Getting Started
You’ll want to download iTunes from Apple’s official downloads page, as well as the most recent iPod software updater. The new iPod software allows certain iPods to easily browse and scroll the long track names of podcasts.
Free Podcasts for All
When you fire up iTunes, you can’t miss the Podcasts icon in the Source list. (In fact, you can’t remove it, even if you’re not interested in podcasts.)
Clicking this icon takes you to an empty window at first; this is your podcast playlist, this is where you view and manage your podcasts.
To start getting podcasts, click the Podcast Directory link at the bottom of the window; this takes you to the Podcast page of the iTunes Music Store. (You can also get to this page from any of the iTunes Music Store’s main pages; there is a Podcasts link in the navigation column at the left of these pages.)
The Podcast Directory is like any other iTunes Music Store page; you can click graphics to access information about the programs, check out the Top Podcasts in a list at the right of the page, and browse podcasts by either clicking the Browse button at the top-right of the window, or by clicking one of the category links at the left of the page.
You can search for podcasts from the search field at the top of the
window, or from the search field at the left; the latter lets you
choose from Search All Podcasts, Search Podcast Titles, and Search
Podcast Authors.
HOW TO GET TO THE ZONE AUDIO UPDATE SHOW:
Search for "The Zone Audio" in the search pane of the podcast page.
After you’ve found a podcast you want to hear, you have two options: you can click Get Episode in the Price column (podcasts are all - for now - listed as Free). This downloads just one episode of the podcast to your iTunes library, and stores it in a Podcasts folder in your iTunes Music folder. You can then listen to it on your computer from the Podcasts playlist, or sync it to your iPod, and listen to it by selecting Music > Podcasts, then selecting the show name and episode.
If you find a podcast you like, and that you’d like to automatically receive whenever it’s updated - daily, weekly, monthly or at irregular frequency - click the Subscribe button in the top part of the window, or click Subscribe in the Podcasts playlist next to the podcast’s name.
This tells iTunes to add a subscription to your Podcasts playlist. iTunes displays an alert, asking if you really want to subscribe to this podcast. Subscriptions download the most recent episode, but also tell iTunes to check and download future episodes when available.
If you click Subscribe, iTunes displays the Podcasts playlist window, then starts downloading the most recent episode of the podcast. You’ll see an orange icon to the left of the podcast as it downloads; this is the same icon you see when importing songs.
You can view more episodes of the podcast by clicking the disclosure triangle next to the show’s name. As you can see above, these episodes are dimmed, and have a GET button next to them. To download any previous episode, just click the GET button. To view show notes, click the “i” icon at the right of a show’s description.
After you download podcasts, a blue dot in the left-hand column of the Podcasts playlist indicates those you have not yet listened to.
When you start listening to a podcast, these dots go away, even if you have not finished listening. If you haven’t listened to an entire podcast, you might want to reset it to “unplayed”. You can do this by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac) a podcast’s name and selecting Mark as Unplayed. You’ll see later, in Podcast and iPod Settings, that this can help you choose which podcasts to sync to your iPod.
You can delete any podcasts from the Podcasts playlist by selecting a podcast or episode and pressing Delete. If you delete an episode, only that file gets deleted; if you delete a podcast, your subscription gets deleted as well.
