Blue Microphones has introduced a new microphone designed for mobile use, the Snowflake.

Blue calls it “the first professional portable USB mic, and recommends it for mobile podcasting, VoIP software (such as Skype and Vonage), field recording, lecture recording and music recording.

It retails for $79.

Specifications:

• Transducer Type: Pressure Gradient w/USB Digital Output
• Polar Pattern: Cardioid
• Sample/Word: 44.1kHz / 16 bit
• Frequency Response: 35Hz – 20kHz

Features:

• Mac and PC compatible
• Plug ‘n play
• Unique design fits on your desktop or laptop
• Includes USB cable

Dimp is a video player prototype which allows to browse video clips by directly dragging their content.

You can download and test Dimp. It’s currently Windows only.

Reddit today announced that it was working with PBS to create a new weekly television news program, Your Week, that’s “powered by you.”

Material for the show will come from hot stories on the reddit front page every week. Meta discussions about that content and the show itself will all take place at yourweek.reddit.com:

Whereas traditional television new stories end once the show airs, YourWeek — like reddit — will just be the beginning. Throughout the week you’ll be able to share your thoughts on yourweek.reddit and followup with content you think was missed or corrections that should be made.

We’re hoping to get some content directly from you, the reddit community in the final days of this week. We’re curious to hear what you think about lab-grown meat, NFL cheerleaders in Bangalore, and your most boring job – ever. These are just a few of the reddit headlines that are being produced for the pilot.

In other words, it’s sort of the PBS take on Diggnation.

Your Week is also looking for people to contribute remixes of the show theme song. It’s pretty horrifically cheesy, so it could use a remix.

Our friend, radio producer Chris Vallance, sent word that he had recently interviewed PodShow – er, Mevio – executive Adam Curry for his BBC Radio Five Live Pods and Blogs program.

Our regular readers will remember that Mevio co-founder and Chief Executive Ron Bloom raised eyebrows last month by explaining that the reason for the name change was essentially to “distance itself from user-generated content.”

In the meantime, the UK arm of PodShow, BT PodShow, recently announced a full consumer launch of its video network. On that occasion, Curry, the BT PodShow President, said that the network would be “what we call a brand-safe network. There is an expectation about what is going to be delivered, an advertiser won’t just find themselves next to a video of someone shooting a firecracker out of his bum.”

In the interview, Vallance talks with Curry about “his take on the commercial future of podcasting.”

More after the break…

YouTube is removing about 1 in 12 of its popular videos, according to stats collected by YouTomb.

YouTomb is tracking the videos because of concerns that YouTube may be pulling videos that may incorporate copyrighted material under fair use.

Currently:

• 223,187 YouTube videos are being monitored by YouTomb;
• 4,395 of these videos have been taken down because of copyright claims; and
• 13,350 of the videos have been taken down for other reasons.

This translates into about 8%, or 1 in 12, of the popular videos at YouTube getting removed for copyright claims or other reasons.

A surprisingly large percentage of YouTube videos are getting yanked. If this portion continues to rise, YouTube could face the same sort of spam or “noise” problem that has rendered email useless for many people.

Add this to the already numerous challenges facing sites that are built on aggregating user-generated media.

YouTube’s newly-minted News Manager Olivia M. has announced the launch of a citizen journalism channel on the site, called Citizen News.

Explains Olivia, the proliferation of inexpensive and easy-to-use media tools (blog engines, video cameras, multi-function mobile phones, etc.) has sparked a boom in user-generated news coverage. “[T]here’s an amazing amount of news being reported on YouTube every single day by citizens in all corners of the globe.”

Citizen News asks for viewers as well as citizen journalists to point out good examples of “journalism and reporting,” and also sharing ideas for the new channel at citizennews@youtube.com .

Podcast network blubrry has introduced a new service for podcasters, Premium Podcast Statistics:

Many of you using our Podcast Statistic service have asked for a wide variety of additional reports.

While our basic stats package will remain free, we want to bring you a much richer data set in the plus package which will be priced at $5.00 a month (three month minimum) or $50.00 a year.

Current features include:

• Full Report of Clients
• Full Report of Referrers
• Full Report of Operating Systems
• Full Report of Geographical Data
• Daily Email Summary
• Episode Trending by Month
• Country Map Reporting
• Audit of Uncounted Request
• Export to Excel Files
• Create Guest Account

The world of Internet video just got a lot more interesting.

The Netflix Player by Roku is the first product that lets you get Netflix movies and TV shows streamed directly to your TV screen. It also costs $100 and offers about 8 times the movie selection of Apple TV.

Best of all, if you’ve already got an unlimited Netflix plan, you can use the Player to stream as many movies as you like.

CNet has been using the Roku for a couple weeks, they found a lot to like:

Setup is simple, and–if you’ve got a solid broadband connection–picture quality is acceptable and streaming performance was almost entirely lag-free.

That said, the Netflix Player has a major trump card in terms of price: it retails for $100, and delivers unlimited streaming to any Netflix subscriber on the $8.95 plan or above. That’s a major departure from Apple TV, Vudu, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Amazon Unbox, all of which offer only pay-per-view options.

Netflix is working with multiple vendors to offer Players, so we could soon have companies competing to bring you the best, cheapest Netflix Player.

We like the Apple TV interface and the way it makes watching Internet video so easy. For users that are mainly interested in digital movies, though, the Roku offers an interesting alternative.

You almost have to feel sorry for the mainstream music industry. Almost.

The major labels have teamed up with Napster to offer what they are calling “the world’s largest and most comprehensive MP3 store.”

Yep – the labels are so intent on breaking Apple’s dominance in the world of digital music that they are giving Napster – the brand that RIAA head Hilary Rosen once called “both morally and legally wrong” – the opportunity to distribute more music as MP3 than Apple.

Per Napster’s announcement:

Napster’s download store is more than 50% larger than any other MP3 store and boasts not only the largest major label MP3 catalog in the industry, but also the largest library of independent music available anywhere. All Napster download sales in the U.S. will now be in the user-friendly, DRM-free MP3 format, which is compatible with virtually any MP3 player or music phone, including the iPod and the iPhone. Napster is the first music subscription service featuring major label content to offer 100% of its catalog in the MP3 format for download sales.

Pricing for download sales is 99 cents for single MP3 tracks and $9.95 for most MP3 albums.

Can Napster Make Doing What The Music Industry Wants You To Do Cool?

It’s great to see Apple getting some much-needed competition. It’s also great to see the music industry giving people what they want – digital music downloads that will work on any player.

It’s also a bit pathetic.

The music industry’s digital music initiatives have failed so miserably that they are stuck teaming up with their former nemesis – even giving Napster exclusive deals.

Even more pathetic is that the move is unlikely to make a dent in Apple’s iTunes sales. People haven’t demonstrated in any significant numbers that they care about music file formats or DRM yet – so it’s hard to imagine that they are going to start now.

Senator Joe Lieberman Monday called on Google to remove Internet videos produced by terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda from YouTube.

“Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training,” said the Senator said in his letter. “YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice.”

YouTube Responds

YouTube has responded to Lieberman’s call:

Senator Lieberman stated his belief, in a letter sent today, that all videos mentioning or featuring these groups should be removed from YouTube — even legal nonviolent or non-hate speech videos. While we respect and understand his views, YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view. We believe that YouTube is a richer and more relevant platform for users precisely because it hosts a diverse range of views, and rather than stifle debate we allow our users to view all acceptable content and make up their own minds. Of course, users are always free to express their disagreement with a particular video on the site, by leaving comments or their own response video. That debate is healthy.

YouTube’s response effectively treats the risks of censorship as greater than the risks of freedom of speech.

What More Would Lieberman Have YouTube Do?

Lieberman’s call begs the question: Is terrorist content a significant problem at YouTube, or is Lieberman playing on people’s fears for political gain?

Users posting videos on the site agree not to post content that is “contrary to applicable local, national, and international laws and regulations.”

In addition, YouTube already bans:

• Pornography;
• Graphic or gratuitous violence;
• Hate speech; and
• Predatory behavior.

Obviously, terrorists, and anyone else, can disregard YouTube’s content guidelines and post offensive content. Because of this, and because of the volume of content published to the site each day, YouTube relies on users to flag content as inappropriate.

In our experience, YouTube’s policies work well. You’re more likely to get exposed to Rick Astley on the site than you are to get exposed to inappropriate content.

Do You Want Joe Lieberman, Or Any Politician, Deciding What You Can Watch Or Discuss On YouTube?

If Lieberman thinks YouTube isn’t going far enough, he needs to do more than call on YouTube to ban content from specific users or groups. Lieberman needs to propose concrete ways that YouTube can improve on its current policy of protecting users from offensive content, while still preserving freedom of speech.

If Lieberman can’t make concrete suggestions on how Google should improve its policies, we have to assume that he either considers freedom of speech more dangerous than censorship, or that he’s just playing on people’s fears for political gain.