Podcasting How-To

1. What is podcasting? Actually, it's something of a misnomer. Originally a mixture of "iPod" and "broadcasting" that defined an Internet-based broadcast of music and/or news updated regularly for listeners, the term now refers to any radio-type audio file on the Web that you can download and listen to at your convenience — on any mp3 device/player, not just an iPod.

2. How do I listen? First, you have to get the file. You can download it yourself on the page for each podcast and then open the file in your favorite mp3 player. We suggest iTunes for Macintosh and Windows computers, though there are plenty of other good programs out there.

3. How do I subscribe? To automatically download all news-gazette.com podcasts, click the "Subscribe to" link on an show or episode's page and then copy the text from your browser's address bar (the "http://www...." stuff) while ignoring the technical gibberish underneath. Paste that text into the "subscribe" option in your podcasting program of choice (in iTunes this is under "Advanced" then "Subscribe to Podcast...").

If clicking the "Subscribe to" link makes your browser ask you to save the file, cancel that request and then right-click (or control-click on an Apple computer) the above link, choose "copy link location" and then paste that into your podcasting program.

4. How do I go mobile? Once you've downloaded the file, you can move it to your mp3 player — such as an iPod or Creative Zen Nomad — and listen to the show on the way to work, at the gym or on a plane. Or, if you have an iPod and iTunes, you can set your iTunes preferences to check for new broadcasts as often as you'd like.