Hi David,
David Poehlman wrote:
Hi Ester,
YOur info is enlightening for anumber of reasons. If I want to
subscribe to
a podcast though and I have the url for it, can I use this info in
ITunes?
If you want to subscribe to a podcast and have the URL for its feed
then yes, you can use that address to subscribe in iTunes. Select the
"Subscribe to podcast" option under the Advanced menu on the iTunes
menu bar and type or paste in the RSS feed URL in the dialogue window
that appears. This method works to subscribe to any podcast, whether
or not it is listed and available through the iTunes Store. This
would be a way to Shane Jackson's podcast (recall he did a nice one on
iTunes several months ago), which isn't listed at the iTunes Store. I
believe the iTunes servers keep their own feed copies, so in principle
they could be using a different feed address than the one you get
through Google. iTunes read the feed address and creates a new folder
for each new address, then labels it with the name of the podcast as
carried on the feed. This means that if the designated server for a
podcast changes, you'll have two different folders, each with the same
podcast name, but with the contents from two different feeds.
As long as you continue to use the same feed you should be fine, but
if your podcast producer decides to change his hosting source, you'll
get a second folder with the same name.
The nice features about using the iTunes Store podcast page is that
(for feeds that you can easily see what episodes are currently on the
feed and download individual episodes (based on reading their episode
description or possibly from sampling the start of the podcast)
without having to subscribe to the whole podcast series. You can also
give people an iTunes URL that will take them directly to a specific
episode -- that episode will be selected in the songs table for the
podcast page at the iTunes Store when you use that URL.
In addition. the HTML area of the podcast page is now accessible, and
contains a link to the podcast web page URL. That web page can
contain other information related to the podcast, for example, in the
case of an NPR book review it might contain links to a streaming
author interview or a transcript of the program, or links to earlier
topic-related interviews. For the BBC In Our Time podcasts, the web
site has links to additional resources on the web for each program.
The iTunes Store podcast page will also contain additional suggestions
for other podcasts subscribed to by people who chose to subscribe to a
particular podcast. And their are also ratings and review comments.
So, yes, you can Google for a podcast URL and subscribe to it, but you
can also get a lot more if you are using podcasts that you found
listed at the iTunes Store. And I believe that Jessie was starting
from the point that he already had subscribed to these podcasts
through iTunes. Why should he have to do a separate Google search
when the information is already in his iTunes subscription?
Cheers,
Esther
----- Original Message -----
From: "Esther"
Hi David,
On Sep 16, 2008, at 3:36 AM, David Poehlman wrote:
google sounds easier.
Maybe that's because my reply instructions were too detailed? How
about if I just said, select your podcasts library and export it as an
OPML file in iTunes. This option is under the iTunes File menu. You
can send the OPML file to any friends who want a copy of your podcast
subscriptions, or you can check the file in TextEdit for both the RSS
feed location and URL web page (if given) for each of your subscribed
podcasts?
An alternative answer would be to just find the podcast page at the
iTunes Store by typing its name into the Power Search, and select the
Podcast page for your subscription. He could actually copy the iTunes
Store URL for the podcast page and save it (control click on the title
of the podcast in the HTML area and use "Copy iTunes Store URL". But
that wasn't what Jessie was asking for; he was asking for the RSS
feed. And if he wants to send them to a particular podcast episode at
the iTunes Store, he can use the contextual menu on that episode
listed in the Songs table to "Copy iTunes Store URL". For example,
last week's Assistive Technology roundtable discussion episode is:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=37725381&id=217363884
I'm not sure what he wants to do with this information. If he wants
to send it to a friend who is just starting to use a Mac and start
podcast subscriptions, giving them a copy of his OPML file and telling
them to import it is a heck of a lot easier than googling each one and
doing a copy and paste of the list, then telling them to subscribe to
each one individually. And the feed URL information as well as the
hosting web page is all in the OPML file. They can also use this
cross-platform if they use a different podcatcher and not iTunes.
Cheers,
Esther
David, I think Jessie wanted to get the RSS for podcasts from his
iTunes library.
Subject: getting rss address
hello i would like to know does anyone have any idea how to get an
address to a podcast that you subscribed to in itunes?
David Poehlman wrote:
you could google it.
OK, the organiziation of iTunes commands has changed in iTunes 8.
This information is under a new menu folder item callled "Library" in
the File menu.
1. Select "Podcasts" in your Sources Table
2. Navigate to the File menu on your menu bar (VO-keys+M; press "F")
3. Navigate to the Library submenu (arrow down; press "L"; arrow
right)
4. Navigate to the "Export Playlist" option (quickest way is to arrow
up once) and press return
5. A save dialogue window will pop up prompting you to supply a file
name, location, and format. VO-right arrow to the format popup
button
and set this to "OPML". The default name will be Podcasts.opml, and
the default location will be you Documents folder. Change these as
you prefer, then press return (or VO-right arrow to the Save button
and press it with VO-space).
6. You can send this OPML file to a friend, and he can import it in
iTunes to get the subscription addresses of all your podcast
subscriptions, or you can open this in TextEdit and find, for
example:
<outline text="VoiceOver Getting Started for Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.apple.com/podcasts/voiceover-leopard/voiceover_leopard.xml
" htmlUrl="http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/"; />
which tells you that the RSS feed for the VoiceOver getting started
in
Leopard podcasts is:
http://www.apple.com/podcasts/voiceover-leopard/voiceover_leopard.xml
and that the assocated web page is:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/
Or, as another example:
<outline text="The Assistive Technology Show" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/atshow
" />
This is Steve's Assistive Technology Show that did the roundtable
discussion last week. There's no web page given (for the iTunes
Store
podcast page), but the RSS feed is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/atshow
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Esther
