smerickson.com the personal website of steven m. erickson

Technology Tuesday: Podcasting

Last time, I discussed the importance of RSS. There is one special use of RSS that deserves attention. It is called Podcasting. Podcasting uses RSS to send audio content. So instead of subscribing to a feed and receiving text, you receive an MP3 file. The nice thing about podcasting is that it goes one step furuther than just delivering the audio file. Most all podcast programs will also add the downloading audio file to your iTunes library so that the next time you sync your iPod (or other mp3 player) you will receive the new audio file.

Here is an example of how I find this to be really helpful. Each day I spend about 1.5 hours in the car driving to and from work and school. What I do to use that time wisely is to subscribe to the Albert Mohler Program and to Desiring God Radio and a few technology shows. By subscribing to these podcasts, I always have the latest shows on my iPod, ready to be enjoyed as I drive around. The best part is that it requires no work on my part to get the updated program! All I have to do is sync my iPod as I normally would and I receive the current file. I don’t have to go to the website, manually download the file and then add it to my iPod.

Recently Apple added this feature to iTunes which makes subscribing to podcasts very easy (link to apple.com). All you have to do is add the feed to your library and iTunes will do the work of downloading the updated files and syncing them to your iPod. Another new product out there is a web app called Odeo.com. If you listen to audio content on the web and have an mp3 player, podcasting is very helpful.