MG Siegler at Parislemon has an interesting take on the current state of movie rentals on the�XBox 360, suggesting that it’s not ready for prime time:

Last night I sat down to download The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I figured it would take 5-10 minutes to get enough information to start playing and then go. Wrong.

2 hours later I was still waiting as the download pushed past 40%. Fucking ridiculous. I shut it off and went to bed.

How exactly Microsoft plans to use any service called “Watch Instantly” with wait times like this is entirely unclear to me. Why can you rent a movie on Apple TV and have it start playing within a few minutes, but on the 360 it takes several hours?

To me, waiting several hours before you can start watching a digital movie is utterly ridiculous. I mean, I may as well have gone to Blockbuster. It would have been MUCH quicker.

For Internet TV devices to take off, companies will need:

1. technology in place to deliver streaming video effectively;
2. easy to use interfaces;
3. current content; and
4. deep libraries of long-tail content.

None of the solutions currently available do all these things. The technology is moving forward so quickly, though, that it’s likely that by this time next year, devices like the XBox 360, Apple TV or the Roku Player will do it all.

Ian Lamont, at The Industry Standard, has published his take on “why podcasting is failing” reacting to the news that much-hyped podcasting startup PodTech was getting bought by ViewPartner:

“Podcasting is failing as a business platform, and has failed to make a mainstream impact.

The news that PodTech only managed to limp into an acquisition therefore came as no surprise. Former PodTech star Robert Scoble admits on Friendfeed that there were plenty of management and board problems and notes “the company burned through $7 million (plus several million in revenues).” PodTech founder John Furrier, commenting on the same Friendfeed thread, asserts “we made some mistakes but [were] directionally correct.” Scoble says a big part of the original plan was the social media star power, supplied by the likes of Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang, Irina Slutsky, and Steve Gillmor.

But even if the stars had stuck around to the end, and the management and board problems were addressed earlier, I have to wonder how well this venture would have done. This was a hyped business built on one of the most hyped technologies of 2005. Once that faded, reality set in. As I pointed out in my original post, there are a lot of factors that are working against podcasting. Making programs is a labor-intensive process requiring special skills. In addition, there is no AdSense or AdWords equivalents for podcasts — advertising has to be sold, produced, and placed by humans.

There are problems with metrics too. While the industry is working on this, there’s still a lot of work to do and it’s uncertain how smaller niche podcasters will be able to benefit.”

Lamont’s view is important to consider, even though seems to disregard the unrelenting growth of interest in podcasts, increasing numbers of podcasters making their living through podcasts and Internet media and the fact that podcasting’s adoption curve is way ahead of its commercialization.

Lamont also is straining to make PodTech representative of podcasting as a whole. PodTech failed to do the most basic task of a content company – make interesting content.

Here’s why you should consider his viewpoint.

In an unusual letter to its shareholders, podcasting mega service Wizzard Software explains why it’s bullish on the prospects for podcasting:

Wizzard has surprised many people by becoming the largest distributor of digital media via RSS (podcasting). While many other companies took the route of launching online video websites and treating RSS distribution as nothing more than an add-on feature, Wizzard has focused its early efforts in this industry on dominating RSS delivery of media.

Why you may ask?

The quality of content and the reliability of podcasting publishers are head and shoulders above what you find on most video websites. In this new era of the digital lifestyle, content has immense value and consumers are using an expanding array of services on more devices, in more places and offered by more providers than ever before.

A lot of people have bee skeptical about the prospects for podcast networks, and building networks based on downloads, vs. streaming views.

Wizzard’s letter positions the company as taking a long-term approach to building a company based on the growing podcasting download industry, building out dominance in podcast distribution while it looks for a killer-advertising model for podcast downloads.

Full letter below:

Security firm TrustedSource reports that a new trojan has been identified that infects multi-media files on Windows computers.

The malware embeds malicious content into multimedia files based on the Advanced Systems Format (ASF), a widely used format for video and audio content such as MP3 and WMA music files, WMV video files and others. When trying to play back the infected files, the user can be tricked into believing a codec is needed to play back the content. When downloading the advertised fake codec, the user would end up installing malware instead.

By infecting the multimedia files, the attackers are using (peer-to-peer) file sharing networks to spread Windows malware. Windows users downloading from P2P networks should also be sensitive to pop-ups appearing upon playing a downloaded video or audio stream.

At instructables, leevonk has shared instructions on making a Tupperware iPod Boombox.

The cheap DIY project “uses dollar store Tupperware, styrofoam and cheap speakers to make a surprisingly cool boombox/stereo.”

via Lifehacker

Updating your WordPress-based site to WordPress 2.6 may break your podcast.

Users are reporting incompatibilities between Mighty Seek’s PodPress, the popular free podcasting add-on for WordPress, and the recently-announced WordPress 2.6.

Here’s a typical message from the PodPress forum:

I installed WordPress 2.6 (the full version, not the Release Candidate) today but am having problems as soon as I activate Podpress. When I try to edit an existing post from the front page or from inside the Admin Panel, I get the error message “Internet Explorer can’t open the page [address of page] Operation cancelled.” but I see it only with IE. With FF it works like a charm. I thought it was out since longer already..that’s what you get for upgrading without informing yourself in advance.

Already last time I swore that I will never install a WordPress or Podpress update in the 1st month they are released..always have problems with upgrades.

If you’re a podcaster using PodPress, you will want to wait to update WordPress for a couple of weeks. Mighty Seek’s Dan Kuykendall says that a PodPress update should be released within 10 days.

Note: See update at the end of this article.

AT&T has just announced a fantastic perk for iPhone owners with AT&T contracts, free WiFi for iPhone customers on the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot network. This opens up more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks, to iPhone users to use for free on their iPhone, laptop or other device.

There are AT&T hotspots at:

• 12 Airports
• 31 Hotels
• 23 Universities
• 18 Convention Centers
• 5 Sports Centers
• 8,000 + Restaurants
• 700 + Bookstores
• 50 + Supermarkets

You can search for the free WiFi hotspots with AT&T’s WiFi locator.

It would be ideal for AT&T to build their WiFi locator into a location-aware iPhone app, so it would be easy for iPhone owners to find the closest free hotspot.

Update: AT&T has yanked the announcement from its site. According to a report at CNet, the page was posted by mistake: “We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone,” according to Wes Warnock, an AT&T spokesman. “The Web page was posted in error and is being removed.”

AT&T just killed any positive buzz it could have gotten from this announcement.

via iPhoneAlley

Last fall, Podtech‘s then VP Robert Scoble said “Reports of PodTech’s demise are bull####!”

Now, VentureBeat reports that podcasting startup PodTech has been purchased by ViewPartner, a communications technology company.  PodTech sold for under half a million dollars, a fraction of the $7.5 million invested in the company.

PodTech struggled from the beginning to find a direction, and failed despite:

• multiple rounds of generous funding;
• unrelenting growth of interest in podcasts;
• A-list talent from the blogging world;
• people abandoning television for Internet video in droves; and
• growing interest among advertisers in podcasts and other Internet media.

Instead of riding this wave of growth, the company tried to make its name with video podcasts “just slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry.”

“The network has about 20 shows they list on their website. Have you heard of any of them?” asked RocketBoom creator Andrew Baron last year. “They are mostly missing that important role of creating compelling content that will resonate with enough people to sustain and grow.”

In addition to struggling to make watchable content, PodTech struggled with its PR. Valleywag called it “the Valley’s worst video network.” TechCrunch told the company “if your messaging isn’t clear, don’t shoot the messenger. Clean up your own mess first.”

Even Fake Steve Jobs something bad to say about the company, saying PodTech is “heading for the big sleep.”

ViewPartner hopes to capitalize on PodTech’s corporate consulting business.

Update: Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron’s take on this: “In short, they first came out of the stables thinking that building a studio ad network would be a no brainer and spent over $7M building out shows and an ad sales department. Not only were they too soon and up against too much compeition on the ad sales side, they didn’t have anyone in the network who could identify what good content was.“

Metacafe and Microcinema, a leading international rights manager, are teaming up on a juried online and offline film festival, MetaFest 2008.

MetaFest hopes to combine the best of interactive online video-viewing with the best of the live-audience offline film festival experience.

Selected films will have a theatrical premiere in San Francisco in November 2008, will be showcased on Metacafe.com for six months, and be screened at dozens of “microcinema” events across the U.S. and around the world through the first half of 2009.

The MetaFest call for entries, which opens today, invites short video, film and digital media submissions of 10 minutes or less that are narrative, humorous, artistic, dramatic, animated, documentary, mockumentary, music, experimental, alternative or avant-garde in any genre, format or style.

Films can be uploaded for consideration through September 10th, 2008.

WebTrends, one of the leading corporate Web analytics providers, has introduced a new video tracking service that is designed to uncover viewing patterns and trends across all major media formats.

Features of WebTrends video tracking:

• Track visitor use across all major video formats, including Flash, FLEX and Microsoft Silverlight.
• Track visitor use of Windows Media, Real Media, Apple Quicktime and embedded video files.
• Connect visitor interactions with online video to the actions they take afterwards.
• Follow daily viewing trends and statistics for all of their web videos.
• Identify and optimize how and when audiences engage with online video.
• Integrate insight about video use with other online data.
• In conjunction with WebTrends Score, determine which types of interactions appeal to core audiences, as well as the relative value of visitors who view videos.

The new service is part of the companies WebTrends Analytics solution.