Seton Hill University, a Catholic liberal-arts university based in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, has announced plans to give an Apple iPad to every full-time student in fall 2010.

According to the school:

The iPad initiative kicks off the University’s Griffin Technology Advantage Program. This new program provides students with the best in technology and collaborative learning tools, ensuring that Seton Hill students will be uniquely suited to whatever careers they choose – even those that have not yet been created.

This announcement comes so early – before the iPad is established and before we know what books will be available on the device – that this seems more like an iGimmick to generate buzz for the school than the start of a new trend.

With the release of the iPad, though, it suddenly seems insane for students to be spending $400 a semester on textbooks.

The Apple iPad will be available starting this Saturday – and it looks like the company has another hit product. Pre-orders are in the hundreds of thousands and iPad suppliers are forecasting 8 million to 10 million iPad shipments in 2010.

That’s a lot of iPads – and a lot of people that will now be reading eBooks. While the Kindle has been relatively successful niche product, the iPad is a mainstream multi-function device – and it is expected to ship with 30,000 free ebooks available.

With numbers like these, it’s clear that a new platform for publishing is here.

At Musikmesse 2010, a major audio and music industry convention held annually in Frankfurt, BOSS announced the BR-800, a compact portable audio workstation.

The BR-800 audio recorder can record four tracks at once to SD-card media. It has inputs for four microphones, built-in audio effects and can double as a USB audio interface and DAW control surface.

The BOSS BR-800 is scheduled for release in May with an MSRP of $525.

At Musikmesse 2010, an international audio & music trade show, Roland has introduced the R-05, a new $299 pocket recorder that offers some advanced features.

The R-05 provides stereo recording directly to SD card — up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution.

Features:

• High-quality stereo recording (24-bit / 96kHz) with the built-in stereo mic or external input.
• Records directly to SD card with extended battery life (over 30 hours continuous playback, over 16 hours continuous recording).
• Strong, attractive metallic exterior.
• Onboard editing functions; built-in reverb.
• Music-practice features (change tempo without changing pitch, loop playback, etc.).
• Auto record start, auto song split, auto level adjust.
• Pre Record function (captures 2 seconds of audio that precedes pressing REC).
• Use as a high-quality portable audio player (plays WAV and MP3 files).
• Windscreen and tripod mount included.

The R-05 is scheduled to ship in May.

GetMiro has announced that Miro 3 – the latest version of the free, open source multi-platform Internet TV application – is now available.

Here’s what’s new in Miro 3:

• Subtitles! If subtitles are embedded or in the same folder as your video, they will be available automatically in a new drop-down menu. Or pick any subtitle file.
• Faster Faster Faster! Miro is faster and snappier in all sorts of ways from downloading torrents to deleting lots of files. For example, launching Miro is over 150% faster! Downloading torrents is faster!
• Louder Louder Louder! The maximum volume for videos is now at least twice as high. Really nice for laptops.
• Edit file info Easily change the title, description, and category of a file.
• Play Externally We’ve added an option to play all files externally and a right-click menu for single items.

For more details of what’s new, see the Miro 3.0 Release Notes.

Variety reports that YouTube wunderkind Lucas Cruikshank is making the jump to television, taking his “Fred” character to Nickelodeon via a series of TV movies:

Fred: The Movie is based on the YouTube character Fred Figglehorn, created and played by Lucas Cruikshank.

“Fred” centers on a socially awkward and emotionally immature kid with a wild imagination. Cruikshank’s videos have been viewed over half a billion times.

“Fred: The Movie” also stars John Cena, Siobhan Fallon and Pixie Lott. Sharla Sumpter Bidgett and The Collective’s Gary Binkow and Evan Weiss are also producers.

Are You Ready For A “Fred” Movie?

Apple has updated its official recommendations on for how to submit your podcast to iTunes.

Here’s what they recommend:

Test Your Podcast Feed In iTunes:

You should first verify that you can successfully subscribe to your feed using the Advanced menu in iTunes:

1. Select Advanced, Subscribe To Podcast in iTunes;
2. Paste in the URL of your podcast feed and select “OK”;
3. Select the Podcast icon in the left navigation of iTunes. Verify that your podcast shows up as you expect it.

The Apple iPad is already the most popular eReader platform, according to new stats from comScore.

According to comScore’s research, the iPad rated highest in terms of consumers seriously considering purchase over the next three months at 15 percent of Internet users, with the Kindle at 14 percent.

Here’s how people interested in the iPad plan to use it:

• 50% – browsing the Internet;
• 48% – reading email;
• 38% – listening to music;
• 37% – reading books
• 36% – watching videos/movies;
• 35% – storing and viewing photos; and
• 34% – reading newspapers and magazines.

“The tablet and e-reader market is developing at a breakneck pace right now, and Apple’s entry into the market is sure to accelerate mainstream consumer adoption,” said Serge Matta, comScore executive vice president. “These devices have the potential to be incredibly disruptive to the way consumers currently access digital content.”

Many Americans spend more time watching TV than they do working, according to The Nielsen Company.

According to Nielsen, Americans are watching more and more television –  seven hours a day or more.

Other highlights of Nielsen’s research:

• Online video consumption is up 16% from last year;
• 44% of all online video is being viewed in the workplace; and
• Active mobile video users grew by 57% in the last year.

I’m skeptical about Nielsen’s statistics.

No one I know watches anywhere near 7 hours of television/day.

In fact, with the rise of Internet video, podcasting vlogs, YouTube – most people I know are spending a lot less time with passive media. The people I know are actively choosing the content they engage with, through Internet video, podcasting and social media.

Which means that for Nielsen’s numbers  to be right, a new breed of uber-couch potato that watches TV 14 hours a day must silently be on the rise.

Via photographer Alexx Henry comes this behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a high-end “motion magazine” spread for the Apple iPad:

With the iPad release a mere few weeks away, it’s only appropriate that we release our own bit of goodness.

Together with co-directors Cory Strassburger and Ming Hsiung, we produced a motion magazine cover and feature spread for Viv Mag – an all digital magazine, which would allow us to create content that will be able to live on the iPad and other tablet devices where digital magazines can live.

See this earlier post – Sex, The iPad & The Future Of Magazines – to see the final result.