How to subscribe to specific podcasts without typing in their URLs
Published by Steve Litchfield at 14:31 UTC, February 5th 2009
Following on from our introduction to podcasts on S60, here's a more advanced technique for getting to podcasts that aren't in wider directories....
I often want to subscribe to a podcast that's not in the official directory. At the moment, I have to bring up the RSS feed's address on the screen (e.g. http://rss.allaboutsymbian.com/media/podcastfeed.xml, write it out by hand on a piece of paper and then type it all in again into the Podcasting application. However, there's a quicker way, involving copy and paste.
What would have been ideal, of course, would be for Nokia to have integrated their Web and Podcasting applications, but until they do this it's down to you and I and the good old S60 clipboard. Here's what to do. I'm demonstrating on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, but the same technique works in identical manner on older S60 3rd Edition smartphones.
- So you're on a web site and find their podcast page/link.
99% of such pages will be picked up automatically by Web as having a RSS feed, so use 'Options - Subscribe to web feeds'.
If there's more than one (as here), then pick the one you want (usually the audio podcast).
- 'Web feeds' will show the new feed in place inside Web.
However, this is not where you want the feed to be! Use 'Options - Edit/[manage feed] - Edit' to bring up the Web feed editing dialog.
- Move down to the 'Address' field and select the feed URL text, if it's not already selected. On a non-touch device, press and hold the 'Edit'/pencil/hash key and choose 'Copy'. On a touch device like the 5800, tap in the text field, to bring up the full screen qwerty keyboard, then tap the editing menu icon (the three lines, next to the green tick mark, usually), then pick 'Copy' from the pop-up menu.
- Back out of the editing dialogs and close Web down, it's done its job.
- Find the Podcasting application (usually in a 'Music' folder or similar).
Start it and then go into 'Podcasts'.
- Use 'Options - New podcast' and you'll be presented with a URL field with just the http:// bit highlighted.
On a non-touch device, press 'Edit'/pencil or press and hold the hash key, and then use 'Paste'.
On a touch device like the 5800, tap in the field to bring up the qwerty keyboard again, then tap the menu icon, choose 'Paste' and then tap the tick icon to return to the dialog.
- You should now see the full RSS feed URL in the Podcast URL dialog and you can press 'OK' to save it.
You're done! Initially, Podcasting may now go online and try and grab information about recent episodes of this show for you. For more details on actually using Podcasting and managing your files, see Tzer2's excellent tutorial.
Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 5 Feb 2009
Categories: How To
Platforms: S60 3rd Edition, S60 5th Edition
Feature Discussion
Unregistered
Nice tip BUT can you do a tutorial on how to find the podcast section on your site?
Where the hell is it?
Where the hell is it?
UKJeeper
Nice. Thanks. Is there a good site somewhere that list's Podcasts by URL's?
UKJeeper
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Nice tip BUT can you do a tutorial on how to find the podcast section on your site?
Where the hell is it? |
If you mean his video podcast, here's the walkthrough on how to find it:
1) Click here.
Unregistered
Hi... abit off topic. but whats the 5800 theme you are using for the screenshots? thanks.
Tzer2
Quote:
| Nice. Thanks. Is there a good site somewhere that list's Podcasts by URL's? |
Quote:
|
Nice tip BUT can you do a tutorial on how to find the podcast section on your site? Where the hell is it? |
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/media/podcast.php
Also, if you're using an S60 phone and have the Podcasting app on it, you can find all of AAS's podcasts by searching for the keyword "Symbian" and then subscribing to the AAS podcast.
Unregistered
No I meant the Podcast page on this site. Where is it buried and why?
Tzer2
Quote:
| No I meant the Podcast page on this site. Where is it buried and why? |
Unregistered
It does not work on the N95-3
Unregistered
whats themes are the screenshots using? and where can I download it.
Thanks
Thanks
rvirga
While on the subject of podcasts, I've noticed that some audio podcasts have a picture (cover art), while some other don't. For example, the AAS and all the NYTimes podcasts have one, while the Onion Radio News doesn't. Does anybody know if it's possible to manually assign one, or it's just something only the content provider can set?
cedesguin
Mutatis mutandis, I have been using this method for almost two years with my Communicator.
slitchfield
The theme on my 5800 at the moment is Darkstar by PiZero 8-)
The theme going on in about 5 mins is Taieb's "Bright"
Fickle? Me?
The theme going on in about 5 mins is Taieb's "Bright"
Fickle? Me?
Unregistered
Thanks steve, you're a star.
Norman J
Good job steve.
Over on my blog I've posted about your post and wrote another way to do this. Just use the barcode reader ;) Jump over to symbianworl.org to read it
Over on my blog I've posted about your post and wrote another way to do this. Just use the barcode reader ;) Jump over to symbianworl.org to read it
mlang
Yup, it is very frustrating that the browser/podcast apps aren't integrated.
Just a note to say that the http:\\ is very important in the URL, because the podcast app doesn't just assume it.
Just a note to say that the http:\\ is very important in the URL, because the podcast app doesn't just assume it.