Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Download iTunes for free
I received an email yesterday that asked for clarification on podcasts and subscribing.
Forgive me: I know this will be longer than my usual post. But I feel that if one person is confused, there may be more! And honestly, most blog sites (like mine) have little orange buttons that say "XML" or "RSS" or "Syndicate this Site" or "Subscribe!"....but we never actually describe why you should...or even how!
No features, no benefits! That's not helpful! Shame on me!
To clarify: you can listen to any of my PowerPoint podcasts right now. For free. All you need is a computer that plays mp3 files. (Basically, a soundcard and speakers, and free software like Real Player or Quicktime or any other audio player you might have.)
Nothin' fancy about listening to a podcast. Click on a link that leads to an mp3 file, then press play. Pretty simple.
Subscribing is something different. You can also subscribe to my podcast or blog right now...for free.
There are many sites that tell you "how" to subscribe, but they don't tell you "why". I'm going to (try) do both, and I'm going to (try) to be as brief as possible!
"Why" Subscribe. Subscribing is a big time saver. Subscribing means that you don't have to physically come to your favorite blog or news site every day to see if there is something new. If you're a subscriber, you check your podcatcher or feedreader, and quickly scan your headlines to see if there's something new.
Subscribing is also wonderful because it's PRIVATE. When you subscribe to my blog or podcast (or anyone elses!), you don't have to give out any information to me, like your name or email address. It's push v. pull: with an email newsletter, I'd be pushing content at you, whenever I felt like it. With a blog and feedreader (or podcast and podcatcher), you're pulling content...so you get new stuff when (and if) YOU want it. You can feel more secure, because I don't have any of your private info to potentially add to the spam problem. (Not that I would!)
"How" to Subscribe (written content) There are tons of feedreaders (or feed aggregators) out there that let you subscribe to blogs or podcasts: if you have a My Yahoo! or My MSN account, for example, you can subscribe to feeds and see their headlines whenever you log in to these accounts. Other feedreaders include Bloglines and Newsgator (this isn't an all inclusive list...just two of the most popular.) Get a free account at any one of these sites, then start subscribing to blogs that you like.
"How" to Subscribe (audio AND written content). And if you want to subscribe so that you can both read articles AND listen to podcast content, you'll need a special kind of feedreader called a podcatcher. Popular podcatchers include iPodder, Doppler Radio, Nimiq, Odeo ...and the recent addition of the very popular iTunes.
I think the part where my would-be subscriber got a little mixed-up (and I totally understand why -- it's not like all this is patently straightforward!) is that he believed that you have to PAY to use iTunes to listen to my content.
Let's clear that one up right away! You don't have to pay anything to listen or subscribe to my podcasts with iTunes! It's free, free, free!
iTunes is a free podcast aggregator, with a nice, easy to use interface. If you want to subscribe using iTunes (for free!), here's how:
I received an email yesterday that asked for clarification on podcasts and subscribing.
Forgive me: I know this will be longer than my usual post. But I feel that if one person is confused, there may be more! And honestly, most blog sites (like mine) have little orange buttons that say "XML" or "RSS" or "Syndicate this Site" or "Subscribe!"....but we never actually describe why you should...or even how!
No features, no benefits! That's not helpful! Shame on me!
To clarify: you can listen to any of my PowerPoint podcasts right now. For free. All you need is a computer that plays mp3 files. (Basically, a soundcard and speakers, and free software like Real Player or Quicktime or any other audio player you might have.)
Nothin' fancy about listening to a podcast. Click on a link that leads to an mp3 file, then press play. Pretty simple.
Subscribing is something different. You can also subscribe to my podcast or blog right now...for free.
There are many sites that tell you "how" to subscribe, but they don't tell you "why". I'm going to (try) do both, and I'm going to (try) to be as brief as possible!
"Why" Subscribe. Subscribing is a big time saver. Subscribing means that you don't have to physically come to your favorite blog or news site every day to see if there is something new. If you're a subscriber, you check your podcatcher or feedreader, and quickly scan your headlines to see if there's something new.
Subscribing is also wonderful because it's PRIVATE. When you subscribe to my blog or podcast (or anyone elses!), you don't have to give out any information to me, like your name or email address. It's push v. pull: with an email newsletter, I'd be pushing content at you, whenever I felt like it. With a blog and feedreader (or podcast and podcatcher), you're pulling content...so you get new stuff when (and if) YOU want it. You can feel more secure, because I don't have any of your private info to potentially add to the spam problem. (Not that I would!)
"How" to Subscribe (written content) There are tons of feedreaders (or feed aggregators) out there that let you subscribe to blogs or podcasts: if you have a My Yahoo! or My MSN account, for example, you can subscribe to feeds and see their headlines whenever you log in to these accounts. Other feedreaders include Bloglines and Newsgator (this isn't an all inclusive list...just two of the most popular.) Get a free account at any one of these sites, then start subscribing to blogs that you like.
"How" to Subscribe (audio AND written content). And if you want to subscribe so that you can both read articles AND listen to podcast content, you'll need a special kind of feedreader called a podcatcher. Popular podcatchers include iPodder, Doppler Radio, Nimiq, Odeo ...and the recent addition of the very popular iTunes.
I think the part where my would-be subscriber got a little mixed-up (and I totally understand why -- it's not like all this is patently straightforward!) is that he believed that you have to PAY to use iTunes to listen to my content.
Let's clear that one up right away! You don't have to pay anything to listen or subscribe to my podcasts with iTunes! It's free, free, free!
iTunes is a free podcast aggregator, with a nice, easy to use interface. If you want to subscribe using iTunes (for free!), here's how:
- Download iTunes - Version 4.9 .
- Install it.
- In the "Advanced" menu, click on “Subscribe to Podcast…”
- Enter the feed URL for your favorite blog(s) or podcast(s). For example, the feed for this blog is - http://feeds.feedburner.com/Maniactive . Cut, copy, and paste it in!
- Press Okay.
- Double-click on the episode you want to hear. (It might take a minute or so for iTunes to slurp down the content).
It's free, and it's pretty easy! And it opens a world of free audio content for you to enjoy. And it's not just *my* blog that's free: there are tens of thousands of sites with free content to explore.
And if you're a parent or teacher, you're pretty much honor-bound to give this podcasting thing a whirl. You've got to have at least a basic understanding of what your kids might be listening to (it's not all G-Rated!)
The added bonus of using a podcatcher like iTunes or iPodder is that if you or your kids have a portable mp3 player (like an iPod or iRiver or Shuffle or what have you...), you can set your podcatcher to automatically load it up with fresh content...perfect to listen to while you're on the go...on your commute to work, or while you're on the treadmill...
Enjoy it! Hope this clears things up a little. Let me know if you have further questions...
¶ 8/17/2005 01:21:00 PM
