Mac Geeks

Some guys asked me how to subscribe to the new MacGeeks Podcast. I think it’s time for a little explanation how Podcasting works.

In fact Podcasts are normal RSS feeds as the text entries in a blog. The RSS feed is provided by a XML file which lists all postings in a structured manner. The only things special on Podcasts is that the entries (called episodes in Podcasts) are not of type text but instead are audio entries. The content is not directly embedded inside the XML file (as text entries are) but is linked from the XML file to an URI.

Because of that special content you don’t subscribe to Podcasts with your normal feed reader (like NetNewsWire, Vienna or Google Reader). You MacOS X has the right software for podcasts already preinstalled: iTunes.

You can simply subscribe to Podcasts with iTunes by clicking “Advanced -> Subscribe to podcast…” in the menu bar.

A new Window will open to let you type in the URL of the Podcasts RSS-XML-File. For our new MacGeeks Podcast this is: http://www.mac-geeks.de/wp-content/podcasts/podcast.xml .

The newly subscribed Podcast will appear in the list of available Podcasts.

iTunes will fetch the RSS-Feed-File and instantly try to load all not already fetched Episodes. It will also regularly reload the Podcast URL to look for new episodes.

Technorati Tags: iTunes, MacGeeks, MacOS X, podcast