Heavyweight podcast hosting provider Wizzard Software has announced changes to the Company’s Board of Directors, as part of a bid to get listed on the American Stock Exchange.

The Board accepted the resignations of Armen Geronian and Gordon Berry, effective October 3, 2007. Geronian and Berry resigned for the sole purpose of facilitating the creation of a Board of Directors consisting of a majority of independent directors, allowing Wizzard to become compliant with the mandates set forth by the American Stock Exchange. Geronian will continue to serve as Wizzard’s Chief Technology Officer and Berry will continue to oversee the Company’s healthcare operations.

The Board unanimously appointed three new independent board members to Wizzard’s Board of Directors, effective October 3, 2007:

• Greg Smith, a producer with over 10 years of experience in television;
• Douglas Polinsky, President of Great North Capital Corp., a Minnesota-based financial services company; and
• Denis Yevstifeyev, a CPA who currently serves as a Sr. Financial Reporting Analyst for American Eagle Outfitters.

Microsoft has announced updates to its line of Zune portable media players. While there is a lot of good news in Microsoft’s announcement, including improved wireless features and podcasting support, the Zune platform still lags way behind Apple’s iTunes/iPod platform.

Here are five reasons iPods still beat Zunes:

• Zunes are still boring. With the exception of the Zune’s wireless features, its hardware is competitive with iPods …from about two years ago. While Apple is introducing innovative touch-screen interfaces to its iPod line, Microsoft’s hardware innovation is the squircle – a roundish square button. 4GB flash players? Wake me up before you go-go, Zune! Microsoft needs to get innovative if it wants to compete with Apple’s offerings.
• Microsoft still wants you to use the points system to buy stuff. We haven’t used the points system since grade school, where the teachers would take off points if you talked out of turn, acted up, or in any other way failed to conform to the man. Lose too many points, and no recess for you! Here’s how Microsoft explains its points system: “The Points that you purchase can be easily managed in a special account that you can use on Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live Marketplace. You can buy Points online from the Marketplace itself by using your credit card, or you can pick up Microsoft Points cards at many participating retail locations and use those Points to purchase new music that you want. Once you purchase Points, you can browse and purchase songs or albums through the Zune Marketplace for 79 Microsoft Points per track.” Who wants to buy points? We just want to buy some tunes! No recess for Microsoft!
• The Zune has no content. The Zune store has about three million songs – or about half of what’s available in the iTunes music store. When it comes to podcast support, Microsoft has about 1,000 podcasts in its directory, compared to 125,000 in Apple’s directory. Games? Movies? Missing in action. Microsoft could go a long way towards fixing the Zune’s content problem by expanding its podcast support to Windows to create more demand for podcasts, making Microsoft, and the Zune, a player in the podcast world.
• Limited accessories – Zune accessories are hard to come by. This is enough of a liability that Microsoft made a point of releasing its own line of accessories with the new Zunes, mentioning leather cases, sync cables and AC adapters in its announcement. Now that’s something to get excited about! While Zune owners are enjoying their Microsoft sync cables, iPod owners can choose from a zillion iPod accessories, including iPod audio recorders, iPod monitors, iPod home theaters, iPod underwear, iPod Victrolas, iPod video recorders, and other things too strange to mention.
• It’s still a Zune. Microsoft’s first generation Zune got a lukewarm reaction, because the hardware was uninspired, the software was buggy and the Zune didn’t have much content. While Microsoft has gone a long way towards addressing the Zune’s problems, the Zune platform still isn’t nearly as rich as Apple’s iTunes/iPod platform, the Zune still isn’t sexy and the Zune doesn’t challenge the weaknesses of Apple’s offerings. Apple’s iTunes/iPod platform is the de facto standard for portable media, so iPods are going to get great new content first. Microsoft’s introduction of the first generation Zune was a debacle, creating a stigmatized platform. You can put lipstick on a pig – but a Zune is still a Zune.

The new Zunes are no iPod-killers. Think different? Let us know in the comments…

The portable audio recorder market is heating up. Sony’s latest entry into the category is the PCM-D50 Linear PCM Recorder.

The PCM-D50 is a 96 kHz/24-bit recorder fitted with two-position (X-Y or Wide) stereo microphones, 4 GB of internal flash memory and a Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo slot (for additional storage). The body of the D50 is constructed of lightweight aluminum. The recorder uses conventional AA alkaline batteries.

Highlights:

• Portable and rugged 96 kHz and 24 bit recorder
• LCD digital peak bar graph metering – along with dedicated nominal and peak level LED’s
• Offers solid-state storage – free of drive mechanisms
• Built-in high quality electret condenser stereo microphones
• Dual A/D digital limiter and low cut filter
• MP3 playback and digital pitch control

The recorder includes a USB high-speed port for uploading/downloading its native .WAV format files to/from Windows PC or Macintosh computers. Other PCM-D50 features include digital pitch control, dual digital limiter (inherited from the PCM-D1), low-cut filter, Super Bit Mapping, A-B repeat and MP3 playback capability. To complement the D50 recorder, new optional accessories include a remote commander, tripod stand, and microphone windscreen. Additionally, the D50 offers compadible mounting and use with the recently introduced XLR-1 wide-bandwidth balanced XLR microphone adapter.

The PCM-D50 lists for about $600 – which puts it at the high end of the prosumer portable media recorder market. The specifications look good for the price, but some may not like Sony’s decision to use Memory Stick for storage, instead of more common and inexpensive memory formats.

via Brad Linder

Virgin America today announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Boing Boing TV to deliver inflight daily video reports. The show available on-demand on Virgin America through the airline’s Red in flight Entertainment system on all flights beginning in November.

“By offering Boing Boing TV’s unique brand of content to Virgin America flyers, even before we begin offering broadband on our flights in 2008, we are unveiling a completely new inflight entertainment experience,” said Charles Ogilvie, Virgin America’s Director of Inflight Entertainment and Partnerships. “This exclusive partnership with Boing Boing TV will deliver high-quality video entertainment with a twist, just like what you would expect from Virgin America.”

Boing Boing’s co-editors Xeni Jardin, right, and Mark Frauenfelder will host the three-to-five minute video reports, which will feature stories that are an extension of the popular blog.

“Through Boing Boing TV, Boing Boing is bringing its own unique approach to entertainment, just as Virgin America is changing air travel in the U.S.,” said Jardin.

The show was created in partnership with DECA, a newly announced digital entertainment studio that creates, finances, markets and distributes digital entertainment properties.

“This partnership with Virgin America shows how new distribution channels can be used in innovative ways to deliver digital content,” said Michael Wayne, CEO and Co-founder of DECA.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today released the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (pdf) covering the second quarter and the first six months of 2007. Internet advertising revenues (U.S.) for the first six months of 2007 were nearly $10 billion, setting a new record and representing a nearly 27 percent increase over the first half of 2006.

Internet advertising revenue totaled nearly $5.1 billion for the second quarter of 2007, exceeding the $5 billion mark for the first time in a quarter, a 25.4 percent increase over the same period in 2006. Rich media’s portion of the pot grew from 6% of Internet ad revenues last year to 8%.
Here’s the breakdown of where the money’s going:

• Search – 41% ($4,097)
• Classifieds – 17% ($1,699)
• Referrals/Lead Generation – 8% ($799)
• E-mail – 2% ($200)
• Display Related: – 32%($3,198)
• Rich Media (Includes Video) – 8%($799)
• Ad Banners / Display Ads – 21%($2,099)
• Sponsorships – 3% ($300)
• Slotting Fees – <1% (<$1)

“The torrid growth of interactive advertising revenue persists and these results are really no surprise but very welcome news,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “More and more marketers have embraced the reality that interactive is the fulcrum on which their brand strategies need to be based and we expect robust growth to continue.”

“The first six months of 2007 has continued the trend over the past several years of strong sequential growth,” said David Silverman, partner, Entertainment, Media & Communications Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “The growth, which was led by strong increases in the consumer advertising sector, continues to point to the mainstream acceptance of the medium and advertisers’ continuing reliance on it.”

Sony has introduced its second-generation Reader Digital Book, which will go on sale for $300 later this month at Borders stores and from Sony’s website. It supports eBooks, PDFs and Word files, and even MP3s.

The PRS-505 will be available in silver and dark blue, can hold up to 160 typical e-books, and has expansion slots for additional Memory Stick Duo or SD memory cards.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have podcast or Mac support.

The lack of Mac and podcast support might seem inconsequential to Sony – but it means that the new media community can’t treat the Reader as another platform. Nobody’s going to create daily PDFs, delivered as podcasts, to help make the Reader a useful platform. You’re basically limited to Sony’s selection of 20,000 downloadable ebooks.

As a result, the Reader is a still a niche product, despite the fact that it’s a good piece of hardware that’s been heavily hyped.

If Sony were to offer Mac and Windows podcast clients for the Reader, and eBook plugins for Movable Type and WordPress, it could turn the device from a boring, closed system to a new platform for digital publishing.

The co-editors at Boing Boing and Federated Media Publishing have launched Boing Boing TV, a video version of the popular blog.

‚ÄúBoing Boing fans can expect the same curious and irreverent exploration of the world they find on the blog, but now through video,‚Äù said Xeni Jardin, above, co-founder of Boing Boing and co-host of Boing Boing TV. ‚ÄúInternet culture, DIY technology, geeky curiosities — they’re all in the mix.‚Äù

Boing Boing TV was created in partnership with DECA, a newl digital entertainment studio that creates, finances, markets, and distributes digital entertainment properties.

Boing Boing TV video is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. You can subcribe to the show by adding this podcast URL to your podcast software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/boingboing/tv

The University of California, Berkeley, announced today that it is making entire course lectures and special events available, free of charge, on YouTube.

UC Berkeley is the first university to make videos of full courses available through YouTube. Visitors to the site can view more than 300 hours of videotaped courses and events. Topics range from bioengineering, to peace and conflict studies, to “Physics for Future Presidents”.

“UC Berkeley on YouTube will provide a public window into university life – academics, events and athletics – which will build on our rich tradition of open educational content for the larger community,” said Christina Maslach, UC Berkeley’s vice provost for undergraduate education.

Microsoft has updated its line of Zune portable media players. While they are still no iPod-killers, they offer enough new features that it’s time to reconsider the Zune platform.

Here are five reasons to take a second look at the Zune:

• The Zune’s WiFi features are starting to get useful. Zune devices can now automatically sync over your home wireless network. In a nutshell – Microsoft is delivering the wireless capabilities that portable media owners want, including the ability to sync up podcasts wirelessly. The Zune syncs wirelessly with your local computer, so that you can use it as part of a home music system, without hooking it to your computer, and still have current content to take with you. You can also share songs, pictures and podcasts wirelessly. The Zunes will be able to do some things that Apple’s $400 iPhones and iPod touches can’t do.
• The Zune has podcast support. One of the big downsides to the Zune platform has been its lack of podcast support. That’s changing with the second generation of the Zune platform. While the Zune’s directory of podcasts is limited to about 1,000 podcasts, about 1/100th of the number in Apple’s iTunes podcast directory, it’s an important start and opens up the Zune to a world of free content.
• The Zune lets you take TV with you. The Zune software can now automatically import broadcast content recorded on Microsoft Windows Media Center for Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, so you can sync TV shows onto your Zune media player and watch them when you‚Äôre out and about.
• New Zunes are compatible with old accessories. Apple is continually breaking compatibility with old accessories, to the point that some have speculated that it’s using this as a way of generating more income from Made for iPod accessories. The new Zunes are compatible with old accessories, and new Zune accessories will work with first-generation Zunes. While this approach may be a necessity for Microsoft, since there aren’t many accessories yet in the Zune ecosystem, it’s an approach that owners will appreciate.
• Old Zunes get new features. Microsoft is also rolling out the new features to first generation Zune owners. Apple typically only delivers new features to its latest iPods. Yep – the Zune guy will finally get his reward for supporting the weak first generation Zune platform.

There are still a lot of reasons to stick with iPods, including a more mature platform, more advanced hardware, better podcast support, a larger library of music and more accessories, but Microsoft’s updates make the Zune worthy of reconsideration.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Corporate Vice President J Allard, above, yesterday unveiled the next generation of Zune portable media players, software and online store. Gates and Allard also introduced Zune Social, a beta online community Web site. The new Zunes feature a squarish button, better wireless features and even limited podcast support. To top things off, Microsoft introduced several Zune accessories, including a new Zune sync cable.

Squircle Tops New Zune Features
The new models of Zune portable media players feature the new Zune Pad, aka the squircle, a touch-sensitive button for navigating on the device, as well as wireless sync, a feature that allows Zune devices to automatically sync over the device owner’s home wireless network when it is connected to an AC adaptor, in a dock or speaker dock accessory.

Existing Zune owners will automatically receive new software features, the redesigned PC and device software and access to the new Zune Marketplace when everything is released to the public in mid-November.

New Zunes Fill Out the Family

Microsoft announced three new models of Zune portable digital media players:

• a black Zune 80GB hard-drive model, which has a bright 3.2-inch screen and comes with premium headphones (ERP $249.99; all prices are U.S.);
• the Zune 4GB (ERP $149.99); and
• Zune 8GB (ERP $199.99) flash models, both available in pink, green, black and glossy red.

Every Zune device includes built-in wireless features and an FM tuner, and they all have a bright color display that is perfect for showing off album art, pictures, videos and podcasts. All devices have been given distinctive new menus, and it is easy to customize the background screen with a personal picture.

The most interesting aspect of Microsoft’s announcements may be that Zune 30GB devices will be automatically updated with all the new features as well as the new device software design this fall. Apple has been known for only rolling out new features to new iPods.

Here are the highlights of the new features:

• Wireless sync. Zune devices will automatically sync over consumers‚Äô home wireless networks with this helpful new feature, aimed at ensuring that Zune owners always have the latest podcasts and other content ready to go when they‚Äòre leaving home. Syncing with the collection on their PC happens via a home wireless network and will start on its own when the device is placed in its dock or plugged in to charge. Alternatively, the sync can be started manually.
• Extended wireless sharing.Share select full-length songs, albums, playlists, pictures and even audio podcasts from device to device. Consumers can now listen to any song received up to three times with no time restrictions, and they can now also pass along songs to other friends who have a Zune.
• Recorded television content to go. The Zune software will now automatically import broadcast content recorded on Microsoft Windows Media Center for Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, so consumers can sync them onto their Zune media player and watch them on the bus, in their car or wherever they want when they‚Äôre out and about.

Zune Social

Launching first in beta, Zune Social, is a social networking site focused on music. The site lets you create a free, customizable Zune Card that automatically updates to reflect the music you listen to on your Zune or with Zune software on their computer. Zune Social will eventually let you place the Zune Card on popular social networking sites, where it will continue to update automatically and show off what its owners are listening to.

In addition to creating a friends list, members of Zune Social can send song links and messages to each other, post comments on a friend’s profile page or on their favorite artist pages. They can discover new music by seeing what their friends are listening to, receiving recommendations from others in the community or by seeing what the top fans of artists they’re interested in are listening to. Each artist page will list the Zune Cards of the people who listen to that artist the most, making it easy for other Zune Social members to browse their recent playlists and discover new content they can sample, purchase or download with a Zune Pass.