A new voice-over-IP (VoIP) startup, Ooma, has launched that hopes to stir up the phone industry by combining Internet phone calls with peer-to-peer phone line sharing. It connects to your local phone line and to your broadband Internet, routing your long-distance calls over the Internet.

The service also uses your phone line and the phone lines of other Ooma users to route calls out from the Internet to the plain old telephone system. By turning your phone line into an access point that anybody can use, Ooma saves the cost of building out a large network.

“An ambitious and long awaited new consumer VOIP startup – Ooma – launches on Thursday morning,” writes Mike Arrington in a gushy take on the new gear at TechCrunch: “Much like Vonage and the ill-fated SunRocket, Ooma allows consumers to use their normal phones to make and receive telephone calls, but at drastically reduced prices.”

VoIP is an important technology to follow for podcasters, because it offers a cheap or free way to do interviews with people anywhere in the world. However, at $400, Ooma looks more like an expensive way to share your phone line with strangers than a useful tool.

Update: Uncov has an interesting angle on the TechCrunch/GigaOm/VentureBeat CrunchJuice lovefest for Ooma.

If you’ve got an extreme fetish for iPod gadgets, you may want to check out Shanling’s $995 iPod dock/CD Player/Tuner & tube power amp. Apparently nothing brings out the warmth of compressed digital audio like vacuum tubes……

Here are the details:

The Shanling MC-30 Music Center is a brushed aluminum CD player and tuner with 3 watts per channel, single ended tube amplifier section, fully remote controlled with a built in iPod docking station.

Features:

• The top caps of the front pair of feet are in fact, an input selector and a volume control.
• Combining high quality CD player, tuner, dedicated iPOD input and tube power amplifier in one chassis.
• Philips VAM-12 pick-up mechanism coupled with CD-7II servo system for low jitter tracking
• D/A conversion is accomplished by Burr-Brown PCM1738 DAC chip
• High-quality FM/AM tuning system
• 2x6P1 single-ended tube output stage
• Mini multi-functional lever, concealed input selector and volume control
• All aluminum chassis with cylindrical support and internal screening

The Participatory Culture Foundation has announced a new version of their free and open source Internet media application, Miro, which was formerly known as Democracy.

Here are the details:

We have a new name (Miro) and a new logo designed by Jon Hicks (who did the Firefox logo). Our new website has been updated throughout with better, more focused, and more up to date info. Our forums are totally new and way better. The channel guide has move to miroguide.com and has a whole new look (it’s still designed to be used primarily inside the app).

And most importantly, this version of Miro is much improved.

New features in Public Preview 1 (0.9.8)

• Keyboard shortcuts on all platforms. This should allow remote controls to be configured to control Miro.
• Improved system tray functionality on Windows, including a context menu.
• Added a new ‚Äòreport a bug‚Äô menu item.
• Adds Veoh.com as a search engine.

Bug fixes

• Fixed behavior when maximizing on Windows (won‚Äôt cover up the taskbar).
• Smarter importing and folder watching to avoid adding audio files.
• Removed Yahoo as a search engine, since most results did not link to enclosures.
• Fixed a memory leak.
• Fixed several unicode errors.
• Fixed miscounting of new and unwatched items in folders.
• Minor UI fixes, including name changes to sidebar items and new Miro Guide logo.
• Many other small fixes.

It’s an interesting project, one that could develop into the Firefox of Internet media.

Unfortunately, Miro doesn’t support 5G iPods, the iPhone or Apple TV, which limits its use for people interested in portable media. If you use Internet media primarily on your computer, though, Miro has a lot to offer.

Last 100 has a review of Miro.

The iPhone may drive a new wave of growth growth in mobile video usage, according to research conducted by new media research firm Interpret.

Research Highlights:

• Despite owning their new iPhones for a short period of time, 63% of iPhone owners have already used the widescreen-enabled device to watch video (compared to only 28% of regular cell phone owners).
• Half of iPhone owners (51%) have watched a YouTube video on their phone.
• 46% have watched a music video.
• 34% have watched the news.
• 32% have watched a movie trailer.

The study suggests that it’s not the consumers who are different, it’s the iPhone. Prior to buying the iPhone, few owners had watched video on their cell phone (only 17% had seen YouTube clips, 21% had watched a music video, 16% had seen the news, and only 15% had watched a movie trailer on a phone).

“Apple has already made a name for itself as a top destination for music and video on-the-go, and consumers expect the iPhone to deliver on that reputation,” said Jason Kramer, Chief Strategy Officer, Interpret. “Consumers want to watch video on their cell phones, but they have high expectations for the experience. The iPhone shows consumers that the potential is there to meet or exceed their expectations for mobile video.”

Blender¬†magazine has compiled a list of the players that are reshaping the music industry, the¬†Powergeek 25, and¬†Apple’s Steve Jobs¬†tops the list. ¬†

In the last few years, Jobs and Apple have innovated their way to the head of the digital media world, with the company’s iPods, iPhones, iTunes and iTunes Store.

“Music fans spend much of their day, if not their life, sitting in front of their computer, discovering and downloading music,” said Blender’s Craig Marks. “Today’s power brokers no longer work in the steel-and-glass towers of the traditional record business; instead, they’re tech geeks, bedroom bloggers and Silicon Valley visionaries.”

“The iTunes Store and the iPod have done more to change the way people listen to music than anything since the CD, and maybe since the sound recording,” added Marks.

Here’s the rest of the top “powergeeks” of the music industry….

Prerollr has an introduced a new option for adding ads to videos embedded in blogs and other sites.

Their solution lets anyone that embeds videos from popular sites such as Google Video, YouTube, Veoh, Revver or MySpace insert banner ads that are displayed in the video window before the video plays.

If you use Prerollr, it lets you display their ads, and it will pay you a cut of the ad revenue. You can also display your own ads, in which case Prerollr takes 25% of the ad space to pay for their service.

In order to use the service, you have to sign up at the site and be able to add a line of code to the head HTML of your site. The code loads a JavaScript include from the Prerollr site that provides the ad service.

Details are available at the Prerollr site.

via TechCrunch

Sony has launched a new video sharing site, Crackle, formerly known as Grouper, and unfortunately, still a YouTube wannabe.

According to Sony, “Crackle‚Äôs comprehensive approach includes a unique programming and editorial strategy, wide-reaching global distribution platforms and collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment, the IMPROV Comedy franchise and other leading media companies.”

In other words, Sony is cutting deals to get some exclusive content with the idea that commercial content is the secret to creating a YouTube-killer.

More promising is Crackle’s plan to reward video creators:

“We reward the best video creators with Crackle funding, promotion, syndication and even greater exposure to our large media partners,” said Josh Felser, founder and co-president of Crackle. “Great content surfaced from our open studio model is the key to our success.”

While Crackle has some interesting features,¬†the site is slow,¬†it uses a lot of scrolling windows, videos are constantly starting by themselves and, most importantly, the site doesn’t do a great job of bubbling up good content that’s keyed into your interests.

If you’re looking for videos that “make you feel dirty even after a shower”, though, Sony’s got you covered:

Yamaha has announced a new MP3 player, the BodiBeat, that promises to DJ your workout, selecting tunes based on your heart rate.¬† According to Yamaha, it’s “the world’s first music player/heart rate monitor that selects and plays songs to match the pace of the user’s workout.”

The player goes beyond Apple’s Nike + iPod combination, a wireless system that connects running shoes to iPods. The system monitors your heart rate using an earphone sensor, and selects songs based on BPM and your preferences. It can also randomly remix “beat loops” to create a continuous mix adapted to your workout pace.

BodiBeat also will let you manage workouts and your music via PC and Web software. No word on Mac software.

While the BodiBeat promises to introduce some interesting twists to the MP3 player market, pricing is expected to be a steep $300 for a 512mb player, and Yamaha’s BodiBeat¬†marketing is lousy compared to Apple’s.

 

A new organization, the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), announced its formation yesterday. The goal of the ADM is to create standards for audience measurement and advertising for downloadable media. The ADM also hopes to accelerate the growth of podcasting into a commercially viable medium.

The ADM plans to focus primarily on the world of podcasting, downloadable media and portable content monetized by advertising and sponsorship. According to the organization, “The ADM will create a landscape that facilitates the commercialization of this growing audience.”

The organization has been formed to focus specifically on any content downloaded by consumers, and will work in collaboration with related industry organizations, publishers and agencies such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).

The ADM has announced an interim board of representatives from the following fifteen companies who met initially to establish the organization: Apple Inc., BlogTalkRadio, Kiptronic, LibSyn, IndieFeed, NPR, Nielsen//NetRatings, Personal Life Media, Inc., Podbridge, PodTech, PodShow, Podtrac, Porter Novelli, Rev3 and Vogele Law.

Five initial committees will be formed immediately to address:

• advertising standards
• measurement
• outreach/education
• terminology
• membership

A membership application is now available on the ADM Web site. Nominations for the executive seats, advisory board and committee chairs will take place this summer.

Federated Department Stores will begin rolling out iPod-dispensing vending machines to 180 Macy’s locations nationwide this fall.

The vending machines and inventory are owned and maintained by Zoom Systems, a San Francisco company that has been placing its robotic vending machines in airports, hotels, malls and other high-traffic locations.

The latest deployment, dubbed Zoom@Macy’s, follows a recent test at Macy’s’ Union Square store in San Francisco. According to Federated chairman Terry Lundgren, who announced the rollout during the company’s annual shareholder meeting here last week, the vending machines will initially carry iPods and accessories although other CE products and brands, including Sony and Motorola, may be added to the mix.