Corporate podcast production/promotion company PodGarden has announced an enterprise-level tracking service. The PodTractor service verifies audiences for large podcasting organizations similar to print magazine circulation audits.

PodTractor executives say this tool lets podcasters accurately describe their audience size to potential advertisers and sponsors, or present an accurate accounting of returns to investors and management. On the other side of the media table, the technology helps advertisers determine where to buy ads by making a comparison of podcast audience value.

“Accurate podcast tracking is a major issue among large-scale podcast producers,” says Lisa Wehr, founder and president of Oneupweb, parent company of PodGarden. “Before PodTractor, podcast producers couldn’t prove their value to marketers or media planners. Now they can.”

The National Football League said Tuesday it will make highlights from Sunday’s Super Bowl game available for purchase online the following day. The download, in English or Spanish, will cost $1.99 and will be viewable on computers or iPods.

This is purported to be the first time that Super Bowl video highlights have been made available for download.¬† The highlight reel will be available only through Apple’s iTunes Music Store

A 90-minute video of the NFL’s coverage of the Super Bowl will also be sold for $1.99.

iPodJuice.com has introduced iPod Video battery replacement kits for 80GB video iPods.

“Customers have been able to purchase batteries for the 30GB and 60GB iPod Video for a while now,” said Anthony Magnabosco, owner of ipodjuice.com, “but not until recently can they also pick one for the new 80GB player.”

While most of the company’s iPod Video battery replacement kits are sold to do-it-yourselfers, the company can change the battery in your iPod for around $20.

Yodio unveiled its new audio publishing service and online marketplace, described as the Blogger of podcasting, at the DEMO 07 conference today.

Yodio hopes to define a new category of site, a Web community for anyone to create, publish, and buy/sell personal audio recordings. Yodio lets users record by phone using Yodio’s toll-free service or manually upload their prerecorded MP3 files.

“Yodio is to podcasting as Blogger was to blogging — an easy to use Web application that helped define a new application category,” said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO conference. “Yodio not only provides best-of-breed features that consumers will love to use, but Yodio has delivered a unique platform for easily creating, capturing and distributing rich media content.

Yodio lets users record audio tracks from any phone, mix with their digital images, and publish to the Web for purchase and download.

Apple today announced that the iPod shuffle is now available in five colors: blue, pink, green, orange and the original silver.

“iPod shuffle is the world’s most wearable digital music player,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “Music fans can now choose iPod shuffle in one of five brilliant colors, or they can buy one of each.”

Kent Nichols, Douglas Sarine, and the Ninja have announced that they’ve signed a major ad deal.

“We have signed with Federated Media to handle all of our advertising,” they note. “We’re really excited to be working with John Battelle and the crew over there. They’ve got a great track record and really seem to be author friendly. Most importantly we will still be able to advertise in a way that doesn’t interfere with our show.”

While they don’t mention numbers, others are reporting the deal to be worth $300k upfront, plus 60% of revenue.

“While Andrew Baron at Rocketboom recently said the show raked in a little over $272,000 last year, this is a good deal more,” said Businessweek’s Heather Green. “But for this to reach more than just a few video blogs, I think this will have to be the year of metrics.”

Ask a Ninja is a short video podcast that features the Ninja’s answers, which usually involve killing everyone, to life’s burning questions.

The Internet will revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday.

“I’m stunned how people aren’t seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we’ve had,” Gates told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.

In the years ahead, more and more viewers will want the flexibility offered by online video and abandon conventional broadcast television, with its fixed program slots and advertisements that interrupt shows, Gates said.

“Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it,” he said. “Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior.”

“Because TV is moving into being delivered over the Internet‚Äîand some of the big phone companies are building up the infrastructure for that‚Äîyou’re going to have that experience all together,” Gates said.via PC Magazine

Bobbee Tec has announced work on an iPod version of Cyboid, a first person shooter currently available for Nokia’s N-Gage and some other cell phones. Cyboid features 3D graphics, original in-game music, multiple skill levels, and a variety of monsters, weapons, and items.

Here’s a short video showing Cyboid 3D running on a standard iPod Video (5.5g):

“Cyboid is a high-speed, full 3D, first-person shooter that runs on iPod, mobile phones and GBA,” according to Bobbee Tec. “We plan to support older generation iPods as well, depending on interest and demand from the gamers out there … and, no, we won’t be supporting the iPod Shuffle!”

The US is bringing out the big guns to punish North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, taking away his iPod priveleges.

The US has banned exports of iPods, fine wines and fast cars to North Korea as part of the punishment for the country’s nuclear bomb test last year. The sanctions are said to be targeted at North Korea’s elite, who reportedly enjoy luxuries, despite the country’s poverty.

The sanctions on luxury goods were “carefully considered and carefully targeted” to affect only the country’s elite, said US commerce department spokesman Richard Mills. “It does not prohibit exports of food and medicine and other humanitarian goods.”

At the 2007 Winter NAMM Show, a music and recording industry convention recently held in Anaheim, California, Behringer introduced their Podcastudio USB Bundle, a kit for professional podcasting, music production and digital home recording.

Features:

• High-resolution 2 In / 2 Out USB audio interface with plug-and-play for Windows XP and Mac OS X operating systems
• Studio-class 5-input 2-bus mixer with premium mic preamp and 2-band “British” EQ
• Dynamic broadcast-style microphone with 2-stage pop filter
• High-performance studio headphones with ultra-wide frequency response
• Table microphone stand, XLR microphone cable and 2 stereo RCA cables
• Powerful DAW software (Kristal Audio Engine multi-track sequencer and Audacity audio editor)
• Comprehensive podcasting software (Podifier, Juice, PodNova, Golden Ear)

The Podcastudio is expected to ship in 2nd quarter for US $149.99.