I love podcasts. Not a day goes by that you won't catch me listening to a favourite episode on the commute to and from work. Podcasts make me smarter, they make me laugh, and some podcasts have even made me cry. And the most shocking thing about podcasts? They're free! Some of the best entertainment and journalism in the world is free for the taking, instantly available, and ready to take on the go.
Why is it, then, that so many people are still in the dark when it comes to podcasts? What kind of world are we living in where our current Twitter hysteria has reached the likes of Regis Philbin and Oprah, but a technology like podcasting that can deliver university lectures to anyone with an internet connection still can't break through to the mainstream? It's madness, I tell you.
To be fair, part of the problem is that podcast nerds like myself don't do enough evangelism around podcasts. So, to get the ball rolling and help demystify things, I've created this video and slideshow tutorial on the basics of subscribing to podcasts in iTunes. Just like how-to on iTunes playlists, the material here may be second-nature to many of you, but I'll wager that there's someone in your life who could use a little Podcast 101.
With thousands of podcasts available on the internet — CNET Australia's can be found here — there really is something out there for everyone. Maybe all that's needed is a little push.
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Browsing podcasts in iTunes
If you're new to the idea of podcasts, or never quite got the hang of them, there's never been a better time to get started. Podcasts are free audio and video broadcasts that you can download from the internet and enjoy on your computer or MP3 player.
Regardless of your skill level, one of the best tools for enjoying podcasts is something you're probably already familiar with: Apple's iTunes software. iTunes makes it easy to browse and download thousands of podcasts, ranging from world news reports to fly fishing tutorials.
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Sorting through podcasts
Once you're in the iTunes Store podcast directory, you can browse for podcasts by name, category, publisher, topic or popularity, or sort out video podcasts from audio podcasts. If you plan on taking your podcasts on an older iPod that lacks video capabilities, you may want to restrict yourself to audio directory.
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Podcast pages in iTunes
Once you've landed on a specific page for a podcast, you'll see a list of recent episodes that you can download individually. The real appealing part of podcasts, though, is the "subscribe" button at the centre of the page. By subscribing to a podcast, you're giving iTunes instructions to look for new episodes of this podcast every time you run iTunes and to download the episodes to your computer automatically.
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Getting around the iTunes podcast library
Once you've subscribed to a few podcasts, you'll see them downloading in your personal podcast library. On the left you'll see little triangles that you can toggle to view the episode list for a given podcast. By default, iTunes will only download the latest episode, but you can use the "Get" button next to each show's title to download extra episodes individually. The "Get all" button downloads all of the podcast's available episodes to your library in one hit.
The "Subscribe" buttons next to the "Crave, Soup" and "Tekzilla" podcasts in this example indicate podcast feeds that have either expired (because we neglected to watch them) or were manually unsubscribed from. Pressing the Subscribe button instantly renews the subscription.
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Podcast info
An info button in the far right column of the iTunes podcast library offers a little summary of what each episode is about.
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Podcast library buttons
On the bottom edge of the iTunes podcast library you'll find all sorts of useful buttons. The Unsubscribe button on the left cancels individual podcast subscriptions.
A Refresh button on the right side manually checks for new podcast episodes to download. Next to that you've got a quick link to the iTunes podcast directory, which is useful when you get the itch to add some extra subscriptions to your library.
Finally, the Settings button helps you dial in your subscription preferences.
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Podcast settings
Clicking on the Settings button in your podcast library takes you to a pop-up box with subscription preferences. Here you can specify when iTunes should check for new podcast episodes, how many recent episodes it should download, and how many episodes to keep on hand.
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Breaking away from default settings
By unchecking the box marked "Use Default Settings" you can assign unique settings for individual podcasts. This comes in handy for reigning in lengthy downloads of multiple video podcasts or for telling iTunes to keep all the episodes of your favourite podcast.
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Adding podcasts to iTunes manually
As one of the largest repositories of podcasts on the web, there aren't a whole lot of podcasts you won't find on iTunes. That said, you can add podcast feeds to iTunes manually if you need to. To do this, first copy the URL for the podcast feed you want to add.
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Manual subscriptions
To manually add a podcast feed into iTunes, click the "Subscribe to Podcast" selection under the Advanced menu.
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Pasting the podcast feed manually
Next paste the URL for the podcast feed into the "Subscribe to Podcast" pop-up box. After you hit OK, the podcast should immediately appear in your iTunes podcast library.
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Your iPod's podcast tab
To get your podcasts onto your iPod, connect it to your computer and in the iPod summary window, you should see a tab for podcasts.
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Selecting specific podcasts
You can select individual podcasts to sync from your collection or just transfer them all. You can also tweak how many episodes of each podcast get transferred at a time.
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Podcasts on your iPod
After you hit the Apply button, your podcasts will sync over to your iPod and you can play episodes right from the podcast menu.
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