Latest News

Shocking News: iPod Earbuds May Zap Your Ears

May 19th, 2009 | By | Category: iPod Accessories, iPods & Portable Media Players

From the Apple Support website, some hair-raising news (nyuk nyuk nyuk): “It’s possible to receive a small and quick electrical (static) shock from your earbuds while listening to iPod or iPhone.”

Yikes.

Turns out, when the air is very dry or very windy — or if you are excercising with your player in your pocket — using the headphones that come with your iPod, iPhone, or iPod Touch may cause static electricity to build up. “This condition is very similar to dragging your feet across a carpet and receiving a static shock by touching a door knob,” Apple Support says.

But instead of discharging the static by shocking your finger when you touch a doorknob or light switch, the discharge comes and zaps you through your earbuds.

This occurrence “does not necessarily indicate an issue with the iPod, iPhone, or earbuds,” according to the cautionary post, and could occur with any brand of earbuds.

To alleviate static build-up on your Apple portable media device, they suggest:

  • Avoid use in dry or windy environments.
  • If you have dry skin, try anti-static hand lotion.
  • Try wearing different clothes “with natural fibers. Synthetic fibers are more likely to hold a static charge.”
  • Avoid frequently “removing your device from your pockets…. Rubbing the device on certain materials can cause a static build up.”

Here is a bigger list of the dangers of new media that lurk at every turn.

Comments

Behringer Podcast/Twitter Gear Giveaway

May 19th, 2009 | By | Category: Audio Podcasting, Microblogging, Podcasting, Podcasting Hardware

Audio gear manufacturer Behringer is giving away a PodcaStudio gear kit in a Twitter-based contest:

To help you on your way to new media domination, Behringer is doing another Twitter giveaway.  This time, we are giving away an amazing PODCASTUDIO Firewire Kit that includes

  • a professional 8-input 2-bus mixer,
  • a professional large-diaphragm studio condenser microphone,
  • high-performance studio headphones,
  • a table microphone stand and windscreen,
  • professional audio software,
  • a high-resolution FireWire audio interface for both Windows XP and Mac OS X operating systems,
  • “How to Podcast” quick start guide, and more.

To enter, all you have to do is send a Twitter message (or Tweet) with the following text:
@BEHRINGERrocks Upgrade My #Podcast Giveaway

The last day to enter the first giveaway is Friday, May 22, 2009, at 5:00pm Pacific Time.  The next Monday, two winners will be drawn at random and announced via Twitter message.  Winners can claim their prize by sending a direct message to BEHRINGERrocks via Twitter with your real name and your address.

Contest entrants must be in the US or Canada.  For other rules and restrictions and what they call “fun legal stuff,” see the Behringer website.

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....

Another Quarter, Another Million: Wizzard Posts Q1 Loss

May 18th, 2009 | By | Category: Making Money with Podcasts, Podcast Hosting, Podcasting, Podcasting Networks

Podcasting network Wizzard Media announced its first-quarter figures on Friday. The bad news: the company reported a $1.3 million loss for the first quarter of 2009.

Revenue is down 29 percent from the same period in 2008. The company attributed the decline to the recession and “specifically mentioned a decrease in staffing revenue within its health care subsidiary,” the Pittsburgh Business Journal reported.

The better news: the $1.3 million loss is significantly less than this same time last year, when Wizzard reported a $2.75 million loss.

“The first quarter of 2009 was a challenging quarter across all segments of our business,” CEO Chris Spencer said in a statement. “We attribute this directly to the severe global recession and expect results to improve as economic conditions improve.”

Spencer also said “We also began a new monetization effort for our podcasting business through the use of iPhone Apps which we believe could significantly increase income for our podcast publishers in the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year.”

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....

DailyMotion Chooses ‘The Cabonauts’ As First US Commission

May 18th, 2009 | By | Category: Making Money with Podcasts, Video, Video Podcasts

Video hosting service DailyMotion has selected a new science fiction web series, The Cabonauts, as its first-ever US video commision. “The Cabonauts” is set in the year 2183, when “humans have finally conquered the stars,” but still need a cab to get from one spot to another. Cabonauts, Inc., is that intergalactic cab company.

An intergalactic cab company where the cabbies sing and dance, mind you, and the passengers look suspiciously like iconic stars of favorite sci-fi tv shows and movies. The show’s website describes it this way: “Think Hitchhiker’s Guide meets Flight of the Conchords, and you’re halfway there.”

The Cabonauts is the brainchild of Hayden Black, whose name may sound familiar to you, since he is also the creator of (and an actor in) the web series “Goodnight Burbank, and “Abigail’s Teen Diary.” I asked him to share more details about the new show, and about what it’s like to be commissioned by a big video portal:

Hayden Black: They took over 100 pitches before they went with us – so I’m very proud! DailyMotion is really invested in becoming a huge video destination website here in the US (from a global perspective, they already get over 55 million uniques a month) and to that end, they’ve brought in an ad sales team on both coasts, so it’s only going to help make the show a massive hit.

We’re also bringing in all sorts of sci-fi celebrities to play passengers – and one in particular who’ll play the co-starring, recurring role of the CEO of the Cabonauts company. This person is such a massive name in sci-fi that I was over the moon – no pun intended – when they said they’d come on board. We’ll reveal who that person is as well as the other names later this year…!

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: When exactly will The Cabonauts debut on DailyMotion?

Hayden Black: Later this year – probably 3rd Quarter.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: How often do new episodes come out, and how many episodes will be in the first season?

Hayden Black: Fifteen episodes. How often they get published, that’s yet to be determined; but it would be great to have one released every week or two.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: What do you think swayed Daily Motion to choose you from among so many proposals? The Cabonauts must have had a special something to stand out in the crowd. What do you think that special ingredient is?

Hayden Black: I actually have the answer to that! Joy Marcus was going through tons of proposals and asked her friend who worked in development what she thought a good criteria for picking a comedy pitch was. The friend said, “Has anything made you laugh?” And our pitch was the only one that had made her laugh out loud.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: How do you manage to produce (and act in) several web series all at the same time? Seems like that would be crazy scheduling.

Hayden Black: It is. Which is why we’re crossing over from doing all shows, all the time, to [working in] seasons. We just finished shooting a brand new 20 episode season of Goodnight Burbank’s that you can see at Babelgum, and Abigail will be back shortly, too.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Anything else you want to be sure that I mention?

Hayden Black: Just how happy I am to be working with Daily Motion and their first ever original commission – and how great I hope The Cabonauts will be! My fingers are tightly crossed.

Black also shared that a full-on production blog is being launched later this week, which will include behind the scenes videos of set design, interviews with the cast, and regular updates. You can also follow The Cabonauts on Twitter, and all of Black’s projects at Evil Global Corp. as well.

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....

Ricky Gervais Podcast To Get Animated For HBO

May 18th, 2009 | By | Category: Audio Podcasting, Corporate Podcasts, General, Video

UK comedy blog Chortle reports that Ricky Gervais’ world-record breaking podcast is getting turned into an animated series for HBO:

The 13 half-hour episodes, due to air next year, could make an unlikely star of sidekick Karl Pilkington, whose strange opinions they mercilessly mock.

‘Karl is a man who believes that a sea lion is a cross between a fish and a dog,’ the pair told Hollywood trade paper Variety. ‘Hopefully, Karl will enter the pantheon of animated greats.’

Modi Wiczyk of Media Rights Capital, which is producing the show, added: ‘They find him to be the funniest person in the world. Ricky says Karl is like crack to him.’

The series is being co-produced by Wildbrain, the animation studio behind the kids’ show Yo Gabba Gabba.

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....

Washington Post Looks For Government Handout To “Save Journalism”

May 16th, 2009 | By | Category: Commentary, General

The Washington Post published a piece today by Bruce W. Sanford and Bruce D. Brown that argues that the US government needs to step in and enact laws to “save journalism”:

Unless Congress embarks on far-reaching change in public policy to maintain the viability of journalism as it evolves online, we will soon find ourselves with the remnants of a broken industry incapable of providing the knowledge necessary to manage life in a complex world.

Sanford and Brown go on to make a variety of suggestions for ways the government “save journalism”:

  • Redefine copyright so that what search engines practice do when they crawl the Web is “not fair use but infringement.” According to The Washington Post, this would force search engines “to negotiate with copyright holders over the value of their content.”
  • Federalize the “hot news” doctrine. This would allow news publishers to sue websites that spread news stories.
  • Give newspaper publishers tax breaks. Washington state has already slashed taxes on newspapers by 40 percent.
  • Subsidize print advertising – The Washington Post would like to see Congress “provide incentives for placing ads with content creators (not with Craigslist)”.

In other words, The Washington Post thinks that the only thing that will save journalism from Google, Craigslist and bloggers is a heaping serving of government pork.

The Washington Post’s argument would seem pathetic is it weren’t so maddening.

Read more »

Comments

VTech Makes Traditional Radio Irrelevant

May 15th, 2009 | By | Category: General, Podcasting

VTech has introduced a new $200 WiFi radio that promises to make traditional radio irrelevant.

The horribly named VTech IS9181 is a Wi-Fi music streaming device, designed to make accessing the near-infinte variety of Internet radio as easy as traditional radio.

The IS9181 connects to any wireless network (802.11 b & g) and lets you access more than 11,000 free Internet radio stations worldwide. It also lets you access audio files (MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, Real) stored on you Wi-Fi-enabled computer (PC or Mac). The IS9181 also offers localized weather (based on zip code).

The End Of Traditional Radio In The Home?

The IS9181, and devices like it, are going to rapidly make traditional radios obsolete.

The device works like a radio, but it gives you access to thousands of stations that you can’t get on a traditional radio, while still giving you local weather.

How long can traditional radio, and even satellite radio, last with competition like this?

Read more »

Comments

Free iPhone App Records Audio & Saves It Directly To The Internet

May 15th, 2009 | By | Category: iPhone, Podcasting Software

Calabarock (App Store link) is a free internet-enabled multi-track audio recorder for the iPhone.

When you create a track in Calabarock, it’s available almost instantly in MP3 format on calabarock.com for others to hear.

The new track is also available instantly for other musicians to play on top of, just as if you were in the studio laying down one track at a time on a multi-track recorder.

If you’ve used Calabarock, leave a comment with your thoughts!

NOTE: 3G network access is great for browsing and listening to Calabarock tracks, but WiFi access is recommended (for speed purposes) when recording.

via Synthtopia

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....

Ninjas Release Free iPhone App

May 14th, 2009 | By | Category: iPods & Portable Media Players

The new media masterminds behind Ask A Ninja have release a free iPhone application, I Am Ninja: Archery (App Store link):

Get ready for some classic Ninja versus CPU bow-bending, arrow-gliding, archery action! You are a Ninja, standing alone in the woods, with a bamboo wall separating you from your opponent. Sometimes it’s day and sometimes it’s night. But no matter what time it is, your opponent wants to KILL you.

Yeah, the free app is a teaser for the full Ask A Ninja iPhone app – but that’s why they’re new media masterminds, right?

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....

Podcast Audience Growing Faster Than Podcast Advertising

May 13th, 2009 | By | Category: Featured Story, Making Money with Podcasts

Podcast advertising revenue is growing, but not as quickly as for other online media. An article today from eMarketer says that by 2011, podcast ad spending will grow to $43 million — but that amount comes to “less than 0.2% of [media services firm] ZenithOptimedia‘s projection for the total online advertising space.”

ZenithOptimedia, a communications strategy company, forecasts that $28 million will be spent on podcast advertising in the United States this year. They expect it to grow at an increasing rate over the next several years. But the podcast advertising industry will not grow as quickly as, or to the magnitude of, other online media like paid search, display ads, or Internet radio.

Compared with terrestrial radio (which is losing ad money, year-to-year) with a forecast $14 billion in revenue, eMarketer says, “The appetite for podcasts is fairly light.”

“Much like blogging, podcasting is proving to be profitable to those who have premium content, but less so to everyday citizens who use the medium to reach long-tail audiences,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst in the article.

But should you consider this report bad news for podcasters, or the downloadable media industry?

And are the forecast $28 million in ad revenues this year going to prove elusive to “everyday citizens,” as eMarketer’s Verna suggests?

Edison Research says, in their latest report, “The Infinite Dial, 2009,” that the US podcast audience has grown by 22% since last year, expanding from 18% of all Americans in 2008 to 22% in 2009.

Combine steady, unrelenting audience growth with steady increases in advertising revenue, and, from our perspective, the future for the podcast industry looks pretty promising. Attention to traditional media is eroding, and attention to online media is growing. If you create online content, or work with folks who do, that’s good news.

The podcasting piece of the online ad revenue pie is small, but the pie (and the size of our “slice”) gets bigger each year. Even for those “everyday citizens” Verna talks about.

Maybe we are suffering from irrational exhuberance, but we see this steady growth as a really good thing.

What do you think?

Comment before anybody else gets a chance....