Podcatchers
To listen to a podcast, any podcast, you generally use what is called a ‘podcatcher’. A podcatcher is an application that is installed on your computer that downloads and/or collects podcast shows from feeds that you enter.
What is a feed?
A feed is simply a strip down version of the content of a website, bundled into format called XML. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a certain type of XML file that is generally associated with blogs or podcasts. These are added to RSS Readers or Podcatchers so the content you are ’subscribed’ to is automatically updated at a scheduled time and you get new articles or shows as soon as they are added.
Online Podcatchers
As well as installing a podcatcher on your computer there are online podcatchers that aggregate all your favourite shows onto one website. This means you don’t have to have a podcatcher installed on your computer but means you will need a browser window open to listen to them.
The main two online podcatching sites are:
Which is the best podcatcher?
There are lots of podcatchers out there and they all do the same jobs (mainly).
- Grab feeds
- Download the attached media files
- Move files to mp3 player
Personally i use iTunes as i use it for all my music, but it is quite basic and simple for podcatching. If that is what you want try it out. Why not have a look at some of the other podcatchers around though, there are some very good ones about with all different features.
Did you know?
‘Pod’ is an acronym for ‘Portable on Demand’.
Recommended Podcatchers
- iTunes - OSX/XP
- Juice - OSX/XP
- Doppler - XP/PocketPC/Smartphone/iPhone/iPod Touch
- Nimiq - XP
- gPodder - Linux/FreeBSD
- jPodder - XP/Linux