| What is now called a podcast traces its orgins to the | | | | By this time, podcasting had moved beyond the ipod, |
| first ipod podcasts, the creation of distributed mp3 files | | | | and they were not simply making an ipod podcast |
| that could be downloaded and played on Apple's | | | | anymore. Some people had figured out how to use |
| music player, the iPod. | | | | even the PlayStation Portable gaming console as a |
| When the iPod came out, and users discovered what | | | | podcast player. |
| a wonderful thing it was for holding music, some | | | | It was more difficult than downloading podcasts to the |
| people had the idea of loading things that weren't | | | | ipod, since the PSP used a different format for it's files, |
| necessarily songs. Some of the people that got their | | | | but PSP podcasts began popping up. In addition, |
| hands on the iPod took the route of reverse | | | | podcasting made inroads into the wider audience of |
| engineering the iPod and loading on different firmware, | | | | people without iPods, who simply saw podcasting as |
| or operating system, but others had the idea of sharing | | | | an extremely convenient way to receive news, music, |
| small sound files that could be played on the iPod. | | | | and entertainment over the internet. |
| The technology for distributing the files already existed, | | | | Today, while the iPod podcast type still exists, fewer |
| with RSS feeds. RSS feeds were a means of | | | | people subscribe to podcasts as a way of gaining |
| generating machine readable files that could share | | | | portable media files they can listen to anywhere. |
| information between a server and a user. Many blogs | | | | Although that is still an attractive part of podcasting, it |
| already used them to keep readers up to date with | | | | seems to be eclipsed by the ease with which |
| the latest posts, but some hopeful podcasters had the | | | | podcasting has become a content delivery system. |
| idea of enclosing links to sound files within the RSS | | | | Now, podcasting has become tied up with the rising |
| feed and downloading the file to the computer. | | | | number of audio and video blogs, where blogging is |
| With the change in RSS feeds, ipod podcast took off, | | | | done not by post, but through media files uploaded to |
| and podcasting became a popular way to share files. | | | | the blog. |
| Users saw podcasting as a way to become radio | | | | These blogs, and podcasting in general, take |
| hosts, or dj's, and a variety of podcasts began popping | | | | advantage of the shrinking cost of broadband internet |
| up. Software was written to automatically check the | | | | connections, and the rising number of people with high |
| RSS feeds, extract the links to the podcast episodes, | | | | speed access to offer a picture of the internet rich |
| and download the files. These programs became | | | | with multimedia files. |
| known as podcast clients. | | | | |