3/20/2008
The Moth Podcast
The Moth is a non-profit group based in New York City devoted to furthering the art and enjoyment of storytelling. The stories range from funny tales by comedians to heartfelt tales of horror from people who survived Hurricane Katrina.The Moth was founded in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green. Previous notable storytellers have included Andy Borowitz, Ana Marie Cox, Joe Lockhart, Jonathan Ames, Ethan Hawke, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels (Run DMC), Adam Wade, George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Mira Nair, Moby, and Lili Taylor.
Subscribe: The Moth Podcast (via iTunes)
This month The Moth finally launched a podcast. I just subscribed to The Moth Podcast on iTunes [link] so I can watch it on my iPhone. Unfortunately the podcast is currently only offered as audio only. I hope they launch a video version soon. It's fun watching these storytellers up on stage.
Here's a clip I found on YouTube of Adam Wade winning The Moth's 2006 Grand Slam Championship of storytelling. Adam Wade was a former NBC Page For Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Wade's story is about his adventures with some of the members of the crew.
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Labels: itunes, podcasting
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2/06/2008
American Podcasting Audience Soars
The U.S. podcasting audience reached 18.5 million in 2007, according to eMarketer and was projected to top 65 million by 2012 with 25 million listeners downloading one or more podcasts a week.Ad spending on podcasts in the U.S. is also expected to creep up, from $165 million in 2007 to $435 million in 2012.
Major podcasting networks like Revision3 are growing with the medium's success by revamping their websites and adding new programming.
If you're not already a podcast consumer, then check out the podcast section in iTunes. There's a lot of great stuff from tech shows to yoga workouts. And they are all free. I usually watch 5-10 podcasts a day on either my iPod Touch or Apple TV. Makes the bus ride to work much more enjoyable.
Here are a few favorites:
- Diggnation - weekly rundown of the front page stories on Digg.com
- Tiki Bar TV - drinking games
- Unboxing Live - take a new gadget, and open it up while the camera is rolling
- Midwest Teen Sex Show - explores topics concerning teen sexuality from gym class to syphilis
- The Totally Rad Show - movie, comic books and game reviews
- Make Podcast - how to tweak, hack, and bend technology any way you want
- Play Value - the history of video games.
- NBC Nightly News - the full TV broadcast sans commercials
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Labels: internet, podcasting, video
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4/19/2007
Apple Asks Video Podcasters to Increase Quality
Last week Apple sent out an email (screenshot courtesy of TechCrunch.com) to video podcasters asking them to increase the quality of their productions and start formatting their videos for the big screen. Since the launch of the Apple TV (full review here) in March, Apple TVs have been selling like hotcakes and video podcast subscription numbers have skyrocketed.
Apple TV owners, who don't necessarily want to spend lots of money in the iTunes Store, are gobbling up video podcasts like never before. Even though there currently isn't any HD quality videos for sale in the iTunes Store, the Apple TV is capable of HD video playback. So several popular video podcasters, including The Washington Post, TWIT (MacBreak), Revision3 (Diggnation) and Vintage Tooncast, have decided to fill the void of HD content by distributing their podcasts in HD or hi res quality.
Why hasn't everyone started distributing their video podcasts in HD? Money. Not only does producing an HD podcasts require extra hard drive space (roughly 4 times more), special cameras and editing software, but just hosting these giant video files on the Internet can be enough to bankrupt your entire production. For example, the iPod Video version of MacBreak episode 63 is 21 MBs. The HD version is 93 MBs. To help alleviate increased HD production costs, many podcasters have reached out to HD television manufacturers like Samsung and Panasonic to get them to sponsor their new HD podcasts.
For video podcasters who are still producing content at 320x240 but want to do something to increase quality, there is an intermediary step before going HD. Podcasters can start by migrating their productions to 640x480, or even 640x360 (letterbox). This way their video files will still be compatible with portable media players like the Zune and iPod, but will also work on the Apple TV. If the material is carefully encoded, it will look as good or better than typical TV.
Apple listed the following tips and recommendations in their email to all video podcasters:
BeSocial: digg it | linkcritics | methodshop
Apple TV owners, who don't necessarily want to spend lots of money in the iTunes Store, are gobbling up video podcasts like never before. Even though there currently isn't any HD quality videos for sale in the iTunes Store, the Apple TV is capable of HD video playback. So several popular video podcasters, including The Washington Post, TWIT (MacBreak), Revision3 (Diggnation) and Vintage Tooncast, have decided to fill the void of HD content by distributing their podcasts in HD or hi res quality.Why hasn't everyone started distributing their video podcasts in HD? Money. Not only does producing an HD podcasts require extra hard drive space (roughly 4 times more), special cameras and editing software, but just hosting these giant video files on the Internet can be enough to bankrupt your entire production. For example, the iPod Video version of MacBreak episode 63 is 21 MBs. The HD version is 93 MBs. To help alleviate increased HD production costs, many podcasters have reached out to HD television manufacturers like Samsung and Panasonic to get them to sponsor their new HD podcasts.
For video podcasters who are still producing content at 320x240 but want to do something to increase quality, there is an intermediary step before going HD. Podcasters can start by migrating their productions to 640x480, or even 640x360 (letterbox). This way their video files will still be compatible with portable media players like the Zune and iPod, but will also work on the Apple TV. If the material is carefully encoded, it will look as good or better than typical TV.
Apple listed the following tips and recommendations in their email to all video podcasters:
- Encode at 640×480 or 640×360. This will look much better than 320×240 on HDTV, and will still port to the iPod. While 720p looks great, they say, it won’t work on an iPod.
- Don’t make two formats for different resolutions - it dilutes the popularity of the podcast and reduces exposure in charts.
- Don’t add letterboxing to make videos to a 4:3 aspect ratio. Leave them at 16:9.
BeSocial: digg it | linkcritics | methodshop
Labels: apple tv, podcasting
YouTube
prevents viewers from downloading files off their site. But there
are ways around this. Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to
rip video files off YouTube.com and convert them for your Video
iPod.
After such a high profile career spanning over 3 decades, Hasselhoff has partaken in many a cheesy photo shoot. In Hoff's defense, most of the embarrassing photos below were taken during the 1980's or in Europe. That almost provides a loose excuse for most of these photos. But many of them are still very questionable and a few actually are quite disturbing. 
Want
to upgrade the RAM in your
Mac Mini? You can definitely save a few bucks by buying a stripped
down Mac Mini and upgrading the RAM yourself. But before you
can install that extra RAM, you'll need to take a walk down to
your local hardware store and grab a couple putty knives.
Need
something to watch on your iPod or iPhone? Here's a tutorial that
explains how to use a program called Handbrake to rip DVD's
into iPod compatible MPEG-4 video files.
Framing Hanley have certainly come a long way in a very short time. First formed in 2005, the band posted demos of their songs on MySpace.com. Two years later thier debut LP, The Moment, was released August 2007. Not bad for a bunch of guys barely out of high school.
Like to smack penguins with baseball bats? Should your Yeti
catch the penguin at the right moment and angle, you might just hit
one out of the park, or arctic continent.
Put
on an anti-viral panty liner and let the battle between the
spoiled rich blonde bitches begin! It's Paris Hilton, heiress
to the Hilton Hotel empire vs Lacey Underall from the movie
Caddyshack. 
Our interview with Ryan was just like his lyrics, honest and articulate. Ryan was very forthcoming and spoke openly about everything from his break with No Knife to his freaky cats.
When it comes to so-called heavy metal supergroups, a lot of them usually don’t last long. But for New Orleans’ Down – made up of Ex-Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, Corrosion of Conformity guitarist Pepper Keenan, Crowbar guitarist Kirk Windstein, and Eyehategod drummer Jimmy Bower – there has been something special that has kept them unified for over 15 years.
What’s
the point of downloading your favorite songs on iTunes if they
sound like crap on your computer’s built-in speakers? The
sound quality and volume these little babies emit, much to the
chagrin of my neighbors, is truly phenomenal.
Are
you trying to eject your iPod from your computer but the "Do
Not Disconnect" won't go away? Don't worry, this is a common
problem with a fairly easy solution.
So
Napster's gone pay, KaZaA is chock-full of viruses and spyware,
and you need someplace to get your file sharing on. Luckily
for you, there's BitTorrent! Here's a
tutorial to get you started. 
