An introduction to Audio Podcast
An audio podcast
refers to a single audio file or a set of
audio files that have been merged in one.
These files are then converted into MP3 format
to reduce their size and put up on the internet
for other users to download. The audio podcast
can be downloaded through a special kind of
file known as the RSS feed which updates the
podcast automatically when it sees new content.
Audio podcasts are in the form of audio books
and even speeches and sermons. You can simply
listen to the audio podcast directly on the
internet or you can download the file to your
computer or a media device to be listened
whenever you want to.
Audio podcasts are created with special type
of software that are capable of merging all
the audio files as well as converting them
into MP3 format so that the file size is considerably
reduced without sacrificing on quality. Audio
podcasts are freely available on sites like
NASA. NASA distributes audio books free of
cost and anyone having an internet connection
can listen to them. The audio podcasts are
categorized so that it becomes easy to search
for them. The latest audio books are normally
posted on the website.
Like NASA there are thousands of podcast directories
on the internet from where you can download
audio podcasts. You can even search for and
listen to audio podcasts through the web directories.
There are some directory sites that keep track
of the podcasts that you have already listened
to or downloaded. There are other useful features
as well such as browsing by date, author,
country, etc.
You can subscribe to your favourite audio podcasts
by using a podcast client program. A podcast
client program automatically synchronizes
itself with the web server and downloads only
the latest content from the web server. It
checks for new content every 2 hours and then
if it finds any new content updated on the
site, it automatically downloads the new audio
podcast on the PC or the portable media device.
A very popular audio podcast client is Apple
iTunes. iTunes will automatable download audio
content for you and you can listen to it as
and when you want. You can simply add the
RSS feed URL of the site from where the client
will download the audio file. Just entering
the iTunes link will suffice. You can simply
click on the Subscribe button. |
