podcast - technical definition

(iPOD broadCAST) An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player. Although many podcasts are played in a regular computer, the original idea was to listen on a portable device; hence, the "pod" name from "iPod." Although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music, images and video.

Just like news feeds, podcasts are made available to people via a syndication format. Users install a media aggregator program in their computers such as iTunes or Juice. Also called a "podcatcher," the application captures the audio feeds from the Internet for downloading to the music player. See syndication format.

Podcasting Everything
Originally conceived as a way to listen to audio broadcasts, podcasting evolved to include any kind of audio as well as images and video (see photofeed and vidcast). Electronic slide shows are created as podcasts (see enhanced podcast), and "sound seeing" is the audio recording of a person's experiences when traveling. Some museums make audio tours available as podcasts, and art students and professors create their own unauthorized and often controversial narrations of famous works. See autocasting, punchcasting and learncasting.