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Welcome to the "Android tablet: Listening to podcasts" course. You'll learn how to get the ABC Listen app from the Google Play Store and how to download radio shows, or podcasts, to listen to in your own time.
There are many types of Android tablets. If your Android tablet is a different model to the one shown in this demonstration, the steps might be slightly different, but you can still follow along.
A podcast is like a radio show, but instead of listening to it live, you can listen to episodes at any time that suits you. It's like radio on-demand. There are lots of different apps that can help you do this, but in this course, we're going to use the free ABC Listen app, which you can download from the Google Play Store. You can use the ABC Listen app to listen to live radio over the internet or download podcasts to listen to later.
To begin, find the Play Store icon. For this demonstration it's on our Home screen. Tap on it to open the Google Play Store. The Google Play Store is where you can browse and download approved apps for your Android device. Some must be purchased using a credit card, but the ABC Listen app is free.
Let's search for it now. Tap the Search bar at the top of the screen, and the keyboard will appear. Then, type in A B C Listen. Look for the Search key on the keyboard - it looks like a magnifying glass - and tap it to search for the app. You will now see some search results. ABC Listen will be at or near the top of the list. Tap on the search result, to see some more information about the app, before downloading it.
[eSafety tip] Before downloading an app, make sure you check the star rating and developer by tapping on the app's name in the Google Play Store and scrolling through the information. The authentic ABC Listen app is developed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Tap the blue Install button and your tablet will download the ABC Listen app and set it up for you, all in the background. When the installation is finished, a blue Open button will appear.
You could tap this to start using the ABC Listen app, but for this demonstration, we'll open it from the Home screen instead.
Tap the Home button at the bottom of the screen to close the Google Play Store. Swipe up from the bottom of the Home screen to open the Apps screen. If you can't find the ABC Listen app icon on the first Apps screen, you might need to swipe over to the next screen.
Once you've found it, tap it to open the ABC Listen app. When the app opens for the first time, it might ask you if you want to set up an ABC Listen account. This is optional, so for this demonstration we'll tap Not now.
You can then search for your location's radio station, but for this demonstration, we'll tap Skip to see the Home screen of the ABC Listen app.
At the top of the page are radio stations that you can listen to. You can swipe through these to explore the options and tap on one to listen to a live radio broadcast. It's worth exploring the different radio stations at a later time, but for now, we're going to look at podcasts.
A podcast is like an episode of a radio show, which you can download to your tablet and listen to at any time.
In the ABC Listen app, podcasts are presented on the home screen, organised by category. The first category is called Latest & Best, and you can scroll through this list to look at the podcasts available. Scroll down to see even more categories and swipe through the podcasts to find one of interest.
If you find one you like, you can tap on it to play it, but for now we're going to look at how to use the Search option, which is in the bottom right of the screen.
Tap the magnifying glass icon, to open the Search screen. Scroll down this screen to look at the Browse by Topic list, which organises podcasts into categories. You can tap a topic category, such as Music, to see all ABC Music podcasts.
We're going to use the Search bar at the top of the screen to find The Health Report podcast. Tap in the Search bar, and the tablet's keyboard will appear. Type in The Health Report.
The program will appear as the top search result. Tap on it to open the main Health Report podcast screen. At the top of this page is the cover artwork for the podcast, and some information about it. You could tap Play, to play the latest episode or scroll down to see all the episodes.
Each episode is presented with a short description of what it's about. If you find one that you want to listen to, tap Play and the episode will be downloaded to your tablet as it's playing. This is called streaming. If your tablet has a SIM card and is connected to the internet via mobile data, it will use some of your mobile data allowance. When streaming a podcast or radio station using your mobile data allowance, remember to stop playback when you've finished listening. Apps like ABC Listen can keep working in the background and use up your data without you realising.
For this demonstration, we're going to download the podcast using our home Wi-Fi, to listen to later. Look for the download icon to the bottom right of the episode description. It looks like a cloud with a downward arrow. Downloading a podcast will save it to your tablet, so you can listen to it later, even if you're not connected to the internet. Tap the download icon and it will start downloading to your tablet. Once it's downloaded, a small tick will appear inside the cloud.
The ABC Listen app stores all your downloaded podcasts in one place. Let's look at this now. Look for the Your Listen option at the bottom of the screen. Tap it, to open the Your Listen screen. Look for Downloads, which is the second icon near the top of the page. Tap it, to open the Downloads screen. Here is a list of the podcast episodes that have been downloaded to our tablet. For this demonstration, there's just one in the list. Tap on it and the podcast episode will appear full screen.
To start playing the episode, tap the large Play button, and the podcast will start playing. [Podcast narrator] We don't talk often about blood cancers in the Health Report, yet they often effect people younger than the average person who develops cancer. We're talking about leukemias, lymphomas.
A banner will appear at the bottom of the screen, with the cover artwork of the podcast you're listening to, plus the name of the episode.
There are also some playback controls. Tap on the name of the podcast, to see this information presented full screen. To stop playback, tap the large Pause button which is near the bottom of the screen. It will change to a Play button, which you can tap to resume playback. Either side of the large Play/Pause button are two icons displaying the number 15 inside round arrows. Tap the one on the left side to skip back by 15 seconds and tap the one on the right to skip ahead by 15 seconds.
If you want to regularly listen to a podcast, you can Follow it, to automatically receive new episodes as they are released. Let's see how to do this now. Tap the down-facing arrow on the top left of the screen, to return to the main episode screen, where you can see more details about this episode, including the show notes. Tap the icon that looks like three vertical dots in the middle of the screen, below the episode title. Some options will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap View Program, to go to the main screen for the podcast. Now, tap the Follow button. This is below the podcast description and has an outline of a heart. You may be asked if you want to save to an account. This is optional, so for this demonstration, we'll tap Not Now. The heart icon is now full, which means you're following this podcast. Your tablet will automatically download new episodes of this program when you're connected to Wi-Fi.
If you change your mind, tap the heart icon again to unfollow it.
The ABC Listen app stores all the podcasts that you're following in the one place. Let's look at this now. Tap the Back arrow at the top left, then tap Your Listen at the bottom of the screen. All the programs that you follow will appear on this screen. Here's The Health Report, which we're now following. Tap this to go to the main podcast page and listen to it.
To finish this course, let's look at a few important settings, including how to automatically delete podcasts after you've listened to them. This will make room on your tablet for new episodes. From the Your Listen screen, tap the Personalise Settings icon, which is in the top left of the screen and looks like a person. Look for the Downloads option, and tap it, to open the Downloads screen. Right at the top is the Delete 24 hrs after listening setting. In this demonstration, this switch is already on, which means that episodes will be deleted 24 hours after we've listened to them. If this switch is grey on your tablet, you can tap it, to turn the setting on.
Let's look at the next setting in this list, Automatically download on. When this is set to Wi-Fi only, episodes of podcasts you follow will automatically download to your tablet when you're connected to Wi-Fi. This means, you can listen to them later when you're out of Wi-Fi range without using your mobile data, or even when you're not connected to the internet.
Tap the back arrow to return to the main Settings screen where we'll look at one last setting. Continuously play podcasts. When this switch is on, your tablet will continue to play episodes until you pause the playback or close the app. If you'd prefer a podcast to stop playing at the end of an episode, tap this switch. The switch will move to the left and this setting is now switched off.
To finish up, tap the Home button to close the ABC Listen app and return to the Home screen. You've learned how to use the ABC Listen app to find favourite radio programs, download podcasts to listen to later, and follow a program to get new podcasts automatically.
If you're unsure about any steps you can rewind the video, or click the chapter headings to jump to the start of a chapter. If you're ready to move on, there are many other courses to explore on Be Connected.