When you run the new version of iTunes, you'll see a new section in the source pane on the left, Podcasts:
Click on Podcasts and you'll see in the bottom of the main window a link to the Podcast Directory. Clicking here takes you to the Podcast Directory at the iTunes Music Store:
To listen to a podcast, simply select the one you want and iTunes creates a list of the available streams. The top of the browse window shows information about the show, just like in the normal iTunes music store shows information about an album, and underneath is the list of shows. Click on the subscribe button, and a link to the podcast is added to your podcast directory:
You can also subscribe to a podcast directly by selecting Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast and entering the URL.
Synching podcasts with your iPod is easy. Choose iTunes Preferences, then click on the Podcasts tab. You'll see "Set which Podcasts are copied to your iPod: iPod Preferences". Click on iPod Preferences, and you can choose which podcasts to synch with your iPod, and how many episodes (all, most recent, etc.). Click ok, and the podcasts you've downloaded will be synched automatically.
I really like that I no longer have to use a separate application to manage my podcasts.
Elisabeth Robson is an author and software developer. She is coauthor of O'Reilly's Head First Design Patterns and Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML.
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