Podcast.com News

We’ve had quite a few emails lately asking how to get Podcast.com podcasts onto iTunes and your iPod.  You can do this if you use Podcast.com to make a playlist of your fave podcast episodes.  You only need to follow these instructions once and it will be set up: as you add more podcasts to your Podcast.com playlist, they will automatically appear in iTunes.  (Before you start, you need to have iTunes installed on your computer.)

1. Log in to your account to get to your home page.
2. 
   Click the ‘load’ button in the middle of the page, below ‘my playlist’.
3. 
   Click ’show advanced options’, again in the middle of the page.
4. 
   Locate the ‘Add to iTunes’ button.  This will launch iTunes.

Watch as your favorite episodes show up in iTunes (click the thumbnail below to see how it looks)!  Send an email to info at podcast.com if you have further questions about this.

Here’s a great example of podcasts being used in the preservation of culture: the Gujarati Literary Council (Gujarati Sahitya Parishad), an institution for the promotion of Gujarati literature, is using podcasting to make Gujarati literature accessible to the Web generation. Gujarati is the native language of the Indian state of Gujarat, was the original language spoken by Mahatma Gandhi, and is the 26th most spoken native language in the world with 46 million speakers worldwide. The Parishad recently began uploading video podcasts of readings by Gujarati authors and poets to the Parishad website. A member of the Parishad said, “Our sole purpose is to popularize Gujarati literature, and technology seems to be the best medium to reach out to the Generation Next. It is only through them the Gujarati literature can be preserved.”

Mother’s Day?  How about Mothers’ Month!  Each month we collect podcast episodes and feeds about a general subject of interest. The podcast feature for the month of May is on Mothers Day, so we’ve collected different podcasts that celebrate our mothers, ALL mothers, and the motherly lifestyle. You can subscribe to our playlist here. Hope you enjoy this feature, and send an email to info at podcast.com if you have an episodes (audio) or feeds you’d like to add to this feature.

You can find this and other features at my.podcast.com/features (make sure you click on the ‘View All Episodes’ icon in the middle of the screen to see every episode we collected).

We just launched a website, Videocast.com, that will give you easy access to free episodes from many new online video shows.  We would love you forever if you would take a few minutes to let us know what you think of the site.  We’re most interested in what you think when you first come to the Videocast.com home page, but feel free to browse and watch our collection of videos and let us know if something is not working the way you think it should.  Just send an email with your thoughts to beta[@]videocast.com (take the brackets out of the email address).  THANKS!

It’s that time of month again — we just finished tallying the Top 25 podcasts on Podcast.com for the month of April. Our Top 25 is representative of the podcasts you are listening to and watching on the Podcast.com website. We must say you have been fairly consistent with your listening and watching habits: the top 17 podcasts of April were also in the list of the top 25 podcasts for March.  Like we’ve said, if your favorite podcast is missing from this list, all you have to do is listen to it or watch it on the Podcast.com site (many many times) for it to make the top 25 podcast list for the month of May.  For now, here’s the Top 25 for April with the new entries into the Top 25 in bold letters:

1. World Soccer Daily Podcast
2. CNN News Update
3. Dictionary.com Word Explorer
4. Midwest Teen Sex Show
5. Open Source Sex
6. Sex is Fun
7. 60 Minutes Podcast
8. Oroscopo di Leonardo.it
9. BBC Global News
10. NOVA (PBS)
11. New York Times Music Popcast
12. Slate Magazine Daily Podcast
13. Voices from the 2006 ACLU Membership Conference
14. CNN Marketplace Update
15. ABC World News (Enhanced Video)
16. Geek News Central Podcast
17. BBC NewsPod
18. NPR Hourly News Summary
19. Il Ruggito del Coniglio
20. ESPN Radio Daily Podcast
21. Flipping Channels: a feature program from Podcast.com
22. Business Top Stories from The Associated Press (AP)
23. Boinkology
24. Comedy 365
25. Technology Top Stories from The Associated Press (AP)

These podcasts dropped out of the Top 25 this month: NPR: Books Podcast, Filmspotting, Bob Edwards Weekend, Sex with Devon, and Lonely Planet Travelcasts.