If you have gotten far enough that you know what a podcast is, then you also know how annoying it can be to not have the latest edition of your favorites available when you want to listen. The solution for this, of course, is to subscribe and have them downloaded automatically. In this post, we are going to step you through the process of subscribing using 3 different Android apps: Google Listen, BeyondPod, and DoggCatcher
I am going to show you the easy way. And then, because some of us are just obstinate and refuse to do it the easy way, I will also show you the alternate (harder way)!
The Easy Way
On your Android device, open the browser and navigate to http://simplemobilereview.com and find the link that says “Subscribe to Podcast”. Click that link.
Choose the installed program that you want to use for your podcasts and you are done! By the way, it doesn’t have to be any of the programs I am showing you. If your programs can do a podcast, Android will know it and offer it as an option here.
OK, that’s the easy way. Let’s see how to do it individually in each of the programs. To make this really easy, from your Android browser, don’t just press the “Subscribe to Podcast” link on the website, but rather press and hold. That will pop up a windows with some options. You should choose “Copy URL link”. This will allow you to paste the URL into the app and not have to worry about typos, etc.
Google Listen
Listen from Google Labs brings podcasts and web audio to your Android-powered device. It lets you search, subscribe, download and stream. By subscribing to programs it will create a personalized audio-magazine loaded with fresh shows and news stories whenever you listen. In this release Listen is indexing thousands of popular English-only audio sources.
The main screen gives you four options, of which only three are available. Choose “My subscriptions” and then choose “Add a Subscription”.
Press and hold in the input field and choose Paste. This will input the URL address that you captured earlier.
You will see your podcast available here. Please make sure that the first button says “Unsubscribe”. If it says “Subscribe”, press it once and you will see it change and you should be good to go.
When you first open BeyondPod, press the Menu key and choose “Add Feed”.
Again, long press in the input field and choose “Paste”. This will drop the link in and you can then look at the options of downloading, retention, etc. Then press “Save”.
At this point, you are done and will see your chosen podcast available.
DoggCatcher
Add feeds by
- Browsing Top 100 DoggCatcher feeds
- Getting recommendations based on your feed subscriptions
- Searching podcast and news directories
- Importing from OPML
Integrated Audio Player
- Plays downloaded audio
- Streams audio over network (wifi/cell)
- Remembers play position of each podcast
Integrated Video Player
- Plays downloaded video
- Streams video over network (wifi/cell)
- Remembers play position of each video
- Plays video formats supported by Android – Formats
Automation
- Automatically updates feeds on a configurable interval
- Automatically download new media
- Automatically deletes media that has been listened to
From the main screen of DoggCatcher, choose “RSS”
In the input field, long-press and choose “Paste”. Again, you can set the feed parameters and then press “OK”.
Your feed will now be ready and you are good to go.
In all of this, you will hopefully see that even the “hard” way is not that bad. The same basic process works with any program you choose. Enjoy!
