PCAudioLabs has introduced two new digital audio PCs, Solar and Lunar, to their Create product line.

Both systems come equipped with dual hard drives, dual video outputs, 8 USB ports, 2 Texas Instruments FireWire ports and 2 Gigabytes of RAM. The systems are “optimized and tweaked” for demanding audio production.

Features:

• Intel Core2 Duo 1.8GHz
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• 80GB SATAII Hard Drive
• 320GB SATAII Hard Drive
• Onboard Dual VGA + DVI
• 18x DVD +/- RW Drive
• Quiet Operation

Solar and Lunar are available now starting at $1099.

Rocketboom and Blip.tv have announced a partnership to incorporate interactive advertising into the weekday video podcast. The result is more intrusive than some other Internet video ad types, but is an interesting new ad option.

Here’s how Blip.tv’s Mike Hudack describes the system:

That new technology is an entirely interactive QuickTime overlay advertisement that looks and behaves just like a Flash overlay. We believe it’s the first of its kind. This QuickTime overlay can be clicked on, and it can also be closed. It works in iTunes and it works in Miro. It’s pretty fancy. It was developed by Jared Klett and Allan Grinshtein with a little help from the brilliant Dennis Backus of Apple’s QuickTime team and Josh Paul of Aweli. We never would have developed this technology without the insistent prodding of Andrew Baron, a man who cares so much for his audience and for the quality of his craft that he wouldn’t settle for just any QuickTime advertising implementation. He, rightfully, insisted on something groundbreaking — and we hope that we’ve delivered it.

Blip.tv is effectively taking over the distribution costs for Rocketboom and handling ad deals in exchange for a cut of the ad revenue.

The Blip.tv solution offers Rocketboom “the additional ability to serve interactive, post-roll ads and collapsable overlays in flash AND Quicktime files,” notes Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron. “Blip brokered the sponsorship (many more to come) and has integrated their run-of-site framework into our site for extra coverage between sponsor runs. This gives us the ultimate flexibility to manage multiple sales of various types at the same time.”

Starbucks plans to give away 50 million free digital songs to promote a new wireless iTunes music service that’s about to debut in select markets. Unfortunately – they’re picking the songs.

From Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, baristas in the company’s more than 10,000 U.S. stores will hand out about 1.5 million “Song of the Day” cards each day. The cards can be redeemed at Apple’s online iTunes Store.

Thirty-seven artists with featured songs include Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell ‚Äî the first two to sign on with Starbucks’ Hear Music label ‚Äî along with Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox and Band of Horses. The first song will be Bob Dylan’s Joker Man.

Earlier this month, Starbucks and Apple announced a partnership that will allow users of Apple’s iPhone and new iPod Touch to download songs playing in a Starbucks shop directly to their portable devices. The service will launch at 600 shops in Seattle and New York on Oct. 2, then roll out in San Francisco in early November.

Starbucks plans to have the service up and running in a quarter of its stores by the end of next year and in all U.S. stores with wireless networks by the end of 2009. There are no immediate plans to expand the service to international markets.

Gawker is reporting that pioneering video blogger Amanda Congdon and ABC will be parting ways:

We hear that ABC News vlogger Amanda Congdon’s contract won’t be renewed. Congdon, who came to fame at RocketBoom, started contributing to their website late last year. She has been quite productive recently taking tours of homes in Santa Barbara and talking about angry iPhone buyers. No word yet on the state of her contracts with DuPont.

The Congdon/ABC match has always seemed a bit uneasy. Congdon made her name with RocketBoom, where she made clear that she was game for anything. Her work with ABC lacks the anything-goes attitude of RocketBoom, and many of her RocketBoom fans were put off by the fact that ABC makes you watch a relatively long ad before watching her show.

We’re wondering if Jason Calacanis still wants to fight for Amanda Congdon like a rabid dog….

Podcasting startup PodShow is expected to formally announce a partnership with TiVo next week that will bring PodShow’s video podcasts to TiVo users. The agreement promises to make Podshow’s content available to millions of new viewers, directly on their televisions.

An official announcement is expected at next week’s Podcasting and Portable Media Expo.

Paul Colligan via TechCrunch

The Lyric Opera of Chicago has introduced a new podcast series, Backstage at Lyric.

The audio programs will feature interviews with the singers, conductors and creative team members behind the productions in Lyric Opera’s 2007-08 season.

The debut episode, hosted by staff dramaturg Roger Pines, presents a conversation with soprano Elizabeth Futral and tenor Joseph Calleja, who star as Violetta and Alfredo in the Frank Corsaro production of Verdi’s La traviata that opens the season on September 29.

You can preview this podcast below, or subscribe to the podcast by adding this feed URL to your podcast software:
http://www.lyricopera.org/podcast/lyricpodcasts-rss.asp

CBS has announced that it will make 60 Minutes available as a free audio podcast on iTunes. CBS has previously made excerpts available as a podcast, but the move will mark the first time the show will be able to be downloaded in its entirety.

“60 Minutes is perfect for this kind of audio podcasting. Our broadcast has always been built on solid story telling, with or without the pictures,” said 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager. “We’ve been broadcasting an audio-only version of 60 Minutes on CBS News Radio for years with great success.”

CBS will make the podcast available on iTunes and CBSNews.com at 11 p.m. every Sunday, after the show airs on the broadcast network. The network will kick off the podcast when 60 Minutes begins its 40th season Sept. 23.

This announcement seems to be as tentative as ABC & NBC’s recent announcements. Why not make a bold move, and make 60 Minutes available as an ad-supported video podcast?

This year, it’s looking more and more like the major broadcast networks are going to be taking baby steps into Internet media, experimenting with a variety of different methods of delivery while trying to protect their traditional business model:

• Fox plans to offer the season premiere episodes of seven programs for free through Apple’s iTunes store, a move that highlights the TV industry’s race to harness the Internet and try out potential business partners. Fox hopes to get people hooked and then get them to pay for future episodes.
• NBC has announced a new service, NBC Direct, which will let you download and view NBC‚Äôs primetime and late-night programming to Windows PCs to watch for up to a week after the shows are broadcast. It’s basically a proprietary podcast platform – meaning that NBC’s adding DRM and limiting what you can do with downloads.
• ABC has announced that it will make its primetime programming available through AOL Video. Shows will be available one day after they premiere on TV through an “ABC.com on AOL” player, which will also display identification from the local ABC affiliate station.

Broadcasters know that attention is moving to the Web and, with it, advertising dollars. None of these moves, though, is an especially bold move to try and capture those dollars.

Fox’s approach is probably the most promising. They’re offering free, ad-supported downloads of their premieres on the most popular Internet media platform, Apple’s iTunes. This means that millions of people will be able to catch the premieres on their computers, iPods and iPhones, at their own schedule.

NBC and ABC’s offerings seem hesitant, by comparison. They want you to check out their new shows, but only if you use an approved system, download their software and watch the show when they will let you.

If Fox’s content is appealing, expect their approach to give their shows an advantage over NBC and ABC’s.

Podcasters Paul Colligan and Alex Mendossian have announced PremiumCast, a new service that lets you manage, deliver and sell podcasts and video podcasts.

The service lets you create custom messages, track subscriber usage, monetize podcasts and publish both public and private podcasts. Three levels of service are available: Free, Professional ($37/month) & Viral ($67/month). The paid options add additional features, including subscriber management and ecommerce capabilities.

“The normal paradigm for podcasts is one feed for everyone, so everyone hears or sees the same content,” said Colligan. “With PremiumCast, you can target personalized content to individual users.”

According to Colligan and Mendossian, the ability to deliver custom content to users will allow podcasters to monetize their content in ways that are impossible with traditional media. As an example, they cite Marc David, an early user of the system, that is using it to deliver personal motivational messages to the individuals who subscribe to his fitness program. Colligan and Mendossian also expect that customization will lead to greater retention of listeners.

The official launch of PremiumCast will take place during the upcoming Podcast & New Media Expo, where there will be live demos of the new service.

It looks like Apple’s controversial iPhone price cuts have turned the phone and portable media player into a hit:

• iPhone carrier AT&T said sales of the iPhone have increased since Apple announced the price cuts. “The price cuts are going to help us,” said AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega. “We see a very significant uptake in that business, and we think it will continue through the holidays.”
• Palm may post a lost because Treo sales are declining. Treo advertisements failed to fend off competition from Apple’s iPhone and the latest models of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry. Palm’s operating expenses, including the ads and research budget, climbed 25 percent in the quarter.
• Apple has prepared plans to nearly double its iPhone production in the fourth quarter. The plan calls for making 2.7 million iPhones next quarter, up from the 1.54 million originally targeted. Apple’s plans now call for 4.8 million iPhones to be produced this year, up from the 3.6 million previously targeted.

The popularity of the iPhone is likely to lead to more phones offering support for music, video and audio podcasts and other Internet media.