ReadWriteWeb has posted a surprisingly pessimistic look at recent stats on how many people in the US are willing to pay for access to online news: 80% of US Consumers Won’t Pay For Online News.

They cite two sources on this:

• According to a new Forrester Survey, 80% say they wouldn’t bother to access newspaper and magazine content online if it were no longer free.
• According to the Boston Consulting Group, cited in the New York Times, 48% of all Internet users would be willing to pay for the news that they read online.

RRW’s angle on this is surprisingly pessimistic because 20%-48% of US Internet users say they would pay to access news content online. That’s 100 million people or more.

Compare that to the percentage of people that are willing to pay to read a traditional newspaper. The New York Times, for example, has a daily circulation of 928,000, in a city of 8,363,710. That’s only about 11%.

Internet users are 2 to 4 times as willing to pay for online news as New Yorkers are to pay for one of the best newspapers in the world.

What do you think? Is the cup half empty for paid Internet media or half full?

Blue Microphones has introduced Blue FiRe (App Store link), a free, high-fidelity field recording app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, developed in partnership with Audiofile Engineering.

Blue FiRe is optimized for use with Blue Microphone’s Mikey microphone, which attaches to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Coupled with the Mikey, Blue FiRe provides high-fidelity recordings in mono and stereo, while allowing users to see the audio waveform in real-time.

Features:

• Navigation of waveform via double-tap with configurable behavior.
• Configurable time units display.
• Record For, Record Until, Record Over Threshold and settings.
• Quality settings: Low (11.025 kHz), Medium (22.050 kHz) and High (44.1 kHz).
• Browser based file export via local web server.
• WAV, AIFF, CAF (Core Audio Format).

If you’ve used Blue FiRe or the Blue Microphone Mikey, leave a comment with your thoughts!

If you do location recording, you probably use a battery-powered portable audio recorder.

WingFieldAudio did a battery life comparison test on the recorders that they sell, and found that there was a huge range in how long the recorders could work.

Here are their top 10:

10 Top Long-Lasting Battery-Powered Portable Audio Recorders

1. Sony PCM-M10 – 43.0 hours
2. Sony PCM-D50 – 25.5 hours
3. Olympus LS-11 – 19.2 hours
4. Olympus LS-10 – 8.5 hours
5. Tascam DR-07 – 7.5 hours
6. Marantz PMD620 – 6.4 hours
7. Zoom H2 – 6.3 hours
8. Marantz PMD661 – 5.8 hours
9. Tascam DR-1 – 5.8 hours
10. Edirol R-09HR – 5.3 hours

Battery life is just one factor in choosing a portable audio recorder – but if it’s important to you, the list is an eye-opener.

Open source media platform Boxee has announced plans to partner with consumer electronics manufacturers to create a Boxee Box platform – an open Internet video hardware set top box.

Here’s the text of their announcement:

We launched our public alpha for Mac/Linux in January at CES. During the show we met with several device manufactures interested in embedding Boxee into their existing devices or building a dedicated Boxee device.

I am very happy to announce we have signed our first partnership with a CE company. At this point we can not say more about the partner or the specs of the device, but we can tell you we are working closely with them to make sure we deliver a great Boxee experience on it.

We will show mockups of the box and share more details at our upcoming Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, NY on Dec 7th. RSVP here.

Over the next few years there will be a great change in the way we consume entertainment on our TV. The Internet is (finally) coming to the TV and with it will come a whole new world of content, applications and innovations.

We are building Boxee as a platform that would:

• make it easy for users to consume and find content – no matter what the source
• give content owners, aggregators, and developers the tools to create unique experiences with a variety of business models
• enable CE companies to enhance their Connected devices

This will be the first connected device running Boxee, but the idea is to provide consumers with a way to get Boxee in their living rooms, no matter whether it’s on a Connected TV, game console, set-top box, BluRay player, computer, etc.

Our goal is to be on every Connected device in the living room.

Apple TV showed tremendous promise when it was announced, because it offered a way to play Internet video and user-generated content on your TV.

Apple TV has stagnated, though, while the open platform Boxee has blazed forward, so the idea of a Boxee Box is a very interesting development.

What do you think? Will the Boxee Box beat Apple TV and turn Internet television from a “hobby” into the future of television?

YouTube has announced that they are now supporting HD Internet video sharing up to 1080p:

We’re excited to say that support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is on its way. Starting next week, YouTube’s HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from our maximum output of 720p today.

As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content. For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience.

Here’s an example, the official trailer for Toy Story 3:

YouTube also announced that, if you have previously uploaded a video in HD, it will re-encoded so tha it can be watched in HD.

YouTube is very quickly going to have the largest collection of free HD video in the world. Now, if there was just an easy way to watch it on your TV…..

Blue Microphones has introduced Yeti, the first THX Certified microphone and, according to the company, the “ultimate USB microphone for professional recording.”

Yeti Features:

• The first USB mic to offer Blue’s condenser capsules in a  triple capsule array for the highest quality, most versatile audio recording capability
• Four patterns (Omni, Cardioid, Stereo, Bidirectional) for  versatility and superior results
• THX certification
• Studio quality performance and features, with zero latency, amplified headphone monitoring, microphone mute, and hardware-based gain adjustment
• Driverless installation and works with both PC and Mac.
• The Yeti’s angle can be adjusted on its custom-designed desk stand.

The Yeti microphone is designed to offer quality recordings in a wide range of situations, including podcasts, vocals, live or event recording, interviews, broadcasts, instruments, bands and more.

“THX testing and certification ensures the fidelity of the recording always remains true to its source” according to Matthew Chrispen, director of certification at THX, “allowing artists to accurately capture voice-overs, interviews and other sound elements with confidence.”

The Yeti, MSRP $149.99, will be available beginning December 2009.

Panasonic today introduced a new iPod dock, the MW-10 iPod dock/photo frame, that does everything but do your dishes.

Features:

• Built-in CD player;
• FM/AM radio tuner;
• 45-station (30-FM/15-AM) Preset Memory;
• Rigid, low-density bamboo cones;
• D.Bass function enhances bass in conjunction with the volume level;
• Universal Dock for iPod plays music and video downloads;
• Remote control which makes it easy to operate the iPod from a distance;
• 9-inch WVGA LCD can display photos from a CD, SD Memory Card and internal memory;
• 4 GB of internal memory stores image data for up to 6,000** photo; and
• Advanced display offers a combination of screen options: clock and iPod track menu, calendar and photos, clock and photos, and audio and calendar;

Panasonic’s MW-10 will be available in December 2009 with a suggested retail price of $299.95.

The iPod has inspired a lot of really boring me-too iPod docks.

They weren’t good enough for Pete Verrando, though, who used a vintage Philco Dynamic Tester to create what could be the coolest iPod dock ever.

The cabinet is a vintage Philco Dynamic Tester, from 1946. Known then as a Signal Tracer, which is just a small amplifier/speaker combination with an external probe for fixing audio equipment.

Inside the cabinet is a 10 watt integrated solid-state amplifier, and a high quality Blaupunkt 5 1/4″ coaxial loudspeaker with a massive ceramic magnet. The cabinet is air-sealed and fiberglass blanketed to create an infinite baffle enclosure.

What is remarkable about this ordinary piece of test gear is the beauty of the cabinet enclosure. It’s heavy gauge steel, with a chromed brass front panel, imprinted with engine turnings. The Philco nameplate on top is reverse painted blue and silver.

This thing looks like you could drive a tank over it.

If you know of any other incredible DIY iPod docks, leave a comment!

via retrothing

Justine Ezarik put together her take on how to make a YouTube video.

Ezarik talks about her gear, which is a pretty sophisticated setup:

• Nikon D90
• Nikon Coolpix S70
• Blue Snowflake Microphone
• Random tripod I bought at Radio Shack 10 minutes before shooting
• Joby gorilla pod
• iPhone to playback audio
• SanDisk Extreme III 4g / 8g cards
• FinalCut Pro
• My new 8 core Mac Pro thanks to the Price is Right
• Lighting is just some lamp from target!

While Ezarik has a hefty investment in gear, she makes clear in the video that her gear is a lot less important than the fact that she’s ready and willing to look insane.

Make sure you check out the expressions of the people in the background as she shoots her video!

Internet video site Vidly has announced that it will now let you share HD videos via Twitter:

We’re excited and proud to announce that Vidly is the first Twitter video service to support full 720p HD video.

Traditionally, video on Twitter has been low quality UGC. We want to encourage sharing of high quality content to see Twitter become a real promotional channel for filmmakers, large or small. Twitter’s promotional potential is not fully realized, imagine movie trailers and music videos from original content creators.

To celebrate the launch, in partnership with Pure Digital, we’re running a contest called “Flip Fridays” where we’re giving away Vidly branded Flip MinoHDs every Friday to get everyone in the HD spirit. Flip was kind enough to sponsor the contest to help promote HD on Twitter.

Vidly lets you record and share videos using your computer or iPhone, and it also lets you upload existing videos to share.

I’m skeptical about the value that Vidly offers.

Sure – it lets you share HD videos via Twitter – but why not just put your video on YouTube or Vimeo, sites with built-in audiences, and then share it on Twitter? It’s not clear what problem sites like Vidly solve.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is using Vidly, though.

Is it because Vidly offers a unique solution – or because California’s too broke to host their own videos?

via VentureBeat