MobileMe is shutting down. If you host a podcast there you will need to move it soon. Here are the things you will need to do:

• Find a new place to host your web site and / or media files.
• Change Feeder’s settings and upload the files to the new location.
• If your feed URL has changed, tell iTunes to check the new location.

Hosting

You will need to get some kind of web hosting with enough storage space to host your files and providing enough bandwidth for your needs. You can see how much storage space you need by looking at how much is used by your podcast files on your iDisk in the Finder. To find out how much bandwidth you have been using each month, look at the Summary section on http://www.me.com. Click “Details” next to the Data Transfer figure for a full breakdown.

Most podcasters either use general-purpose web hosting (e.g. GoDaddy or Dreamhost) alone or a hosted weblog (such as one from wordpress.com or Google’s Blogger) in conjunction with something like Amazon S3 or Libsyn to serve the media files, or some combination of those.

Feeder has the ability to publish feeds and enclosures to different servers and can also post to most blogs automatically, so you can choose the solution that best suits your needs.

Changing Feeder’s Settings

Before changing the settings for your feed, first make a copy of it.

• To duplicate a feed, select it and choose File > Duplicate from the menu.
• If you like, you can change the name of the feed in the sidebar to show which is which. This name only appears in Feeder and not the feed itself.

To change the settings:

• Click Publish, then click the Settings button.
• From the Server pop-up menu, choose New Server to create a new server to use when publishing.
• Adjust the other details as necessary. The top section of the settings concerns the feed itself and you can expand the Enclosure and Images sections to change the settings for those too.

When you are done, publish the feed to make sure it all works. You may see an alert to submit your feed to the iTunes Store. You do not need to submit it again, but unless iTunes is using a FeedBurner URL, you will need to follow the instructions below to change the feed’s URL in iTunes after you have completed the other steps.

The next step is to upload the media files to the new server. Start with your artwork:

• Click the (i) button in the lower left of the window to show the Info list.
• Select “iTunes Podcasting” from the list (“Feed” must be selected above the list).
• Click on the artwork and choose “Upload Settings” from the menu, then check the “Upload Next Time Feed Published” checkbox. The Upload Settings option will not be available if the artwork file can no longer be found. Drag the artwork from your iDisk to the artwork box instead.
• Publish your feed.

Next you will need to upload your media files again. It is up to you to decide whether to upload only the most recent files or all of them:

• Double-click each item to edit.
• Check the Upload checkbox in the Enclosure section. If you do not see a checkbox, the enclosure file will no longer associated with the item and you will only see the URL, Type and Length fields. Drag the file from your iDisk to the Enclosure section to attach it again.
• Close the window and choose to save the changes.
• Publish your feed.

Updating iTunes

If the server move means that your feed’s URL will change, you need to tell the iTunes Store and subscribers to check the new URL. You can do this by publishing the original feed one more time with its New Feed URL field filled out.

Note you do not need to do this if you are using FeedBurner to track your podcast, instead you will need to tell FeedBurner to use the new URL in your feed’s settings there. You can get that URL by choosing File > Copy Feed URL from the menu.

To set the New Feed URL:

• With your newly published feed selected, choose File > Copy Feed URL from the menu.
• Select the original feed that you duplicated earlier.
• Go to the “iTunes Podcasting” section in the Info list again.
• Scroll down to the very bottom and paste the URL into the New Feed URL field.
• Publish the feed.

The iTunes Store checks your feed every day or so and new subscriptions will use the new settings straight away. Existing subscribers will switch to using the new feed the next time their feeds are refreshed.

Allison Sheridan has created a ScreenSteps (which looks very cool) tutorial on how to create a podcast feed for Feeder as part of her Podcasting on Podcasting series.

You can hear Allison give the tutorial on PoP Episode #9 (enhanced podcast) and read it on her site: Feeder Tutorial.

The Podcasting on Podcasting (PoP) series should prove very useful to budding podcasters as the entire process can be very daunting, as it covers everything from the technical side of recording equipment, software and web hosting on the one hand, and the creative aspect on the other, not to mention considerations such as time and family commitments.

Allison’s been podcasting for a long time now, and occasionally brings in other experienced contributors such as Don McAllister of the excellent ScreenCastsOnline.

The Podcasting on Podcasting series can be found as part of Allison’s main podcast, NosillaCast, at podfeet.com. Allison also contributes to the Mac Roundtable Podcast and the Mac ReviewCast.

Podcast production application, Übercaster, hits version 1.0 today. This follows a significant period of private and public beta testing, during which time the application has already built a reputation as a powerful yet intuitive application for recording and producing podcasts.

Übercaster brings everything podcasters need into one application and does this very well, as it has been designed for podcasting from the beginning.

Its comprehensive feature set includes live audio recording, multi-track editing and integration with Skype, iChat or Gizmo for recording interviews – with the neat trick that all participants can hear the audio you play in addition to the regular conversation.

Übercaster can also add tags and artwork, create enhanced podcasts, encode and upload the finished recordings to FTP servers, weblogs, .Mac and specialized podcasting hosting services such as Podshow+.

So is there anything Übercaster doesn’t do? Believe it or not, yes! Übercaster doesn’t create RSS feeds. Enter Feeder!

As of today you can purchase Übercaster and Feeder together as part of a special bundle. Übercaster is normally $79.95 and Feeder $29.95, but these two great applications can be purchased together for only $95, saving around 15%.

The bundle is available from the Übercaster store and links are available on Feeder’s product pages too.

Even if you are a podcaster and don’t need the bundle, you really should check out Übercaster for yourself. It is a very impressive application and deserves every success.

Congratulations to Eberhard and Sebastian of Pleasant Software for the People on this much-anticipated 1.0 release.

Anton Linecker has written an interesting piece for Macworld, using Feeder to demonstrate how to create a password-protected podcast feed on .Mac:

Password protected podcasts with .Mac

Feeder 1.3.5 is now available and this includes support for the new iTunes podcast categories Apple introduced with iTunes 6.0.5 last week.

Feeder will upgrade any existing categories using the same mappings as FeedBurner, so all you need to do is publish your feed again. You may want to review the new categories to see if any of those fit your podcast better – you can do this in the iTunes section of the Info drawer.

Apple says it could take up to two weeks for changes to your categories to take effect in the iTunes Music Store, so bear that in mind when checking your changes. It also appears to be taking some time for the new categories to be populated, but I understand Apple is working on that.

FeedValidator has also been updated to support the new categories, so if FeedValidator says your feed is valid and you are having problems with the iTunes Music Store, your best course of action is to check Apple’s Producing Podcasts discussion forum, otherwise please get in touch.