10 Zen Monkeys has published their take on the 10 Worst Vlogs of 2006.

While we don’t agree with all their choices, it would be hard to beat their #1 pick – the accurately named Dogs Barking in Cars vlog.

“Behold the future of multimedia,” writes 10 Zen Monkey’s Lou Cabron. “It‚Äôs a terrible idea for a video blog ‚Äî or is it? Just remember that the site‚Äôs creator is the far-thinking genius who parlayed a paper clip into a house in Saskatchewan.”

Here’s a recent episode:

If you’ve got something that you think “beats” Dogs Barking in Cars as the Worst Vlog of 2006, let us know in the comments.

Apple today filed its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 1, 2006 and its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Both filings had been delayed pending the conclusion of an independent investigation by the special committee of the board of directors into past stock option practices and the resulting restatement of the Company’s financial results.

Apple undertook this investigation on its own initiative and has informed the SEC and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the results. Apple’s stock has taken a hit recently over concerns about the stock option scandal and Steve Jobs’ role in it. Investors have been concerned that Jobs might have to resign from his role as CEO at the successful company because of financial improprieties.

Based on an analysis of the findings of the independent investigation, the Company has recognized total additional non-cash stock-based compensation expense of $84 million after tax, including $4 million and $7 million in fiscal years 2006 and 2005, respectively. The restatement arises solely from certain stock option grants made between 1997 and 2002; the investigation found no grants after December 31, 2002 that required accounting adjustments.

“The special committee, its independent counsel and forensic accountants have performed an exhaustive investigation of Apple’s stock option granting practices,” in a joint statement said Al Gore, chair of the special committee, and Jerome York, chair of Apple’s Audit and Finance Committee. “The board of directors is confident that the Company has corrected the problems that led to the restatement, and it has complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team.”

New iPod owners swarmed to Apple’s iTunes store Christmas day, dramatically increasing iTunes’ market share. Visits to the iTunes website jumped 413 percent this Christmas compared to last year, according to Hitwise, a marketing intelligence company.

While some are reporting that holiday traffic brought down iTunes, the site’s biggest problem appeared to be very slow response times caused by the millions of new iPod owners registering their new music players or downloading music. Apple will need to increase its capacity to handle the huge growth in traffic, which was about 70 times the year to year growth seen by most online retailiers.

Hitwise also reports that visits to iTunes outnumbered visits to Microsoft’s Zune.net 30 to 1.

“For the third holiday season in a row, the iPod has been the must-have Christmas gift,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. “Competitive offerings have not yet succeeded in capturing the attention of music listeners, and the surge in visits to the Apple Store shows that iPod owners are also engaged in filling and accessorizing their new devices.”

Added to Podcast software index: Alligator lets PSP users check and download the newest podcast content using iTunes and RSS feeds.

Alligator is RSS aggregation software for video and audio podcasting on the Sony PSP. Alligator also enables playback of many digital video and audio file types on the PSP, including MP3/MOV/MP4/WMA/WMV.

With Alligator for PSP beta ver2.2, you can also sync your PSP with iTunes. Make your playlist on Alligator, and the contents will then be synced with your iTunes software. Alligator imports and exports iTunes’ OPML (outline processor markup language), bringing iTunes broadcasts and downloads to your PSP.

Beyond iTunes, Alligator helps users easily subscribe to any RSS channel feeds. Syncing with RSS channels means easy registration and subscription for automatic updates to video and other content on the PSP.

John Edwards plans to announce his presidential intentions to the world today in New Orleans.

But today’s news is old news to fans of podcasts. Edwards recently announced his intentions in the John Edwards audio podcast. Listen carefully, and you’ll hear Podcast411’s Rob Walch doing the intro.

Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron has also posted a video to YouTube that announces Edward’s candidacy:

Several podcasters, including Robert Scoble and Baron, are on location to cover the mainstream media announcement.

Rocketboom has their take on the event.

Apple, a company that has been flying high with a string of successes recently, now looks like it may get bogged down in a controversial stock option mess.
According to reports, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is one of the most respected and even revered business leaders in the world, received 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorisation from the company’s board of directors. Apples Chief Financial Officer resigned earlier in the year because of financial irregularities.

Records that purported to show a full board meeting had taken place to approve Mr Jobs’ remuneration, as required by Apple’s procedures, were reportedly falsified. These are now among the pieces of evidence being weighed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as it decides whether to pursue a case against the company or any individuals over the issue.

Apple is among more than 160 companies that have owned up to stock option backdating – handing options to executives and other employees at exercise prices that were set in hindsight at favorable levels – a scandal which has led to the departure of a number of chief executives.

via FT.com

PC World has released its list of The Top 21 Tech Screwups of 2006.

Rocketboom made the list for its controversial handling of Amanda Congdon’s exit:

She was the first star of the video blogging revolution. But last July, Rocketboom.com’s quirky-yet-perky Amanda Congdon parted ways with co-boomer Andrew Baron.

The reasons behind the breakup were never really made clear. Congdon has since landed gigs with ABC and HBO.

And after a huge spike in traffic when new hostess Joanne Colan came aboard, Rocketboom’s daily draw has sunk to its lowest level in a year, according to Alexa, which tracks site traffic.

No question who won this battle of the egos.

Big Mistake: Taking away the daily Amanda fix for thousands of geeks.

Bigger Mistake: Not begging her to come back.

While Rocketboom’s crash and burn was painful to watch, Amanda Congdon is back with an ABC video blog, Rocketboom was back on in a few weeks with a new host and Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron is planning a vlog network.

Podtech’s Robert Scoble is on his way to New Orleans to cover John Edward’s Thursday announcement that he will be running for President. The Edwards event is significant, not only for Edward’s announcement, but for Edward’s understanding of the increasing importance of Internet media.

Edwards is arguably the most Net-savvy of likely candidates. He has been actively courting the interest of bloggers and podcasters. Earlier in this year, Edwards attended Gnomedex, a conference that focuses on technology and independent publishing, seeking attendees’ input on how politicians should use Internet media. Edwards was also one of the first politicians to have his own podcast.

At Gnomedex, Edwards said that “The next president of the United States is going to be the single candidate that doesn’t sound like a politician.”

We think it’s safe to go one step further. The next president of the United States will be a podcaster. The next president will be someone that understands how to use podcasting and video podcasting effectively. And just as importantly, the next president will be someone that can navigate the potential minefield of citizen media.

Earlier in the year, we saw how failing to adapt to the world of Internet video can kill a candidate’s chances. Republican U.S. Senator George Allen of Virginia is remembered by many more for his “macaca” reference to an Indian American than his record as a legislator. Allen failed to recognize that anyone can now be the media, and that an off-the-cuff remark at a small rally can be world news in an instant.

It’s obviously too early to suggest that John Edwards will be the next president. He’s got a lot going for him, but he also carries a lot of baggage from the last election, and is seen by some as relatively inexperienced.

Nevertheless, Edward’s announcement will introduce a strong, net-savvy candidate into the race, and emphasize the increased importance of podcasting and other Internet media to the future of politics in the US.

MadZ Software has announced the release of version 2.5 of its DVD to iPod / PSP Video Converter software, an application that rips DVD video files and converts them into the appropriate format for uploading to and viewing on an Apple iPod Video or a Sony PSP.

According to the company, the app can convert almost all DVDs for play on an iPod Video or Sony PSP, including purchased DVDs, original DVDs, DVD copies, even downloaded DVDs. The input video can be in either NTSC or Pal format. For multilanguage DVDs, you can even choose which soundtrack language to convert. You also have full control over which titles and chapters are converted. Also, you can control the output format such as setting a custom sample rate for audio and custom resolution and bit rate (quality vrs. size) for video.

DVD to iPod / PSP Video Converter also features a preview function that allows you to preview DVD title and/or specific chapters prior to conversion or monitor the video during the conversion process.

The software works with Windows XP and 2000 and retails for $24.95.

via Video Podcasting News

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Chairman of HDNet, thinks that HDTV is a Internet video killer:

HDTV is the Internet video killer. Deal with it. Internet bandwidth to the home places a cap on the quality and simplicity of video delivery to the home, and to HDTVs in particular. Not only does internet capacity create an issue, but the complexity of moving HDTV streams around the home and tp the HDTV is pretty much a deal killer itself. Together, internet video is destined for the PC monitor for a long time to come. The only wild card that will have an impact is gaming consoles, but they dint offer access to internet video, they all kill themselves by only offering access to content inside their walled gardens. Internet video won’t replace TV. It wont even complement TV offerings. It will flourish in the office. It will be a fun way to share personal content privately or publicly. It will be Community Access TV.

On the flip side, HDTV is here and now. Its gone from being a future technology that could be cool in our living room to being the King of this holiday shopping season. 10s of millions of HDTVs have been sold and will be sold in the next year. The number of households with HDTVs is exploding. Yet for reasons I cant figure out, the broadcast networks are ignoring the opportunity it presents.

The 4 broadcast networks are really the only 4 companies that create content on a daily basis that can put smiles on the faces of all those HDTV buyers. They broadcast most of their prime time signals over the air and have the greatest reach on cable and satellite HD delivery.

Cuban makes some interesting points, but seems to be ignoring the fact that people have made Internet video one of the fastest growing forms of media, despite the fact that most Internet video looks crappy.