Podcasting

iTunes offers the ability to create "Smart Playlists" which can be used to control which podcasts are in the playlist using multiple criteria such as date, number of times listened, type, etc. It is also possible to set up iTunes so that only certain playlists will be synced with the iPod. By using a combination of the two techniques it is possible to control exactly which music and/or podcasts will be transferred to the iPod. The illustration to the right shows one such "Smart playlist" which ensures that only the latest unlistened podcasts will be in the smart playlist. Any podcast which is more that two weeks old is not included, nor is any podcast that the iPod user has already listened to. This smart playlist is synced with the iPod every time the iPod is plugged into the PC, ensuring that the user does not have to listen to the same show more than once. Once a podcast has been listened to, it will be removed from this list as soon as the iPod is synced with the PC. There are many criteria which can control what goes in a smart playlist, such as "name," "artist," "category," "grouping," "kind," "last played," "play count," "rating," "last skipped," and "playlist" and these can be combined with functions such as "equals," "is greater than," "is less than," "contains," "is true," "is false," "is," "is not," "does not contain," "starts with," "ends with," "is in the range," "is before," and "is after". As a result, it is possible to control exactly which podcasts are transferred to the iPod

For example, a user may only want news programs less than 24 hours old, unlistened science programs less than one month old, and all Spanish lessons that he/she has yet listened to less than three times. By using smart playlists, she/he can ensure that these rules will be followed. The user would set up four smart playlists. The first smart playlist containing news podcasts downloaded in the last 24 hours, the second containing the science podcasts which are unlistened and less than one month old, and a third smart playlist containing Spanish lessons which have been listened less than three times, and a fourth smart playlist which contains the contents of the first three. The fourth smart playlist is the one which would be synced with the iPod. Obviously the fourth playlist may contain many other play lists as well as the ones described above.

A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of Webcast which, like 'radio', can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast: "pod" refers to the iPod, and "cast" to the idea of broadcasting.

In other words, a podcast is a collection of files (usually audio but may include video) residing at a unique web feed address. People can "subscribe" to this feed by submitting the feed address to an aggregator (like iTunes - software that runs on the consumer's computer). When new "episodes" become available in the podcast they will be automatically downloaded to that user's computer. Unlike radio or streaming content on the web, podcasts are not real-time. The material is pre-recorded and users can check out the material at their leisure, even offline.

Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

Certain podcasts can even be live and interactive. Dozens of podcast enthusiasts can be on at once, with the "host" being able to control their audience in the same way a radio host can.

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