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Podcasting News

Podcasting News features the latest podcast news, along with reviews, hardware and software info, and a podcast directory.

Netgear Takes On Apple With Two New Internet TV BoxesYesterday

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, networking hardware maker Netgear unveils two new Internet-connected set-top boxes.

Netgear’s product launch comes amid a flurry of announcements and launches of other Internet-ready televisions and digital video players and recorders: the Roku digital video player’s partnership with Amazon, Netflix-enabled televisions, among others.

The company says the pair of Netgear TV boxes promise to “bring the world of Internet videos, live Internet TV, YouTube, popular websites, HD media collections, family photos, music and more to the TV.”

Hmmmmm. Just like the Apple TV box we’ve had in the TV room for the longest time.

Eye-Fi Developing Wireless Uploads To You TubeYesterday

Eye-Fi today announced that it is developing a way to enable users to wirelessly upload videos from a digital camera to YouTube and/or to a home computer. Eye-Fi currently makes a wireless SD memory card for digital cameras.

“We’re aiming to do for video what we’ve already done for photos: provide the easiest, simplest way to save and share your digital memories,” said Jef Holove, CEO for Eye-Fi.

Eye-Fi’s wireless SD memory cards allow digital camera users to upload photos, and soon video, automatically through Wi-Fi networks. In addition, Eye-Fi hotspot subscribers can also upload their memories away from home at more than 10,000 Wayport and open hotspot locations across the U.S.

The company is designing its video upload service to support full-resolution HD video, with newer still cameras like the Nikon D90 capturing HD video, and Web sites including YouTube now testing display of HD video.

“Some of the most popular clips on YouTube are shot on digital cameras, rather than video camcorders,” said Ziv Gillat, vice president of business development for Eye-Fi. “[our product] will mak[e] it even easier …

Clay Shirky: “That’s It For Newspapers.”January 6

There’s an interesting article about Internet analyst Clay Shirky and his ideas for the future of traditional media at the Guardian today.

In the article, Shirky paints a dim picture for the future of newspapers:

Even if we have the shallowest recession and advertising comes back as it inevitably does, more of it will go to the web.

I think that’s it for newspapers. What we saw happen to the Christian Science Monitor [the international paper shifted its daily news operation online] is going to happen three or four dozen times (globally) in the next year.

The 500-year-old accident of economics occasioned by the printing press - high upfront cost and filtering happening at the source of publication - is over.

But will the New York Times still exist on paper? Of course, because people will hit the print button.

He goes on to make similar predictions for magazines and television. 

While traditional media companies are going to face unprecedented challenges in 2009, their future is probably not as cut and dry as Shirky makes it.

New media can radically undercut traditional media when it comes to some content - like news and gossip.

Apple’s Last MacWorld A Pretty Ho-Hum AffairJanuary 6

Apple wrapped up its last MacWorld Expo keynote today, delivering a fairly ho-hum collection of incremental updates:

• iTunes Store - Beginning today, all four major music labels — Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI — and thousands of independent labels, will offer their music in the DRM-free iTunes Plus format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding. iTunes customers can also now purchase and download songs directly onto their iPhone 3G over their 3G network — just as they do with Wi-Fi today — for the same price as downloading to their computer. And in April, song pricing on iTunes will get a bit more complicated, with tracks selling for 69¢, 99¢, or $1.29, depending on their age.
• 17-inch MacBook Pro Update - The updated 17-inch MacBook Pro features an aluminum unibody enclosure and a non-removable battery delivering up to 8 hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges. It has a high resolution LED-backlit display and the same large glass Multi-Touch trackpad introduced with the new MacBook family. 
• iLife ’09 - Apple today unveiled iLife ’09,

Free Beatles Podcast Says Hello, Goodbye; The Suits Say “You Can’t Do That!”January 6

Earlier in the day, we reported that all of the Beatles’ music was going to be made available via a series of podcasts from Norway. 

It turns out, the Norwegian Beatles podcast is one podcast you won’t be listening to Here, There and Everywhere. 

According to the government-run Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the Beatles podcast was yanked because of licensing agreements:

The Beatles comes under our agreement with IFPI, which says that we only can put up shows for download that were aired the latest four weeks, and where the music is less than 70% of the show’s length.

“Our daily Beatles” were aired in 2007 (not 2001 as we wrote yesterday), so we have to pull the podcast. If it was aired today, we could have podcasted the next four weeks within the agreement.

So why not send the show again on one of your channels?
This is a question people have asked several times already. We could have done it, but choose not to.

It’s unclear why the NRK said Come And Get It, Free As A Bird, without doing Every Little Thing that their licensing agre