Microsoft Zune podcast guru Rob Greenlee brought our attention to a little-known feature in the latest Zune firmware – wireless podcast sharing:

You can now send video podcast episodes to other Zune devices using its built-in WiFi radio. This means that if you have found a cool episode from the Best of YouTube podcast that you can send it to a fellow Zune user and then that user can watch that episode on their device and subscribe to it all in the Zune device software.

While the video podcast episode is playing – just click and hold the middle of the Zune touch pad until the subscribe screen pops up. Then click on “subscribe” and when you next sync your Zune it will add a new subscription to your “Collection” area.

I think that is way cool and nothing you can do in an iPod.

Rob’s right – this is a unique feature and, like the Zune’s other wireless features, something you can’t do with an iPod.

I haven’t tried this out yet. Like a lot of Zune owners, I haven’t found many opportunities to get social with other Zune users.

What do you think – is wireless podcast sharing a cool feature?

PodCamps are a great opportunity to learn about podcasting and meet people involved in new media.

The events are user-organized conferences for “new media enthusiasts and professionals including bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, social networkers, and anyone curious about new media.”

The first PodCamp was held September 8-10, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts, but they are now being held worldwide.

Here’s a list of upcoming PodCamps (as of June 1, 2008):

The Chicago Daily Herald reports that the the Chicago Area Podcasters Network has been growing since its inception in 2006, and is now an active, vibrant group.

The group started with 10 members and has grown to about 50. 

“Things really changed once iTunes made podcasting available,” said Tom Kim of Libertyville, founder of the podcasting group.

According to the group:

Meetings will feature guest speakers — professional podcasting hosts, producers, and audio engineers — speaking on a variety of intermediate to advanced topics such as recommendations for podcasting gear, DAW software, and hosting services, techniques for field recording and ENG (electronic news gathering), interview techniques, proper journalistic practice, how to achieve a professional sound, professional audio engineering, digital editing and mastering, podcast promotion and building an audience, how to plan show formats and release schedules, how to avoid legal problems and protect one’s intellectual property, how to avoid burnout and podfading, how to produce subject-specific programming (sports shows, music shows, interview programs, comedy shows, etc.), among others.

Presentations will run between 30-60 minutes, followed by a reception to meet and greet your fellow podcasters. Beginners welcome!

Membership in the group is free.

Image: Giant Ginkgo

The Ninja drops some mad wisdom about the future of Internet media & throws some new media facts at you along the way.

And some of them are even true!

Blockbuster unveiled a prototype of an in-store kiosk for downloading movies at its annual meeting on Wednesday, part of its plan to transform into more than just a DVD rental chain.

The kiosk prototype, which will begin testing within the next three weeks, was developed by NCR Corp. For the pilot launch, the kiosks will be compatible with an Archos portable device, but the company ultimately plans for the kiosk to be an “open system” and widely compatible with a range of devices.

The kiosk offers a range of features to help customers make movie choices, including previews and recommendations.

This idea is wrong in so many ways. They want you to drive to their store with your digital media player (as long as it’s an Archos) to download a digital file?

In a world of Internet movie stores, Blockbuster needs to provide a compelling reason to go out of your house into the store. They should position themselves as the experts on Internet television, and sell the gear and services to make Internet media as simple as DVDs are.

If the best they can do is an in-store download service for Archos users, they might as well close up shop now.

Update: RRW’s Josh Catone agrees, saying “Blockbuster still seems like a company that’s making all the wrong moves as it struggles to transition to the digital world.”

Image: Lucias Clay

Back in 2005, so-called “godcasts” – religious podcasts – were one of the most talked about podcast genres.

Podcaster Craig Patchett in 2004 created the GodCast network, featuring a variety of Christian podcasts and even a Klingon Word podcast. Hundreds of churches followed suit, distributing weekly sermons as podcasts.

While mainstream coverage quickly moved on to other topics, godcasting is still going strong. In fact, recent research suggests that Christians are twice as likely as the average to be listening to podcasts.

Remember VHS tapes?

Ion Audio has introduced the VCR 2 PC – a VHS player with USB output. The player comes with software that lets you burn your videos to DVD or watch on your PSP, iPod or laptop computer.

You can also connect VHS, VHS-C, or 8MM camcorders to the front panel jacks to backup camcorder videos.

The VCR 2 PC is $249.

Features:

R&B star Usher has launched a video podcast, Ucast, to coincide with the release of his latest CD, Here I Stand

10 initial video podcast episodes are planned, offering viewers a behind the scenes view of launching an album, producing a video and preparing for a tour.

“The entertainment business is much more than the red carpets and VIP parties. I want to expose viewers to the daily grind of the industry,” said Usher. “uCast allows me to share over 10 years of business knowledge with the subscribers, through my eyes, and show them a different world beyond the glitz and glamour.”

Usher’s video podcast will be available on MySpace, Facebook and in Wizzard Media’s Featured Provider Channel on iTunes, Wizzard’s streaming channels in Dailymotion and Veoh.

You can subscribe to Usher’s video podcast by adding this URL to your podcast client:

http://ucast.robertthorne.libsynpro.com/rss

Amazon.com and Simon & Schuster today announced that Simon & Schuster will make 5,000 additional titles available for Amazon Kindle in 2008. When added to books already available on Kindle, these Simon Schuster titles represent the vast majority of sales from the publisher’s catalog.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo also offered incentive for other publishers for follow Simon & Shuster’s lead.

“After purchasing a Kindle, customers purchase, on average, just as many physical books, and their total book purchases on Amazon increase by 2.6x. Kindle books are also becoming a meaningful portion of Amazon’s overall book sales much sooner than we anticipated – of the 125,000 books available both as a physical book and on Kindle, Kindle books already account for over 6 percent of units sold.”

The selection of titles for the initiative was based on statistical analysis of physical books that have been very popular backlist titles among Amazon.com customers over the past 12 months.

While we’ve seen several positive signs for the Kindle, it’s still a relatively closed system. In order to really take off, Amazon needs to embrace Internet content and allow anyone to publish content for the device. This would vastly increase the content available for the device, dramatically expand its utility and make it more than just a platform for buying content.

Update: Check out RL’s comments – he makes the case that the Kindle already is open and easy to publish for.

If Amazon wants the Kindle to really take off, they should create a WordPress plugin that formats blogs for the device, and make it easy for anybody to publish content to it, and easy for users to load up with free content.

Internet TV is rapidly stealing viewers away from traditional TV, according to the latest research from media research firm Ipsos:

• The percentage of video viewed on a TV among video downloaders and streamers declined from 75% in February 2007 to 70% in February 2008
• The percentage of total screen time captured by movie theaters also declined significantly in the past year.
• The percentage of video viewed on a computer nearly doubled its share (19%) with digital video consumers since early in 2007 (11%). 
• Among the 52% of American’s age 12+ whom have ever streamed or downloaded a digital video file online, about one out of every five hours spent watching movies, TV shows and/or other types of videos is done so on a PC.

Adam Wright, Director at Ipsos MediaCT, explains: “Streaming video online has become an activity many Americans aren’t just experimenting with, but enjoy on a regular basis. Today, about half of all Internet users aged 12 and up have streamed a video file online in the past 30 days. The growing sophistication of home PCs, as well as the ubiquity of high-speed Internet connections in the home and outside, really facilitated the experimentation process with the digital video medium, and subsequently caused many to adopt the PC as a channel they rely on for video entertainment.”