Podcasting

''Want to listen to your favorite radio shows and audio and video programs anytime? Just subscribe to the podcasts you want and iTunes takes care of the rest. Updates occur automatically. New episodes appear like magic. Podcasts sync to your iPod as soon as you dock it. Fast. Easy. Free.'' (Actual advertising text from the Apple website - sounds good, doesn’t it?)

 We get quite a few emails asking what podcasting is and how they can use it.

It strikes me kind of funny that people are not really sure what podcasting is, but they want to use it. Welcome to the iPod craze! (If you don’t know what an iPod is, you should put down this news journal and turn on the TV, go for a walk, read the paper, or do any activity outside your house and you will start noticing little white boxes with wires attached to people’s heads...those are iPods - sarcasm intended. Click here for a picture.)

What Is Podcasting?

Podcasting is a relatively new technology that allows people to subscribe to audio or video content over the Internet. Now, instead of having to visit our website each and every week to listen to the radio broadcast, you simply open iTunes (or your favorite podcast software) and it will automatically download your podcast subscriptions. These audio files can then be transferred to your iPod (or your favorite MP3 player) so you can listen to them anywhere - at home, in the car, at the office, or while you play.

Podcasting is a lot like broadcasting in that a program is created for an audience. The difference is that broadcasting is generally done for a wide audience to tune in (through television, radio, or Internet radio) while podcasting is generally designed to target a specific niche. Podcasts require you to sign up or request the information. No more “I missed that show” or “they moved Chuck to a different time slot.” Now you can listen to our 66/40 broadcast anytime and anywhere.

How Do I Use It?

First, you must subscribe to the podcast. This tells your podcast software where to find the audio files. If you are using iTunes, you subscribe by clicking on the “Advanced” tab, and then choosing “Subscribe to Podcast.” You will then enter the URL provided by the content provider.

For example, to subscribe to the 66/40 broadcast, you would enter http://www.khouse.org/6640_podcast/feed.xml (this information is provided on the page where the audio content is available; e.g., on our website you’ll find the URL for 66/40 at ''radio shows'' and the URL for our weekly Bible study and world update at ''Berean Online Fellowship,'' etc.).

There are thousands of other podcasts available. News, politics, comedy, sports, music and many other genres are available.

To browse through them, open iTunes, click on “Music Store” (left-hand side, in your playlists). After connecting to the iTunes music store, click on Podcasts (left-hand side) and you can either browse or search through thousands of podcasts.

Subscribe to as many as you like, but be careful - those files will be automatically downloaded to your PC every time a new episode is posted. Depending on the number of subscriptions you have, the download time and hard drive space required could increase dramatically.

Why MP3?

MP3 is a file-compression technology that has emerged as the most popular format for audio files and has the most support in both software and hardware. Since 1999 we have been creating our products in MP3 format.

This has been a huge success - allowing people from around the world to purchase or download our materials at a reasonable cost (much less than tapes or CDs).

In the past, international shipping charges would double the cost of a product - so downloads have allowed us to reach a much larger audience than before. Praise God!

As technology advances, we are eager to exploit it for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Stay tuned and keep an eye on our website for new ways we are using technology to make disciples.

I’ll let you in on a back-room secret: We are currently working on getting all of our notes files ''PDA Friendly.'' In the near future, you will be able to download the notes and MP3 files onto your PDA.

If you are not yet taking advantage of these new technologies, we encourage you to do so. It is easier than you think, and we are here to help if you have any problems.