MSNBC: Ready for your close-up? Here come the vlogs is a great snapshot of videoblogging by Michael Rogers. He namechecks all our favorites including Rocketboom, Ryanne, Jay, Human Dog, Steve Garfield, and Dylan. He also mentions the tools making it easier to find videoblogs, such as ANT and MeFeedia. And, inescapably, Serious Magic's Vlog It! software, which nobody I know actually uses.

Check out Rocketboom's aggregation of SXSWi video/audio/pics/text and the official video coverage of SXSW for all the geekery you'd ever want to munch on.

If you're just looking for fun, please immediately watch Dylan's latest vid, Toys of Our Lives, where Dylan's dolls engage in sick and hilarious romantic shenanigans. Then why not see me "shake my thing" (am I saying that right?) on 6th Street in Austin for DanceFlash - it was like a mini-Burning Man.

Via Blogumentary

8:22:44 PM    

So many new words, so little time. Blog (web log), Vlog (video web log), Podcasting (including audio in your RSS (really simple syndication) feed for download into an Apple iPod or other MP3 player) and Mobcasting (mobile podcasting) an Andy Carvin acronym which posits the use of smart phones to create podcasts -- are all relatively new words that represent one extremely big idea -- unfettered plebeian access to the fifth estate.

Until a few years ago, governments (secular or non) had almost complete control of information. That made (and continues to make) information a form of currency -- like the military and other stores of economic value. These "new words" are much more powerful than the technologies they represent, they speak a new language of information and, to be sure, currency.

The value you will place on this information is in direct proportion to the use you have for it. Most people won't care about the rantings of a technophile or a housewife lamenting her need for appropriate child care -- or will they? Imagine a world where a group of protesters use their cell phones to acquire and document their experience with government forces and aggregate (and spin) that audio/video experience on the web. How about a simple group of friends witnessing a car accident or something worse.

We are at the dawn of a new era -- not the cliche version of the phrase -- "new era" the home game! Imagine the power of an individual when they are able to publish and internationally distribute audio and video more efficiently than CNN or Fox News. That's not years in the future ... it's already here. Want to believe? Check out some of the websites like http://tv.oneworld.net
or http://www.audiolink.com or http://www.audiolink.com and just play the tape .. err ... file to the end.

8:13:00 PM    

Daily Source Code for March 11th 2005

10:16:43 PM    

This is not a definitive list, just a list of smart young blood in the mobile content sector. Notice that except for one, none of them are CEOs (yet), but you’ll hear a lot from and about them in the next few years (that was the criteria). Just a way of recognizing the people in the second wave of mobile content (in no particular order):
» Greg Clayman, Vice President, Wireless Strategy and Operations, MTV Networks
» Rio Caraeff, mobile head at Universal Music
» Thomas Ryan, Senior VP, Mobile Development, EMI Music
» Mark Levy, VP content at InfoSpace Mobile
» Lucy Hood, VP, Content, News Corp
» Shawn Conahan (end of page), CEO, Intercasting Corp
» Adam Flick, Chief Marketing Officer, Airborne Entertainment
» Robert Tercek, Chief Strategy Office, mForma
» Manish Jha, Senior VP, ESPN Mobile
» Russell Beattie, Yahoo Mobile

I realize this is a US-centric list, and if you want to add to my list of the people influencing our fast growing sector, post them in the comments below…

9:58:47 PM    

Josh Bancroft (he does the excellent TinyScreenfuls weblog) visited me today. He doesn't work at Microsoft. He works at Intel. But he sold me on a Dell Axim and convinced me that I don't have a clue about what the new portable user really needs.

I thought that all I really need is my SmartPhone. After all, that plays audio, video, does text fairly well.

I assumed that for people who wanted to play more video, or that wanted a screen that they could actually see some detail in the video that a portable media center would be the ticket.

I'm now convinced I'm wrong. I'm convinced that the PocketPC form factor is the better way to go. Here's how Josh convinced me:

First, it has a VGA screen. 640x480. That doesn't sound impressive, but when you see this screen your eyes will pop out. Ken Levy showed me a Toshiba that also had a VGA screen. I didn't understand the benefits when Ken showed me his, though, cause Ken didn't show me video playing on his.

Wow.

Josh had three hour-long videos stored on his 1GB SD card. The detail was stunning. Better quality than I've seen on the portable media centers.

But, this sucker has a few advantages. One, there's a ton of software. Josh demonstrated a few things including email, Web browsing, and an RSS news aggregator. The Portable Media Centers don't have those.

I could see that someone taking a bus or train to work would really get a lot of use out of the PocketPC.

"But don't you need more space than that for video?" I asked Josh. He said you really don't, because most of the time you won't watch more than three hours of video in any one sitting anyway. For instance, let's say you have a 30 minute commute on a subway or train, you don't need more than a couple hours of video.

And a 1GB SD card can hold a LOT of RSS feeds and audio podcasts. He says a device like this is revolutionary when you start getting into the new videoblogging and podcasting trends that are happening.

Thanks Josh for being an effective evangelist for the PocketPC. Josh claims he's sold about 20 Dell's and has been so successful getting people to buy them that he's setup his own Dell affiliate program. He also said that if you're careful you can usually get the Dell for about $400 (right now they are selling on the Dell site for $500).

12:38:34 PM    

I love reading the Venture Capital blogs. VC's are generally really interesting people tied into networks of very interesting people. A VC, for instance, just brought me two KILLER podcasts. You know, those of you who think podcasting is just hype for a fad that'll disappear just haven't listened to some of the best podcasts.

12:37:39 PM    

We heard about it in January at CES, but finally have some info on what Philips is doing to answer our call: why no decked clocks? Their new MP3 and WMA-playing PSS110 clock has 256MB of flash memory—more than enough room to fit Missy E’s “Wake Up” (or Simon & Garfunkel, if you’re down). You should be able to pick one up in April for about $160.

[Via DigitalMediaThoughts]

9:30:22 PM    

Not content with the 65 cents or so they’re currently making off of every 99 cent download from the iTunes Music Store and other online music retailers, the major labels have decided they want a bigger slice of the pie. If anything legit downloads should cost less, not more (the industry could easily rake in more than the $300 million they made last year if they dropped downloads to a price most people would feel comfortable paying), but the labels don’t see it that way and are reportedly trying to renegotiate their agreements and up the amount they get paid every time someone legally buys a song online. Apparently Steve Jobs is livid (admit it, wouldn’t it be sorta cool to see him really, really, really angry?), which is as good an indication as any that this proposed price hike isn’t going to end up happening.

9:10:09 PM    

Jens of Sweden is taking on the iPod shuffle, launching the MP-120, a 1GB player with an OLED display that retails for one krona less than Apple's flash player. As is typical for JoS players, the MP-120 can play a variety of formats, including OGG Vorbis and WMA. The players all have an excellent battery life of 22 hours, and a built-in USB 2.0 plug. Essentially, if you can get your hands on one for less than the price of the shuffle, you should buy one—as long as you don't need to play music from the iTunes Music Store.

Unfortunately, Jens players don't get a lot of traffic here in the US, plus Apple tends to really hike up the price of their products in Europe, meaning the likelihood of we Americans finding an MP-120 for less than $150 is probably pretty slim.

Product Page [JensOfSweden]

8:02:41 PM    

In what is hopefully my last iPod post of the morning, I have to note that the Shuffle Art Archives are great. I don't know who sent me the link—I woke up this morning and it was on my desktop, which happens more often than I'm comfortable with—but thanks.

What is it? It's remixed iPod shuffles, both in real life and the Republic of Photoshop.

Shuffle Art Archives [ServePics]

8:01:33 PM    

It automatically recognizes and lists the medical images stored on the iPod. Now, iin much the same manner that people scroll through a playlist, radiologists can scroll through a list of patients or view their records through iPod's iPhoto application....

But it's not just a novelty, a one-time joyride for medical hackers. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents say they use it every day, and 24 percent say they are likely to develop plug-ins or other upgrades to better serve their needs.

While critics have leveled criticism about the iPod application, Ratib says that the patient's personal data is stripped out and assigned an anonymous identification during transport.

7:55:56 PM    

Los Angeles premiere of the new documentary film, Mission Against Terror, on the Cuban Five, Feb 26, 2005.

Speakers:

Ian Thompson - Committee to Free the Five.

Father Geoff Bottoms: Awarded Cuban Friendship Medal, Cuba solidarity organizer in England

Bernie Dwyer: Co-director of film, Reporter with Radio Havana

The film features interviews with former CIA agent Phillip Agee, Cuban Five attorney Leonard Weinglass, Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, family members of the Cuban Five, Miami Cuban progressive activist Andres Gomez and others.

MP3 (9.5 MB, 27:09 min.)

7:24:52 PM    

The latest Daily Podcast feed is up.  It contains a poem, discussion on jumping the shark, information about NY Hotel Bars, Podcast safe music from Jersey and more.  So go over to my new audioblog experiment, "The Daily Podcast Feed" and listen to some of the podcasts in it!

All of the tools (GigaDial, Blogger, FeedBurner, WebJay, Smoothouse Webjay wizard, Fabricio's XSPF MusicPlayer ) I am using in my latest audioblog experiment are free and available right now on the web.  That fact opens the potential for a group of pioneer podcast feed producers to evolve using a set of open free tools. 

Below is a list of descriptions of some of the tools I use to create "The Daily Podcast Feed":

GigaDial 

GigaDial.net is a new approach to radio programming. You can use it to create and subscribe to podcast-powered stations composed of individual episodes from your favorite podcasters. Outputs RSS 2.0 XML feeds.

Blogger 

Free blogging authoring software.  Enables  the distribution of Podcast feeds through the embeding of audio players and links to RSS 2.0 feeds using the weblog platformy.  Outputs an ATOM XML feed that can be inputted to other services such as FeedBurner.

FeedBurner 

Can converts a ATOM feed to RSS 2.0 XML file.  Using it's SmartCast feature, FeedBurner will take the first anchor (<a>) tag that it finds in your posting content and convert the linked URL into an RSS 2.0 <enclosure>.  Is the case of Audioblogging 2.0, the RSS 2.0 enclosure file type is also a RSS 2.0 file. 

Feedburner turns the feed item into content that future audioblogging 2.0/podcasting clients can potentially use to produce "show channels".

WebJay 

Mother of all music playlist generators.  It allows you to take a RSS 2.0 file with mp3 enclosures and convert it to a XSPF playlist to feed into Fabricio's XSPF MusicPlayer.

Smoothouse Webjay wizard 

Assists in the generation of the correct HTML for linking/embedding a Webjay playlist in Fabricio's XSPF MusicPlayer.

Fabricio's XSPF MusicPlayer

XSPF Web Music Player is a flash-based web application that uses xspf playlist format to play mp3 songs. XSPF is the XML Shareable Playlist Format. The software is written in Actionscript 2. Player can be embedded into a weblog post using weblog authoring software like Blogger.

Many of the tools above contain other features that do a lot more then the features I described.  My explanations  focus on the features used for creating "The Daily Podcast Feed" and what I call Audioblogging 2.0.

1:16:41 AM