Seen at Twitter this morning:

Maybe a bit of an understatement?

A new report refutes claims that portable music players, such as Apple’s iPod, interfere with cardiac pacemakers.

Howard Bassen, a researcher with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Md., led a research team that measured the magnetic fields produced by four different iPod models: a fourth-generation iPod and an iPod with video, and an iPod nano and iPod shuffle.

They also measured the voltages delivered inside the pacemaker by the magnetic fields from the iPods. All measurements indicated there would be no effects on users with cardiac pacemakers.

“Based on the observations of our in-vitro study we conclude that no interference effects can occur in pacemakers exposed to the iPods we tested,” Bassen concluded.

Wizzard, the podcasting network that recently announced it had served up over a billion podcasts in 2007, announced today that its common shares have been approved for listing on the American Stock Exchange (“AMEX”).

Wizzard is tentatively scheduled to begin trading during the week of February 4th, 2008. The company will be traded under the ticker symbol “WZE”. Previously, the company traded as “WIZD” on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board.

“We’re very excited to have finally reached such a tremendous milestone for our company and shareholders,” said Chris Spencer, Wizzard CEO. “We expect Wizzard’s shareholders to benefit from the increased trading liquidity and investor visibility that comes with trading on the AMEX.”

The AMEX listing approval is contingent on the Company being in compliance with all applicable listing requirements on the date that it begins trading.

During the keynote at the National Association of Television Program Executives’ Conference, NBC-Universal President Jeff Zucker said that the network has notice a midday bump in online video viewers, and it wants a piece of the action.

“We’re also seeing new forms of media consumption,” said Zucker, “like something our research department calls ‘video snacking’‚Äîa significant spike in online video watching occurring right at lunchtime.”

“As a businessman, I’m not happy about having a whole generation of young employees at their desks checking out the latest cool video on YouTube,” he added, “But as a content provider, this is a pretty exciting development. It suggests a market for video that is getting bigger and bigger.”

In order to get a piece of the video-snacking action, NBC need to remove barriers to viewing. This means:

• Providing bite-sized chunks of video to watch;
• Making video available without requiring plug-ins or software installs that may be prohibited by employers; and
• Getting the video into the channels that people are using, including YouTube.

NBC should realize, too, that so-called video-snacking isn’t limited to work computers. With the growing popularity of portable media players, people are video-snacking wherever and whenever time permits. To get a piece of this action, NBC should make some of its content available as free video podcasts.

Apple today announced that MacBook Air is now shipping.

Apple also announced that the new Apple TV software update, which lets you rent high definition movies directly from your widescreen TV, is not quite finished. Apple now plans to make the free software download available in another week or two.

The update to Apple TV repositions the device from being an iTunes peripheral into being an independent multimedia computer. The update will let you rent movies on the iTunes Store directly and let you browse and subscribe to podcasts and video podcasts.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and People For the American Way are spearheading the fight against amnesty for telecommunications companies which have illegally spied on Americans over the past six years. They’re asking for bloggers & podcasters to speak out against the proposed immunity legislation.

According to the “Stop The Spying” initiative,

The Bush administration has, [over the past six years,] authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct dragnet surveillance on our domestic telecommunications networks,…with no warrants or other meaningful oversight.

…[C]ongressional leadership handed the president even more authority to violate your rights by passing the so-called “Protect America Act” in August 2007. Now the Administration wants to make its power grab permanent and prevent any court from stopping the illegal spying. Proposed immunity legislation could let telephone companies off the hook for their role in the program and block lawsuits like EFF’s case against AT&T.

A majority of likely voters reject immunity for the phone companies, and Congress cannot be allowed to cave. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to retool the new spying law, but he appears to be willing to ignore your rights once again and allow warrantless domestic spying to continue.

Stop The Spying asks that you hand-write a message decrying the telecom amnesty legislation, photograph yourself holding the message, and send your photo to StopTheSpying.org.

If video is your preferred medium, the People for the American Way want your video creations.

Stop The Spying also urges citizens to voice their opposition to this proposed legislation by contacting their lawmakers, by posting on Slashdot, Reddit, Digging related stories, and otherwise spreading the word.

Alberto Frias Transport “perceptual pod” isn’t like other iPod accessories:

• The Transport is a $16,000 composite fiberglass waterbed pod;
• It is handmade & numbered for authenticity;
• It has a built-in full-spectrum LED lighting system;
• It has a remote control so that you can control the built-in sound system and lighting effects; and, best of all…
• The Transport offers “a sensual light, sound and space environment.”

In other words – it’s an Austin Powers iPod Space Womb.

Yeah, Baby!

The Transport is a hand-made composite fiber-glass pod containing a waterbed, LED lighting system, and a stereo system, with speakers by Anthony Gallo. The inside has a matte white finish, while the outside is shiny iPod white.

I you’ve got $16k to drop on an iPod space bed – check out the PDF brochure here.

And if you’re looking for something a little classier and have money to burn, don’t forget the $50,000 iPod bed that promises to be better than sex.

Yesterday, when everybody was hyping the new ad-supported music service Qtrax, we said Qtrax was D.O.A.

We noted that “Qtrax wants you to download software to watch ads to get DRM‚Äôd music that probably won‚Äôt work on your media player.” Not something that we really want to do.

Others are starting to see through the free music fog, too, and realize that Qtrax isn’t all that it claims:

• The Times Online notes that “none of the four major labels had done deals with the site, putting a large dent in the promised catalogue of 25 million songs and prompting allegations that the site’s founders had misled fans.”
• The BBC reports that, despite the fact that Qtrax is saying it has deals with all the major music labels that deals have not been signed.
• Ars Technica says that Qtrax is vaporware, making big promises that it can’t deliver.

The ad-supported music model is going nowhere fast, because people already have a lot of digital music, don’t spend a lot on digital music, and really, really hate annoying advertising.

New music startups need to address a real problem – helping you find music you like among the millions of free tracks that are already legally available on the Internet.

Revision3’s slate of video podcasts, including Tekzilla, The Totally Rad Show, Web Drifter, XLR8R TV, and The Digg Reel, is taking to the skies with Virgin America, according to a TechCrunch report:

The Revision3 shows will be viewable on Virgin America’s seat-back entertainment system throughout the cabin on flights to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, San Diego and Seattle. This is a big coup for Web-based video, and Revision3 in particular. The Revision3 shows will sit right alongside options for in-flight movies and satellite TV, exposing its brand of videos to a captive audience. And why not? On a six-hour flight, people will watch anything. This could help Revision3 win more fans, and expand its Web-based audience, which already watch 4.2 million videos a month. The shows will run with the original ads.

In October of 2007, Virgin America announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Boing Boing TV to deliver inflight daily video reports.

Animation producer Kevin Gamble, otherwise known as Tiki Bar TV‘s fez-wearing bartender Johnny Johnny, recently moved from Vancouver to New York. They say that New York is the most exciting city in the world, but Gamble got more excitement than anyone could wish or plan for this weekend when he rescued a woman who fell off the platform onto the L train tracks.

Gamble recounted the event in his blog, Naked Sponge. “This lovely lady in her 50‚Äôs decides to peer down the track to see how far away the oncoming train is. You know the one I‚Äôm talking about; the one with the 6 foot drop from the platform that leads down to two metal rails? … She falls over the edge. She hammers the back of her head on the second rail and goes basically limp.”

The intrepid video podcaster jumped onto the tracks (avoiding the electrified third rail), assessed the injury, helped lift the woman to the safety of the platform, and administered first aid until the paramedics arrived.

No word as to what manner of exotic beverage was concocted afterward to soothe the jangled Johnny Johnny nerves.