Kevin Nalty (Nalts) has published a free eBook on How To Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent

Nalty explains, “The original motive in publishing this was to help people avoid getting scammed by stupid products or services that promise to boost your YouTube views.”

He originally published How To Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent back in January 2008 – but it’s just as relevant as ever – so Nalty has released an updated version.

Retrevo has announced results of a study done after the Apple iPad introduction, looking at consumer interest in buying the new iPad.

According to Retrevo, “Not only did Apple fail to convince new buyers, it may have lost many potential buyers who now say they don’t think they need an Apple tablet computer”

After the announcement, the percentage of people that were definitely not interested in the iPad jumped from 49% to 61%.

The rumormill is abuzz with talk about the Zune Phone, aka Windows Phone 7, which many expect to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress on Feb 15th.

Microsoft is expected to announce:

• Full Zune Integration
• The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”, and will be similar to the Zune HD User Interface.
• Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
• Full support for social networking – unfortunately, no details on what this means.
• Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
• No Multi-Task support.
• No Flash support.
• Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
• No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumor of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
• Devices will be ready by September 2010
• OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc.
• Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)

If these rumors pan out, the Zune Phone will be Microsoft’s attempt to turn the iPhone into a commodity. It won’t matter who you get your Windows Phone 7 device from, it’s going to look sort of iPhone-like.

The New York Times has introduced a new Freakonomics podcast:

Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, are books that explore “the hidden side of everything.”

Now there’s a Freakonomics podcast, hosted by Dubner.

Prepare to be enlightened, engaged, perhaps enraged, and definitely surprised.

You can subscribe by adding this podcast feed to your podcast client:

http://podcasts.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/freakonomicsradio.xml

Freakonomics Podcast Details

Bodelin has updated ProPrompter (App Store link), its $9.99 app that turns your iPhone into a teleprompter.

ProPrompter can be used in conjunction with an iPhone camera mount to create a cheap teleprompting system.

Features:

• Smooth scrolling teleprompter software
• Remote Control your scroll pace with a second device installed with the ProPrompter app
• Create or edit scripts in the text editor
• Import text by copy/paste from email or from ProPrompter Producer site
• Choose background color, font, font size, and font color
• ALL CAPS option for any font selection
• Landscape, Portrait and Automatic prompter orientation
• Multiple scroll speed selections with on-the-fly adjustment during prompting
• Cue points for fast re-cueing
• Adjustable countdown
• Loop function for multiple takes
• Mirror function for use with true in-lens ProPrompter teleprompters
• Extensive help menu

The company has announced plans to support the Apple iPad with their ProPrompter HD.

Lost star Jorge “Hurley” Garcia has launched a new podcast, Geronimo Jack’s Beard, to coincide with the start of Lost Season Six:

Hello everyone! Welcome to the blog for Geronimo Jack’s Beard, a LOST podcast brought to you by Sidekick22 and that other guy.

This podcast has been waiting a long time to finally be heard. We began recording episodes way back in August ’09 when LOST began filming its sixth and final season.

While we may not always completely make sense or know what’s actually going on, and we may have accidentally deleted pieces of what we’ve recorded at times, we hope that the podcasts are at least entertaining enough for you to listen to.

Please keep in mind that you will not hear any spoilers from us at all. None.

WordPress.org has announced that WordPress for Blackberry is now available.

New in WordPress for BlackBerry 1.0:

• Record and upload videos from your phone.
• Support for the HD video service VideoPress.
• Streamlined UI and functionality relating to comment moderation
• Overall enhancements to the speed and stability of the app

No word on when the video blogging features will make it to WordPress for iPhone.

WordPress for BlackBerry is free and open source.

The Apple iPad may have debuted to mixed reactions from tech analysts – but it’s clear that Apple’s new tablet computer already has competitors struggling to find ways to stay competitive.

Three examples have cropped up in the last few days:

Amazon announced that it is buying Touchco – a start-up based in New York that specializes in touch-screen technology. It’s stuck playing catch up now, because the Kindle represents horseless carriage design – new technology that’s weighed down by concepts of the past. You can’t slap a touchscreen on the Kindle and try to compete with the iPad, though, that would just be putting lipstick on a pig.

Amazon’s going to have to either reimagine the Kindle brand or cut prices.

Microsoft is reportedly slashing prices on the Zune HD: The 16GB version of the Zune HD, which previously retailed for $229, now costs $199. And the 32GB version dropped from $299 to $269.

Microsoft focused on making a better iPod than the iPod, and made a pretty valiant attempt to do it. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the Zune HD solves problems that have already been solved – and portable media players are already on their way out.

Meanwhile, Fusion Garage announced that it’s moving into production with its JooJoo tablet. The device focuses on doing one thing – being a handheld Web browsing device. The sad thing about the JooJoo is that it’s almost cool  – but it will be competing against the iPad, which is exponentially more powerful.

The iPad is an entirely new platform for development, while the JooJoo is handheld Web browser. People will be creating entirely new types of content for the iPad. People will use the JooJoo to surf the Web on their sofa. Or in the bathroom.

Why are these devices also-rans?

It’s not because Apple is making them irrelevant.

It’s because the devices gave us better ways to do things that we don’t want to do anymore.

We’re still waiting for that flying car – so giving us an incrementally better way to read books, surf the Web or listen to music just doesn’t cut it.

Video podcast network Revision3 has announced its growth results for 2009, highlighting several milestones for the company:

• Revision3’s programs were viewed nearly 70M times during 2009;
• Revenue grew 30%;
• Average deal size grew by 50%; and
• They added Ford, Adidas, Coors, Nokia and Panasonic as major advertisers.

Revision3 also added 10 new shows in 2009:

• Video Games: CO-OP, Bytejacker
• Technology : HD Nation, AppJudgment
• Culture & Film: Film Riot, Digg Dialogg
• Comedy: Web Zeroes, LandlineTV, INST MSGS, ROFL

Revision3 is best known for its hit Diggnation, but also has hits with Tekzilla and Scam School, which both had more than 1 million monthly views in 2009.

Video distribution and analytics company Tubemogul reports that as many as 25% abandon online videos if the videos begin with an advertisement:

• Overall, 15.89% of viewers click away from a video rather than sit through a pre-roll ad.
• The trend is far more pronounced with top magazines and newspapers, where 24.85% of viewers click away.
• For large broadcasters, only 10.9% of viewers click away during an ad.

According to Tubemogul, “These results present a clear tradeoff: run pre-roll ads, and potentially lose up to a quarter of your audience. It paints a picture to publishers that is not entirely positive about pre-rolls.”

But that’s the good news.