Podcast dictionary: A-O

• EPISODE: a single transmission or a single show of a podcast.
• IPOD: All MP3 players produced by Apple are called iPods in general. The iPod was the MP3 player that created the breakthrough of the MP3 player. Today, it is still the most popular MP3 player.
• LINUX: A UNIX-like operation system, it kan run on a PC. Linux is an open source system, ie the code for Linux is openly available and usually is free.
• MAC: A computer, that uses an operation system from Apple (like OS X).
• MP3: An open format for storing sound recordings like music. The MP3 format is widely used and is supported by all MP3 players, including all iPods and all new cell phones. The MP3 format is compressed, ie MP3 files take up less disk space than uncompressed sound formats. The price is that the sound quality suffers. The amount of compression can be varied. A bitrate of 256-320 is considered a very good quality. A bitrate of 160-192 is considered good, while a bitrate of 128 or less is not so good, but the lower bitrated produces smaller files. Podcasters usually use quite low bitrates.
• MP3 PLAYER: A small portable player. It corresponds to the previous cassette players and cd players but instead of playing cassette tapes or cds it plays MP3 files. Many MP3 players can also play files in other formats than MP3. Some MP3 players can even play video files.
• NETCAST: Synonym. See PODCAST.
• OPEN SOURCE: A term for software developed in the common space, ie usually there is not a specific owner of the software. Open source software is usually free.