Getting Podcasts onto your Smartphone (or Pocket PC)
Now that I’m a Podcaster (if there is such a thing) I thought it would be interesting to sync my podcast files down to a Smartphone device running Windows Mobile 2003 – it’s so easy, even someone with an MBA should be able to do this… (anyone remember the FedEx MBA advert? – it seems to have gone missing from their web site).
Podcasts are typically exposed through an XML file (some, like DotNetRocks [an excellent podcast, I especially like the intro to episode #100] require you to use a download tool like BitTorrent).
Let’s assume that you’re wanting to listen to my Podcast (and why on earth wouldn’t you?) – Here’s what you will need to sync the Podcast to your Smartphone.
- A Windows Mobile Smartphone (Duh!)
- Windows XP and Windows Media Player 10
- ActiveSync 3.8
- A Podcast Sync tool such as iPodder or Doppler (I’m using Doppler in this example)
- An Internet connection that’s hopefully faster than a very slow snail (podcast mp3 or wma files can be 10MB+ in size)
- A Grande Vanilla Latte and a slice of Lemon Pound Cake (optional)
Step 1.
Get a link to the XML file you want to sync from – in the case of my Podcast there’s a 
symbol in the right margin, right-click on this, and save the shortcut – this resolves to http://scrat.members.winisp.net/Podcast/MEDPodcast.xml
When a new podcast file becomes available iPodder or Doppler will look at all the XML files you’ve signed up to and download the new content.
Step 2.
Add a new feed in your favorite Podcast sync tool (I’m using Doppler in this example) - click to enlarge the image.
The feed now appears in the Doppler tool, hit “Retreive Now” and Doppler will pull down the audio files to your local hard drive (you specify the location to place the files), and will create a Windows Media Player playlist (that’s the cool part!).
You can see that the MED Podcast has been added to the list of podcasts I’m syncing against.
Step 3.
Now that you have downloaded the Podcast audio files you have a choice, you can just listen to the files on you desktop/laptop, or you can transfer the files to your Windows Mobile device – let’s start at the desktop and work down to the device…
Here you can see the custom playlists in Windows Media Player 10 created by Doppler for a number of Podcasts I’m syncing against.
I could just open the MED Podcast playlist on my desktop/laptop and play one of the existing podcast sessions (there are two up there right now).
However, I want to sync the content to my Windows Mobile device, this is Sooooooooo easy.
Step 3.1 – Click the Sync tab in Windows Media Player 10, there are two drop-down (combo-boxes) in the user interface, the left side allows you to choose the playlist (either one created by Doppler/iPodder or a custom playlist you create), and the right side drop down allows you to select the destination for the content, in my case I chose the Storage Card in my Windows Mobile device.
There are two podcast files on my podcast site right now, Balz (VoIP), and Jenny (Docs), I’m going to sync the Balz podcast file, this is about 6.5MB.
Now you just click “Start Sync” (top left of the UI) and you’re all set… The content is sync’d down to your device, and appears in the Windows Media Player.
I used the Windows Mobile Remote Control Application (one of the Windows Mobile Developer Power Toys) to display the Smartphone UI (see below).
And here’s the Podcast interview with Balz playing in the Windows Media Player on the Smartphone.
That’s all there is to it… happy Podcasting!
– Mike
