podcast (redirected from Metacast)

(iPOD broadCAST) An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer. The "pod" in podcast was coined from "iPod," the predominant portable, digital music player, and although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music.

Using the RSS 2.0 syndication format, podcasts are made available to subscribers just like news feeds. The client program that captures the audio feeds and delivers them to the music player is a media aggregator (a "podcatcher") such as Juice, available at http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net. See syndication format and vidcast.

Podcasting Anything and Everything
Podcasting is not just for ongoing broadcasts, rather the term is used for recording anything and everything to be played back in a digital player. "Sound seeing" is the audio recording of a person's experiences when traveling. Museums are making their audio tours available as podcasts for download, and art students and professors are creating their own "unauthorized" and often more controversial narrations of famous art works.