Podcasts For Beginners

Having been without the internet for some time (for nearly a year) I had become somewhat dependent upon traditional media for my technology fill. Unforunately there's not much on the television worth watching these days so now that I am back on the net I am ready to give it the boot.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with podcasting you are really missing out. I think that the best way to think of podcasting is as a virtual T.V or Radio show. Every day/week/month/year the next episode will be waiting for you to watch when you want to watch it. No more missing your favourite show because it is on while you are at work, or on at two in the morning. The other great thing about podcasts is that anyone can set them up. Although this leads to a lot of really truly awful podcasts there are some gems out there that wouldn't even be given the time of day on television.

If you are interested in learning more about podcasts I think the best thing you can do is just get on with it (using my handy guide).

Step 1. Finding a client

The first thing that you will need is some software to subscribe to your podcasts with. I would wager that the most popular of these is Apples iTunes. There are, however, plenty of other programs that you can use, for instance Yahoo! have their own in beta.

Step 2. Finding a podcast

Now that you have your software you will need to find something to watch or listen to, you can find podcasts on the Yahoo! website mentioned above, or through the iTunes music store.

Once you have found a podcast that you want to listen to you just need to hit the subscribe button and you are away. Each time a new episode of this podcast is available it will be downloaded to your computer for you to listen to or watch automatically.

As I mentioned above you will find some really good podcasts and some really terrible ones. However, since most of them are free you can afford to shop around to find something that really fits you!