iPods and The First Podcasts Articles | IPod

By: Darren Williger

Podcasts actually began when Apple came out with their iPod player. Files were created that could be distributed as MP3 files and then downloaded to the iPods. iPods were able to hold music and much more. iPods were any easy way to have the music people wanted with them all the time. They could download these files and store them on a very small player to be heard again and again. However, as people became more comfortable with using iPods, more than just songs were loaded into them, such as pictures, videos, and clips. People began using iPods as a way to hold many types of media in one player.

So, as time went on people figured out how to load different operating systems onto their iPods allowing them to use them for so much more. Now they could be used as applications and hold even more data. However, other people wanted to simply share their files and be able download other people's files. This was not a problem, since RSS feeds were already around because they were used for blogs and other text updates. The RSS feeds coding was slightly changed and what was developed were links and other data were put into them of the sound or video files. These files then could be read by the iPod and shared and downloaded by users in the same way that the RSS feeds worked with blog updates.

Conclusively, with the availability of files that could be shared and updated by RSS feeds, podcasting took off. Podcasting has now developed into a way for anyone to create comedy shows, be a dj, or even be a host of a show. New and different podcasts are created daily. From music videos to TV programs to news and radio station episodes. With so many podcasts being created, there needed to be a way for people to receive updates regularly. That is where podcast clients came in. Podcast clients have coding in them to check the RSS feeds for updates and then to automatically update them. The podcast client has all the subscription feeds that the user is subscribed to and the client continually searches for new feed updates and then automatically downloads. This eliminates the need for users to have to go through files and go to websites looking for new podcast episodes.

With so much technology, people were able to begin using other media players in the same way as the iPod. Practically any MP3 player can play podcasts, even PlayStation Portable gaming systems are able to read RSS files and play the podcasts.

iPods are of course still used for playing podcasts, however now media players are being made that can read RSS feeds and it is becoming a regular feature with these devices. Podcasting is being used for more than just media file sharing and storing and has become popular as a very quick way to deliver information from one person to another. Podcasting and blogging are becoming intertwined with each other, using the low cost of connecting and the number of people online now a days.