Podcasting: What's Up With That?

I've never really gotten into podcasting. Maybe cause the name does such a bad job of describing what it really is. That or people use the term to describe so many things that aren't really podcasts that it has lost any real meaning. The term comes from a combination of "broadcasting" and "iPod" -- because it is supposed to be a way of broadcasting MP3s to portable listening devices. But can you really broadcast to an iPod ... or most other MP3 players? It's not like most of them have Bluetooth or wi-fi. And does an automated system like RSS that pulls MP3s down to your computer to be synch'd with your MP3 player really count as broadcasting? Half the time I hear people talk about podcasts they are simply talking about the last MP3 they downloaded and listened to on their desktop or laptop ... what the hell is "podcasting" about that? Someone sent me a "podcast" the other day to listen to. It was an IM with a link to a MP3 that I listened to with iTunes. None of that has anything to do with "broadcasting" or "iPods".