Adding a little sophistication to your aural pleasure is easy when you know how. Stuffing your phone full of music is fine, but sometimes the spoken word is needed just to ease the pain of commuting. Don’t worry about needing radio reception though, pack your phone with podcasts and you’re listening desires will be well and truly served. Here’s all you need…

What’s the point?

Your phone can download podcasts wherever you are, so you’ll always have something new to listen to and won’t have to trudge home and sync with your PC to get hold of new shows.

Is it free?

Completely.

Sold! How do I do it?

Step 1: There are some unofficial apps that’ll bring podcasts to your mobile, like Virgin Radio’s player and AudioBay’s Podcast Player, but on the whole they’re unreliable and in the case of AudioBay’s player, cost money. Nokia’s is the quickest, easiest and most reliable. Hit ‘Download’ on your phone’s main menu then select ‘Podcasting’ and follow the instructions to download and install it.

Step 2: Once it’s beamed to your mobile you’ll find it’s installed under your ‘Applications’ menu. Load it up and, unless you know the address of the podcast you want, select ‘Directories’. Here you’ll find a list of popular or innovative shows ready to be downloaded. Find something you like the look of, select it with the centre button and agree when it asks if you’d like to subscribe. If you already know the address of your podcast choose ‘Options’ and ‘New podcast’ from the Podcast screen then tap in the address.

Step 3: After you’ve picked your podcasts you’ll see them listed under the Podcasts screen. Click on one of them and you’ll see the episodes available. Click on an episode and it will start downloading.

Step 4: The Podcast app needs to update before it’ll show you which new episodes are available. If you want constant updates to your Podcasts list point your thumb at the ‘Options’ button, then ‘Settings’ and ‘Download’. Change the ‘Update interval’ to a time that suits you. If you mostly listen to weekly shows then once a day should suffice, if you’ve got a big appetite for podcasts get your phone to check every 15 minutes – that way you’ll see which ones are ready for download automatically.