Additional Podcasting Information A Podcast is a digital media file
or series of digital media files, usually audio or video, which can be
downloaded from the internet, made available through web syndication software. A podcast can be one audio or video file, but
podcasts are usually a series of audio or video files with each single media
file known as a single episode. A
podcast is different than any audio or video media file that can simply be
downloaded and used because podcasts need a special client software application,
known as “podcatchers”, in order for it to be viewed or listened to. The most popular format of a
podcast is the MP3. The MP3 is basically
an audio data file that has been compressed in order to save space on a
computer storage device. Although the
MP3 is a compressed version of an actually audio device it still maintains much
of its quality and is the most popular format for audio and music files on
computers and digital media devices. Many
podcasts are also broadcasted in other formats such as MP4 and Mpeg, which are
used for watching video podcast media files.
The word “Podcast” is derived from
Apple’s iPod (Pod standing for “portable on demand”) and the word
broadcast. Although the iPod is credited
for term “pod” in “podcast,” it was not apple that developed the term
podcast. It just happened that at the
time the term podcast was created, the iPod was and still is the most popular
portable digital media device in the world today. The term broadcast is used to signify that podcasts
are broadcasted on and made available o the web. Many people use their computers to subscribe
to podcasts and sync their media files to their iPods. Although the term podcast is derived from the
iPod, it is not necessary to use an iPod to view or listen to podcast
episodes. One can use any computer or
portable digital media player that is capable of utilizing MP3’s for audio or
whatever format the media file is in order to listen to or watch the podcast
episode. It is also possible to listen to
or watch a podcast directly from a computer with the supporting software such
as Windows Media Player, VLC player, WinAmp, QuickTime media player or any
other available computer media players. The most popular software
applications that are used for podcasts are Apple’s iTunes and Winamp. The podcatching software is designed to be
able to automatically identify and download new media files within a series at
the time new media files become available.
Users can subscribe to any media podcast available to them on the
internet such as their favorite radio talk shows or internet based video shows. New audio and media files of a particular
series are automatically downloaded to a computer if a user is already
subscribed to the podcast series. Once a
new podcast episode is downloaded, when a user connects their portable digital
audio device to their computer, the new podcasted episode is automatically synced
to their digital media device and then it can be viewed or listened to at the
desired time and place a user chooses. The
technology that supports podcasting and the automatic web syndication is through
the use of a XML technology named RSS (Really Simple Syndication). When Podcasters develop their new content they
publish their content in a XML RSS file (RSS feed). The RSS file contains all the necessary
information along with the podcast content in order for their podcast to be
automatically broadcasted by software applications such as iTunes and
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