What is Podcasting?

The fact that you're here, means that you've probably heard of podcasting... if you're looking to understand more about podcasts, how they work and even how to make your own, then we can help.

What is a Podcast?

It seems that everyone's now got an mp3 player - the most common of these is of course the Apple iPod, but there are a bunch of others, such as the Creative Zen range. As well as listening to music on the move, mp3 users are looking for something more - news, entertainment and information. It's time for "the podcast".

Podcasting is a fairly new concept in radio broadcasting. It gets its name from the iPod music player, and a podcast is basically an mp3 audio file that you can listen to online, or can be downloaded onto your PC and then synced to your portable music player or PDA. Rather than being an audio file containing a music track, the file contains a mini-radio show.

You can either download files manually, or use software such as Juice to get your favourite podcast downloaded to your PC automatically.

This site runs a podcast, focussing on UK technology including digital radio and TV. You can listen to our latest show online, or download it to your MP3 player. Need help with our podcast? See our First Time guide.

We're looking to expand this section to include more information on podcasting.... and we need some feedback from you... What would you like to know? Any questions we can answer? Please contact us if there's anything you'd like to know about podcasting, and we'll try to help...

Top Podcast? Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have teamed up with probably the funniest chap around, Mr Karl Pilkington, to put together a series of 30 minute podcasts. What's so special about three blokes sitting in a studio chatting? Just give it a listen and find out.

Each show features the three chatting about anything that take their fancy, picking through the unique mind of Karl Pilkington, Ricky's former producer at london radio station, XFM. His views include: combating overcrowding by reintroducing the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the dishwasher sent to Mars, the Fire Rescue Chimp, and musing on why you never see Chinese homeless people. Karl's diary extracts, and his failure to understand proverbs are hilarious.

We're still undecided on whether Mr Pilkington is really all that he appears to be, or whether he's another Gervais creation... Every week he comes back for more abuse... can we take this chap at little round face value? Listen in and make your mind up. The podcasts are available now directly from www.audible.co.uk/ricky. You won't be disappointed!

The first season was made available free-of-charge via Guardian Unlimited in weekly installments in late 2005/early 2006, and has has been judged by The Guinness Book of Records as the world's most popular podcast. All of Series 1,2 and 3 are available from Audible.

A 5 minute preview of the Ricky Gervais Podcast is available free to all who register at www.audible.co.uk.

FAQ

This section includes the answers to frequently-asked questions we've received...

If you've got any questions about Podcasting, please contact us and we'll try to help!