iPad:
Listening to podcasts
This course introduces you to the wonderful world of podcasts! Follow this step-by-step guide to safely downloading the ABC Listen app to your iPad and learn how to access hours and hours of free and interesting content online.
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Transcript
Welcome to the "iPad: Listening to podcasts" course. In this course, you'll learn how to get the ABC Listen app from the Apple App Store and how to download radio shows, or podcasts, to listen to in your own time. If your iPad has a physical Home button, some of 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, like normal radio, you can listen to episodes at any time you like. 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 Apple App Store. You can use the ABC Listen app to listen to live radio over the internet, or download podcasts to listen to later.
Find the App Store icon on your Home screen, and tap on it to open the app. The App Store is where you can browse and download approved apps for your Apple device. Some must be purchased using a credit card, but the ABC Listen app is free. Let's search for it now.
Tap the magnifying glass icon on the bottom right of the screen to open the Search page. Then, tap the Search bar, which is at the top of this page, to make the keyboard appear.
Now, use the keyboard to type in ABC Listen. Look for the search key on the keyboard and tap it to search for the app. The App Store will show some search results. In this demonstration, the ABC Listen app is the second search result displayed.
Tap on the Get button to install the app. A pop-up box will appear, showing the Apple ID account that's logged into the iPad. This is the account you'll use to download the app. Tap the blue Install button. You may be asked to enter the password for your Apple ID account. Enter your password, then tap the blue Sign in button, to install the ABC Listen app.
Another box might appear, asking if you'd like your iPad to remember your password for additional app downloads in the next 15 minutes. This can be handy if you're planning to download several apps in one sitting, but a safer option is to select Always Require. This ensures you have to enter your password before downloading all free and paid apps. Tap on it now.
Remember, you can always change this in your iPad's Settings app if you change your mind.
Once the ABC Listen app has finished installing, an 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.
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen, to close the App Store and return to the Home screen. Now, let's find the ABC Listen app icon. Your iPad can have several pages of Home screens, depending on how many apps you have. If you can't see the ABC Listen app icon on the first Home screen, swipe left to see it on the next one.
When you've found the app icon, tap it to open the ABC Listen app. The first time you open this app it will ask if you want to set up an account. This is optional, so you can tap Not now. It might also ask if you want it to detect your location, so it can find your local ABC radio station. This is also optional, so you can tap Not Now.
The Home screen of the ABC Listen app will be open. At the top of the page are radio stations that you can tune into. 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 iPad 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. Swipe through the podcasts to explore them. 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 search for a podcast.
The Search button is the last option in the menu at the top left of the screen. Tap it, to open the Search screen.
The Browse by topic list organises podcasts into categories, and you can tap a topic category, such as News, to see all ABC News 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 iPad's keyboard will appear. Type in The Health Report. It 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 other 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 iPad as it's playing. This is called streaming. If your iPad 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 cloud icon with a downward arrow to the bottom right of the episode description. Downloading a podcast will save it to your iPad, so you can listen to it later, even if you're not connected to the internet.
Tap the Download Podcast icon and it will start downloading to your iPad. 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 Favourites button in the menu of options at the top left of the screen. Tap it, to open Favourites on the right side of the screen. Look for Downloads, which is the second option in this list. Tap it to open the Downloads screen. Here is a list of the podcast episodes that have been downloaded to our iPad. For this demonstration, there's just one in the list. Tap on it and the podcast will start playing automatically.
[Podcast Plays] This is an ABC podcast. I know you've got this story on the risk of heart disease via calcium in your heart. [Narrator]
A banner will appear at the bottom left of the screen, with the cover artwork of the podcast you're listening to, plus the name of the podcast and 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 that look like the number 15 inside an arrow. 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.
Let's look at the Sleep Timer feature, which is one of the icons at the top right of the screen that looks like a clock. Tap it to see the Sleep Timer options. Here, you can set a time for the podcast to stop playing. For this demonstration, we'd like the podcast to stop playing at the end of the episode, rather than auto playing another episode, so tap End of the current episode.
Now, tap Done at the top right to return to the podcast.
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 name of the podcast, to see more details about this episode, including the show notes. You'll see some buttons above the show notes. Tap the last button that looks like three horizontal dots in a white circle. Some options will pop up. Tap View program, to go to the main screen for the podcast. Now, tap the Follow icon, which can be found under the podcast description, and looks like an outline of a heart. You may be asked if you want to save to an account. Tap Not Now. At the bottom right of the screen, look for the switch next to Auto download new episodes. When this setting is on, the ABC Listen app will automatically download new episodes of this podcast when you're connected to Wi-Fi, so you can listen to them later when you're not connected to the internet.
If you have a SIM in your iPad, you can even listen to them when you're out and about without using your mobile data. This is a handy feature, so tap the switch, to turn this setting on. When this setting is on, the switch will be pink, and your iPad will automatically download new episodes of this podcast.
The heart icon is now full, which means you're following this podcast. If you change your mind, tap it again to unfollow it.
Since we chose to Auto download episodes of this podcast, the switch next to Auto download new episodes is pink which means that this setting is on. If we want to change this setting, we could tap this switch to turn auto download off.
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 twice, then tap the down arrow to go back to the Downloads screen. Tap the back arrow once more to go to the Favourites screen. Remember, you can always tap Favourites in the menu on the left to get to this screen. The Health Report now appears here in the Favourite programs list. Tap this to go to the main podcast page and listen to it.
To finish this course, let's look at how to automatically delete podcasts after you've listened to them, to make room on your iPad for new episodes.
From the Favourites screen, tap the Settings icon, which is in the top left of the screen and looks like a person, to go to the Settings screen. Look for the Downloads option, which is under Listen Later, and tap it to open the Downloads Settings screen. Right at the top is the Delete 24 hrs after listening setting. Tap this switch so that it moves to the right and changes colour. This switch is now on, and episodes will be deleted 24 hours after you've listened to them.
To finish up, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to close the ABC Listen app and return to the Home screen.
You've learned how to use the ABC Listen app to find your 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.