The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and maybe "broadcast",[1] the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed (see history of podcasting). These scripts allowed podcasts to be automatically transferred to a mobile device after they are downloaded.[2]
Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed
to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats
such as RSS or Atom.
