Let’s take a look at the installation and use of gpodder, so you can better organize your podcasts.

Features

In case you’re wondering, gpodder has a nice listing of features:

• iPod, MP3 player and mobile phone support
• RSS, Atom, YouTube and Soundcloud feeds
• Easy to use interface
• gpodder.net integration.
• GUI and command line interface
• Open Source and Free Software (GPL v3 or later)

Installation

Gpodder will be found on nearly every Linux distribution and can be found on the standard repositories. Because of this, gpodder is as simple to install as:

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software tool (such as Synaptic).
2. Search for “gpodder” (no quotes).
3. Mark gpodder for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

Once installed, you will find the gpodder application in Applications > Sound & Video.

First run

Figure 1

Upon first running gpodder you will be greeted by a welcome screen where you can do one of two things: Select from a sample list of podcasts or download your subscriptions from gpodder.net. In order to download subscriptions from gpodder.net you have to have an account (it’s free). If you don’t already have a gpodder.net account, don’t worry, you can add that account to gpodder later. So, if you are without an account, just click “Choose from list of sample podcasts”. Once you click that button you will be presented with a short list of sample podcasts (see Figure 1). After you select the samples, click Add and the podcasts you selected will be added.

Once you are in gpodder, and you have your gpodder.net account, you can click on Podcasts > Preferences and then, in the gpodder.net tab, enter your account information.

Once you have gpodder associated with your account, you will need to have podcasts added to your account (through the gpodder.net site).

Figure 2

Of course you can also add podcasts via URL. To do this you must first locate the url of the podcast you want to add. Say you want to add ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption. For that the url would be http://espn.go.com/espnradio/feeds/rss/podcast.xml?id=2406595. To add that url click Subscriptions > Add podcast via url. When the new window opens, paste the url into the text area and click Add. If there are any new podcasts you will be prompted for downloading. As you can see, in Figure 2, your podcasts are a conveniently listed and dated so you can listed to them accordingly.

To listen to a podcast select the podcast and then click Play. The default mp3 player will open to play your podcast.

Final thoughts

Yes, you can play podcasts through numerous different applications, but gpodder is one of the best of the single-minded applications available.

Feed Flipper has been designed by Adam Schlitt to overcome this problem. It can convert any iTunes podcasts into a valid RSS feed that can be integrated into any feed reader or podcast viewer. Best of all – at least for most users – is the fact that Feed Flipper is an online service which means it will work with all operating systems and web browsers.

The basic principle is the following: Feed Flipper uses a base url and several parameters to turn an iTunes podcast into RSS feed. Here is the developer’s description of the options:

Creating your Feed Flipper RSS URL is easy! To start, copy the base URL:

* http://picklemonkey.net/flipper/convert.php?
Next, add your feed and any desired options to the end of it:

* &feed=URL – Your iTunes podcast URL
* &return=count – Sets the number of articles to display. (0 for all). If omitted, 20 is assumed default.
* &sender=text – Sets the sender of each RSS item to the specified text
* &senderprefix=text – Begin the sender of each RSS item with the specified text
* &subject=text – Sets the subject of each RSS items to the specified text
* &subjectprefix=text – Begin the subject of each RSS item with the specified text

The most basic option for users is to use the base url with the &feed=URL parameter like in the following example:

http://picklemonkey.net/flipper/convert.php?feed=http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=109573938

This creates a valid RSS Feed for the Japanese 101 Podcast that is available in the iTunes store. The only problem that some users might have with Feed Flipper is the fact that everything depends on the availability of the script on the developer’s website. It is not possible to update feeds if this is temporarily or even permanently unreachable. It can also happen that Apple changes a core setting in their iTunes store which could lead to the program not working anymore. The developer has fixed those problems in the post however.

All information to use Feed Flipper are provided above. The developer’s homepage can be accessed here.

It is possible to add podcast RSS feeds to the program which will then be processed automatically whenever the program is running on the computer system. The download interval for the selected podcasts can be changed in the program’s configuration.

It is possible to specify a download directory and a mp3 player podcast directory to move, sync or copy podcasts to the mp3 player directly after downloading them. Other available options include running a task after downloading podcasts or to download mp3 files only when downloading podcasts.

Robert’s Podcatcher will be default only download the last podcast from each RSS feed even if it has been added as a new podcast to the program. The only way to download previous podcasts is to click on the Catch Mo’ button to select them for download one by one. An option to download all podcasts of a specific feed at once would have been nice.

The podcast downloader requires a background process that uses about eight Megabytes of computer memory. That’s in addition to the two Megabytes used by the main program. Robert’s Podcatcher might be nevertheless useful for some users who do not use a music player with integrated podcast support. The portable software can be downloaded from the developer’s website. Should be compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows.

The second option is to browse the categories that are available and handpick news feeds from the available options. Each category offers several categories that contain multiple feeds. The Technology category for instance contains Software, Internet and Apple subcategories that contain a handful of news feeds each.

It is unfortunately not possible to add RSS news feeds that are not in those lists which means for example that Ghacks cannot be subscribed to yet. The developers provide an email address where users can mail suggestions to though.

None, some or all of the subscribed RSS news feeds can be turned into podcasts which is the unique selling point of Pimp My News. The user can subscribe to these Podcasts, supported are iTunes but also any other software program where the user can subscribe to Podcasts (so called Podcatchers).

The quality of the recordings is fine. It is not the best and a computer is used to create the RSS audio but it is understandable. The podcasts can be copied to mp3 players like the iPod to listen to the news while on the go.

When I read the description of Dir Caster it occurred to me that this must be one of the easiest ways to create a Podcast feed. Just upload the script to your webspace, place the mp3 files with correct ID3 tags in the same dir and et voila, the RSS feed gets updated.

The user only needs to publish the directory of Dir Caster or the url for the podcast feed to his audience who can then subscribe to the feed in programs like iTunes, iPodder or Doppler. This system is not restricted to podcasts however which means that you can also add music to the directory and make the link available to some of your friends.

The friends can then subscribe to the podcast and listen to the music that you upload to the web directory. The file config_inc.php has to be edited to reflect your podcast. You add the name, author and additional information to it.

Youloud tries to make at least the second concern irrelevant. It lists a lot of Podcasts in their directory offering features, newest, most popular and top favorite Podcasts.

The site got the typical web 2.0 look and feel offering lots of user interaction like comments on their site. The top 100 list should probably be your first stop into Podcast-land. It contains however a large amount of adult Podcasts which are probably not that suited for minors.

One nice feature is that you can listen to all songs on their site and do not have to load them into your mp3 player or download a podcast. I personally prefer to navigate the site using the categories offered on the main page because it gives me the option to narrow down the Podcasts that are presented.

Odeo is one of those sites that look crappy but offer so much to their visitors. Their extensive podcast directory is my number one reason to visit them. It is not all about technology or internet, you do find podcasts that cover politics, sex and business as well. You may pick one of the 14 categories and delve right into the immense variety of podcasts that can be listened to online or downloaded in mp3 format.
I know that you will head right for the sex category but let me give you information what Odeo offers besides the categories. You could start with the Odeo top 40 instead which is a listing of the top 40 podcasts at Odeo based on subscribers. Another option would be to take a look a the staff picks or use tagging to find the podcasts that you like. (tagging page looks messed up though)

The best thing about Odeo is that it does not force you to register at the site. Guests may listen and download the podcasts as well. Members do have some advantages such as being able to create personalized playlists and create favorites.

So, Juice Receiver is a freeware program available for windows, mac and linux which has a large list of podcasts on board. It is very easy to surf the directory of podcasts available while subscribing to interesting ones with the click of the mouse. Song downloads are managed by the tool itself but playback comes from a media player that is installed on your system, Juice supports three players (itunes, winamp and media player), not sure what happens if you don’t have one of them installed on your system. You probably have to manually run the podcast then once it is downloaded.

Juice Receiver had some problems to connect to certain listings in the directory to receive a updated podcast listing, some were working, some not. This is most likely a temporary issue and should be resolved quickly. You may also add podcasts manually to Juice Reciever.

If you are new to podcasts give this tool a try, it offers a good introduction to podcasts and suggest some very interesting ones.