Archive for the 'Podcasting Hardware' Category

Edirol has announced the availability of the R-44, a professional mobile recording workstation.
The Edirol R-44 is a 2 lb. portable recorder that offers up to 24-bit and 192kHz recording and uses SDHC cards to store the audio recorded.

Features:

• 4 channels
• XLR (with phantom power) & balanced/unbalanced TRS combo inputs
• digital RCA and headphones outputs
• 20Hz to 40kHz frequency response
• built-in effects (limiter, low cut filter, 3-band EQ, 6-band GEQ, Enhancer and DeEsser)
• built-in stereo mic and speaker
• pre-record function (captures the sound from few seconds before you press the rec button),
• level control per channel
• transport controls
• OLED display
• USB and control sync mini jack connections.

The device can be powered by DC adapter, external battery and six AA batteries and with the sync connection you can use 2 recorders at the same time - offering 8 channels controlled by one device.

The recorder is selling for $795.   (more…)

TiVo today introduced version 2.6 of TiVo Desktop for Windows, adding deeper support for Web videos and podcasts.

Features include:

• You can now transfer all your downloaded Web Video from your PC to your TiVo DVR so you can watch them on your TV.
• Automatic conversions of your TiVoToGo transfers to support portable devices that support MPEG-4 or H.264 video—Transfer video to your iPod, PSP, Treo, Nokia and other portables devices.
• Set automatic transfers of your favorite shows and videos from your PC to your TiVo DVR.
• Improved video quality and aspect ratio in the Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs when downloading high-quality video.
• Automatically transfer shows from your TiVo DVR to a Windows PC or laptop.
• Browse and listen to your computer’s MP3 library from your TiVo DVR.
• Watch full-screen slide shows of your computer’s digital photo collection on your TV.

In a nutshell, the updated Tivo Desktop for Windows allows you to sync content automatically between your TiVo and Windows computers and peripheral devices.

Unfortunately, TiVo’s support for podcasts is fairly convoluted. Details below. (more…)

We’ve been fans of SkinnyCorp for several years now. We saw their founders on a panel at South by Southwest in 2006, and they wowed us with their corporate philosophy.

We were already fans of the funky t-shirts they sell at Threadless (the punny “communist party” and “hypotamoose” t-shirts are in heavy rotation in the PodcastMama shirt drawer). Plus they have a regular podcast, which always wins brownie points from us.

But last month, when looking through their weekly shirt flyer, we clicked on a link that took us to the coolest. podcast. recording. rig. ever.

We got in touch with Charlie Festa, Threadless’ Podcasting Liaison. Here’s what he had to say about his future-retro-podcast studio:

“When we first moved into the office, we started building a studio, then we came to the conclusion that we should buy something mobile in case we wanted to take it to the road.

What we have here in the pictures is a 1962 Airstream Bambi. We picked it up in Minnesota off eBay. Once we brought it home (to Chicago) we gutted it out, and built it all out ourselves, and equipped it with some awesome technology.

Every week we do a podcast in here, and let people know what is going on in the office and what is going on in the warehouse.

When outsiders come into our office the first thing they gravitate to is the Airstream, Flying Cloud, Silver Bullet or whatever you want to call it. We have a very relaxed atmosphere in our office. It is definitely a pleasure to come to work everyday and work in this piece of history.”

Photos of the studio interior below the fold…

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CES: Belkin has introduced the Belkin Podcast Studio - a $100 accessory that basically turns your iPod into a mini podcasting studio - just add a mic.

Dual XLR and 1/4-inch channels give you a range of recording options. The Podcast Studio has a built-in mic and speaker are powered by their own battery, so you won’t kill your iPod battery instantaneously.
Belkin expects to ship this in June.

Apple today introduced the new Xserve, a 1U rack-optimized server that is up to twice as fast as its predecessor and includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server Leopard.

Starting at $2,999, the new Xserve has up to two Quad-Core 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon processors for 8-core performance, a new server architecture, faster front side buses, faster memory, up to 3TB of internal storage and two PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots for greater performance and flexibility.

<“With the latest Intel processors and no client access licenses, Xserve offers unbeatable server performance and value for under $3,000,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Xserve’s power, storage and Leopard Server make it ideal for supporting Mac clients and mixed platform workgroups.”

(more…)

Apple today introduced the new Mac Pro with eight processor cores and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of its predecessor.

The new Mac Pro combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2 GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage to offer the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists. The standard 8-core configuration starts at $2,799.

“The new Mac Pro is the fastest Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With 3.2 GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market.”

Here are the specs….. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg has a provocative review of Dell’s XPS One desktop today, saying that “has the guts, design to compete with iMac.”

He explains:

“This new Dell is no mere iMac clone. It makes its own style statement, even though it shares the same 20-inch widescreen display and a similar Intel dual-core processor with the base-model iMac. Where the iMac is squarish and silver, the XPS One is all black and rectangular, with speakers attached to the sides and a wide glass base. It looks more like a small TV set than a computer and, in fact, comes with a built-in TV tuner.

The Dell XPS One is the first Windows all-in-one desktop I’ve tested that I believe matches or exceeds the iMac in hardware design. That’s no small feat, especially coming from Dell.

Unlike the Apple, for example, the Dell has a built-in slot for camera memory cards. It comes standard with a wireless keyboard and mouse, which cost extra on the iMac. Its screen can be turned off with the touch of a button without turning off the computer itself. Its USB and headphone ports are arrayed conveniently on the side, instead of mainly at the rear, as on the iMac.”

It’s great to see Dell coming out with hardware that can give Apple some competition.

There’s no competition, though, when it comes to deciding what’s the best platform for new media. (more…)

Today, Helio announced a new mobilecasting service that they are calling “the most comprehensive YouTube experience currently offered on mobile!”

They could have thrown a “massive” or “global” into that, but the service is exactly the type of thing we’ve been pushing for for years: mobile devices that are sophisticated two-way Web publishing platforms.

Available for Helio Ocean users at no additional charge and running over a nationwide high-speed 3G network, Helio’s custom YouTube application features integrated video capture and upload for near real-time sharing of experiences, GPS tagging of videos, personalization and access to community features like rating and commenting on videos.

“Helio has taken the mobile YouTube experience to the next level,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder, YouTube. “This innovative application offers people even more customization and provides them with instant access to interact with the YouTube community whenever and wherever they go.” (more…)

Independent reviews are starting to come in on the Amazon Kindle, and it looks like the ebook reader is going to be this year’s Zunetanic, an over-hyped iPod-wannabee.

While mainstream fluffer reviews, like Steven Levy’s Newsweek article on the new gadget, make the Kindle out to be the iPod of ebook readers, you can’t sneak a proprietary, closed system and Commodore 64-era hardware design past end users.

Here’s what people are saying about the Kindle after a week:

• “I can’t really recommend this,” says tech blogger Robert Scoble. “Whoever designed this should be fired and the team should start over.”
• WSJ’s Walt Mossberg says “I’ve been testing the Kindle for about a week, and I love the shopping and downloading experience. But the Kindle device itself is just mediocre.”
• “It’s just too damn expensive,” says Boing Boing, “Worse, the $400 premium just to get the Kindle reader isn’t the last fee you’ll pay.”
• “Don’t let some of the hype fool you though: this is not the iPod of books, and e-books are not the equivalent of a book,” says Ars Technica. “Anyone who is considering the Kindle in part due to its ability to handle content aside from books should spend some time pondering how much they’d enjoy reading that material within the device’s limitations.”

While most many reviewers are disappointed with the Kindle hardware and its usability, there’s a more basic problem with the device: it doesn’t embrace the world of Internet media.

Internet media, in all its random, open, messy glory, is where people’s attention is moving to. It’s where it’s at, in both technology and media.

The Kindle doesn’t make it easy for you to get Internet content; it isn’t a new platform that you can easily publish content for; and it doesn’t play well with the Web.

It looks like the iPod of ebooks may have to come from Apple.

Amazon is expected to unleash its Kindle ebook reader next week.

The portable reader is expected to features a 6-inch 800 x 600 pixel display, 256MB internal storage, a mini USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack and an SD slot. The Kindle also is equipped with a Wi-Fi connection that can be used to connect to Amazon for purchasing ebooks, and it’s also expected to offer EVDO wireless data access.

The final price of the Kindle is expected to be $399

Amazon has a tremendous advantage in offering an ebook reader. The company has been digitizing books by the reams for years, so it now has a huge library of copyrighted and public domain content that it could offer on the device.

However, it’s likely that the ebook reader needs something else to succeed - support for audio podcasts and some sort of text news podcasting.

Without podcast support, the Kindle will be a relatively boring, closed system, like the first-generation Zunes. It will be a Sony Reader on steroids. An interesting gadget.

If Amazon embraces podcasting, though, the company could quickly establish the Kindle as a new platform for consumption of Internet content. Users would have access to 100,000+ audio podcasts, on all sorts of topics. And because podcasting can be used to deliver all sorts of payloads, such as PDFs, it could be used with the Kindle to let you subscribe to daily news updates, online magazines and other free Web content.

We’ll be watching the Kindle introduction with interest. But, unless it supports subscribing to free Web-based content in an open way, we expect it to follow the path to nowhere blazed by the Sony Reader.