may ble slow to come up, especially in Internet Explorer (at least it did when I tried it. Most people subscribe through what's called a podcatcher. This is a piece of software that automatically checks for updates to subscribed podcasts and downloads them to whatever folder you set up for this.
I know some people don't like i-Tunes, but I find it very workable on my Windows Vista computer. It has a large directory of podcasts available free of charge. You DO NOT have to have an account to listen to podcasts and you can subscribe to any podcast not on i-Tunes easily.
To use i-Tunes for my podcast do this: right-click on the orange button I mentioned before. Choose "copy link location" with Firefox or "copy shortcut" with Internet Explorer.
Open i-Tunes and click on Advanced at the top of the player. Select Podcasts from the drop down menu. A window will open that says URL. Right click in the window and click Paste.
You're done. To be technical, you've pasted the RSS feed URL into the add feed window.
This is pretty much how you subscribe using other podcatchers, except you'll look for an "add feed" area to past into. There's many podcatchers out there. i can't give a blanket recommendation because the results you'll get will depend on which operating system you computer has. I just happen to find that i-Tunes works OK with Vista.
If you have any questions about this please write me at info@bobdecker.net
To hear,download or subscribe to my podcasts, click here
