How To Subscribe To a Podcast (Without iTunes)

I'm a contributor to a couple of podcasts, and I've appeared as a guest on a couple of others. Whenever I mention that fact to most people, the first question I usually hear is:


What Is a Podcast?

A podcast is like a cross between a radio show and a blog. It's an audio program that is published over the Internet like a blog is.

There's a broad variety of kinds and formats of podcasts. Some are short, some are long. Some are daily, others are annual. Some are pre-recorded and edited, others are recorded live on-air. Some are only audio, some come with a video version.

The one thing that all podcasts have in common is the way they're distributed: through RSS.


What's RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". And it is really simple. The vast majority of blogs and other websites use RSS to publish their posts.

As a user, such as yourself, the way you use RSS is as a "web aggregator". It's a tool that allows you to bring all the new posts from your favourite websites into one place, sort of like an email inbox, that lets you  read them without having to visit each website individually.

To do that, you need an RSS reader - an application that you use to subscribe to RSS feeds, and displays them for you. Although there are a lot of RSS readers available, my favourite is Google Reader.

Just paste the address in the Subscribe box

You can subscribe to a feed in Google Reader by pasting the address of the website you want to subscribe to into the Subscribe box. Google Reader will find the feeds associated with that site, and you're away. If you are visiting a site with an RSS feed, and you see an orange RSS button somewhere on the page, clicking that button will take you straight to the feed you want, and you can just copy the address from your browser's address bar into Reader's "Subscribe" box, if you want to.

Look for the RSS logo.

You can sort your feeds into folders, and you can share the items you like directly to Google+.

(Most other feed readers work in much the same way, although not all of them are as easy to use as Google Reader)


How Do I Subscribe To Podcasts In Google Reader?

All you need to do is subscribe to the podcast's RSS feed. When the podcast's creators publish a new episode, it'll appear in your Google Reader with a little audio player box, so you can listen to it right there in your browser.

Listen in your browser or download the file.

If you prefer to download the file and listen to it later, there's a link to the original audio file right below the player box. Easy as that.


How Do I Listen To Podcasts On My Phone?

If you've got a smartphone, or other phone that allows you to play music, you probably already know how to get your music onto the phone. Podcasts are MP3 files, just like your digital music collection, so you can copy them to your phone the exact same way.

If you have an Android phone, there's an even easier way: Google Listen.

Google Listen

Listen is an app you install on your phone. It accesses your Google Account, and then creates a new folder in your Google Reader called "Listen Subscriptions". If you move one of your podcast subscriptions into that folder, Listen will automatically download new episodes and have them ready for you to listen to at your convenience.

You can easily manage how often it checks for new episodes, when it downloads them (you might want to tell it to only download via WiFi, or it'll cost you a fortune on mobile data charges), how many episodes to store on the phone and so on. It's simple, elegant and easy to use.

If you don't like Google Listen, there are plenty of other podcast apps available with more powerful tools, most of which work together with your Google Reader account.


Is That It?

Yup, that's all you need. If you have an Apple device (an iPod, iPhone or iPad) there's another way of subscribing to podcasts using iTunes. But since I don't use Apple products myself, you'll need to find instructions for that elsewhere.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcasts I contribute to, click here to add them to your Google Reader.

If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments below. I'll do my best to answer them for you.

How To Choose a Smartphone

By now you should be well aware of the benefits having a smartphone offers: the ability to be fully productive while out of the office. If you haven't already got one, buying a new smartphone can be a daunting prospect. There are so many options to choose from, which is the best one for me?

One important thing to bear in mind is that, despite what the marketing says, all smartphones do pretty much the same things:

• Internet connectivity: web, Email and instant messaging;
• Personal data: contacts, calendar, notes;
• GPS and navigation;
• Camera: stills and video;
• Media: music and videos;
• Third party applications (apps).

The differentiating factor between different smartphones is not really what they do, but rather how they do it. An important thing to remember when looking at smartphones is that they are essentially small computers. Like computers, smartphones have different operating systems.

When dealing with computers, there are only two or three different operating systems you're likely to encounter: Windows, Mac and Linux. Smartphones have a wider variety of different operating systems. I'll take a look at the most popular ones available on the South African market.

Nokia Symbian devices

Although you may not realise it, odds are you've already used a Symbian device. Most Nokia cellphones are running a version of the Symbian operating system. The middle-range Nokia phones are mostly using a version of Symbian called Series 40. High-end Nokia phones mostly use Symbian Series 60, and are classified as smartphones.

Although Symbian Series 60 (S60) has been the top selling smartphone operating system for several years, this is unfortunately no longer the case. New applications for S60 aren't being released as quickly as they once were. Choosing to go with an S60 device today means, most likely, that for at least the next two years you will be perpetually behind the times.

That said, two very good reasons to go with Symbian are:

1. Familiarity. If you're already accustomed to using a Nokia device you may prefer to go for Symbian because it will be easier to learn to use than going with an entirely new operating system. You already know your way around the menus, and are familiar with the various pop-up menus. If the thought of learning a new device from scratch makes you nervous, that's something to consider.
2. GPS. In my experience Nokia has the best native navigation application of all the mobile platforms: Ovi Maps. The maps are free and accurate, and the interface is familiar and easy to use.

(Nokia is not the only company that makes Symbian devices, but non-Nokia symbian devices are becoming more and more rare.)

BlackBerry devices

By now you've probably seen several of your friends with their shiny new BlackBerries. They're becoming increasingly popular in corporate South Africa. Although BlackBerry has, like Symbian, become somewhat dated technology, it's doing very well here for one simple reason: BlackBerry devices come with unlimited on-device data on contract. This means that all emailing, chatting and web surfing you do on the actual BlackBerry device is free.

Considering the high data charges of mobile contracts in general, this is a pretty sweet deal. A lot of people are quite happy to put up with old-fashioned technology if it means free Internet.

RIM are the only company licensed to distribute BlackBerry devices, which means that there's a nice synergy between them: once you've mastered one BlackBerry, the rest are easy to use. Although the interface isn't terribly intuitive, once you get the hang of it, it really makes sense. You'll tend to find that once someone goes BlackBerry, it's hard to get them to consider any other device.

One warning: if you're hoping to connect your BlackBerry to your work email account, you might experience some difficulty if they haven't installed the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. BlackBerry is specifically designed for that sort of thing, but it works best with that server software in place.

iPhone 4

I'm sure you've seen one of these beauties by now too. Like most Apple products, iPhones are beautifully constructed and very well designed. The interface is simple and intuitive, and despite the fact that it's a powerful computer, it doesn't overwhelm you with complexity.

The thing about iPhones is that the Apple corporation is very strict about what can and can't be done with their devices. Apple puts strict limitations on what sorts of apps you can install, and what features of the device are available to you. Some people find that comforting, as it eliminates the added complexity. Others find it limiting.

Another thing to note is that, at any given time, there's only one iPhone. At the moment it's the iPhone 4. There's no choice between different devices with different specs, and there's no way of upgrading the one you've got (as opposed to most other smartphones, which have upgradeable memory). Again, some people like the simplicity, others don't.

Android Devices

Although I've been a Symbian man for 6 years, this year I decided to try something new: I went for an Android device. And I am so glad I did. And I'm not alone, Android is currently the top-selling smartphone platform in the US.

Android is an operating system developed by Google and provided to various handset manufacturers to power their smartphone devices. These include Sony Ericsson, Motorola, HTC, LG and Samsung.

Android was designed to compete directly with iPhone, and so has a similar visual appearance. But the important difference between iPhone and Android, is that Android gives you virtually unlimited choices. Not only can you choose from a variety of handsets (each with its own customisations and feature sets: this one has a better camera, that one has a bigger screen, some have slide-out keyboards, others don't, and so on), but Google places no real limitations on what applications you can install.

In fact, Android is so open and comes with so many options that this is it's most oft-cited criticism: that all the choice it offers can be overwhelming and confusing to the first-time buyer. That's probably true, so if you're thinking of trying an Android device (and I strongly recommend it), it might be a good idea to ask a friend who already has one to help you choose the right one for you.

Another down-side to using Android (and the iPhone, to some extent) in South Africa is that not all the services on the device are available here yet. For example, the Android default navigation tool is Google Maps, which works beautifully. But unfortunately Google haven't switched on the Voice Navigation service for us here yet, which means you have to tweak it or install other software in order to get it going. These things are just a matter of time, but they can be frustrating.

Windows Phone 7 devices

These aren't as common as the others I've mentioned, but you may have come across them from time to time. This isn't the best time to be talking about Windows-based smartphones, since Microsoft have just released the latest version: Windows Phone 7, which should reach our shores any day now.

Previous Windows smartphones were designed to replicate the familiar Windows desktop environment on the phone, as well as to integrate neatly with your Windows computer. Windows Phone 7 is, by all accounts, a little different in that it's less focussed on linking up with your Windows PC, and more focussed on connecting to your Windows Live ID (Microsoft's online community service which links up to a bunch of different social networking and cloud computing services).

Like Android, Windows devices aren't limited to one manufacturer, and you're likely to find Windows Phones made by HTC, Samsung, Dell, HP and Sony Ericsson, as well as several others.


Others
You're likely to come across other smartphone platforms such as Palm's WebOS, Nokia's Maemo and Samsung's Bada. Although these are all perfectly capable in their own right, they all share a limiting factor: low adoption rates.

The more popular a platform is, the more likely it is to continue being updated, and to be supported by third-party application developers. Each has its advantages and benefits, but in general I would advise going for one of the more popular ones I've mentioned above.


If you work in or close to the corporate world, a smartphone is becoming less of a geek-toy and more of a necessity. If you're thinking about getting one, my advice would be to go for it.

When making your decision, I'd suggest whittling it down to a short-list. Some factors to consider would be:

• Camera quality: do the extra megapixels count? Do you want a front-facing camera for video-chat too?
• Interface design: touch-screen, "qwerty" keyboard, numeric keypad or some combination of these?
• Compatibility: some platforms work better with the tools you already use, like Android works best with Google Apps, iPhone works best with iTunes and Windows Phone works best with Windows Live.
• Third-party apps: developers of new apps tend to favour one or two platforms. At the moment the most popular are iPhone and Android.
• Appearance: looks matter to some people - do you need a sexy-looking iPhone or a serious-looking BlackBerry?

Once you've got your short-list, I'd recommend going down to your local cellular operator's store and trying out the demo units, just to make sure you're happy with the device you're buying. In all likelihood it'll soon become an indispensable extension of your body... best make sure you get the best one for your needs.