podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

client, or podcatcher, is a computer program used to stream or download podcasts, usually via an RSS or

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

feed. While podcast clients are best known for streaming and downloading podcasts, many are also capable of downloading video,

newsfeed In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, RSS reader or simply an aggregator, is client software or a web application that aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, po ...

s, text, and pictures. Some of these podcast clients can also automate the transfer of received audio files to a portable media player. Although many include a directory of high-profile podcasts, they generally allow users to manually subscribe directly to a feed by providing the URL. The core concepts had been developing since 2000, the first commercial podcast client software was developed in 2001. Podcasts were made popular when

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

added podcatching to its iTunes software and iPod portable media player in June 2005.

Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 200 ...

is currently included in all Apple devices, such as iPhone,

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

and Mac computers.

Podcast clients

References

External links

"Podcast Software (Clients)"
at podcastingnews.com – Archived page
podcatchermatrix.org
compares the features of a number of podcast clients.
"Podcast Client Feature Comparison Matrix"
as a

Google Sheets Google Sheets is a spreadsheet program included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. The service also includes: Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. G ...

spreadsheet. {{Podcast clients Podcasting software Podcast clients Podcasting lists

Podcast clients

See also

References

External links