Singapore-based radio network MediaCorp Radio has launched a new site to showcase its podcast content, and to feature user-submitted podcasts, Podcast.sg.

Current podcasts include offerings from MediaCorp stations 987 FM, Malay “infotainment” station Warna 92.4 FM, RSI Chinese-language movie reviews (I had fun trying to make sense of the review of the new “Casino Royale” movie), and even a weekly sampling of the best of the blogosphere, BlogTV.sg.

MediaCorp is also soliciting submissions of users’ own podcast creations, from which a selection will be featured. Also on the horizon is podcast content for mobile phones, but neither of those options seem to be functional at this time.

Earlier this year, Singapore’s podcast community was in the news, when the ruling government outlawed political campaign podcasts in the run-up to the 2006 General Elections.

Deloitte and Touche LLP, a worldwide accounting and management consulting firm, has a weekly audio business news podcast, Deloitte Insights, that delves into the business strategies that address the issues affecting industry. Topics such as accounting, audit, tax, finance, technology, risk management, governance and much more are discussed with some of the industries’ most experienced minds at the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu member firms.

In the wake of corporate scandals of the past several years, one podcast from earlier this year, talking about effective (and ethical) boards of directors was especially interesting.
Information about the podcast can be found here, and you can subscribe here.

In addition, the Canadian arm of Deloitte and Touche also has its own podcast, which is listed in Podcasting News’ Directory as well.

Six new podcast series about six major Scottish cities — from the young adult perspective – are set to debut throughout this week.

The “MPsix” project was created by about three dozen youngsters from six Scottish cities, working together in scripting, performing and editing short audio guides to their home cities.

Adults who usually work as architects, artists, writers, musicians, and photographers conducted five-day workshops for youth in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness. At the workshops, the teens learned how to create their own audio postcards, museum tours, sightseeing guides, and other vignettes of life in their hometowns.

The aim of the workshops was to “give young Scots the skills to make their own” guides to the cities they live in. These podcasts offer a teenage perspective on life in each of the cities.

Workshop participants learned about digital recording, writing for audio, interview techniques, sound editing, architecture and the environment, as well as conducting research into key places to visit around the city.
101-dimensions.co.uk , a new media and web development agency, served as podcast director on the project.

Subscription instructions available here, and the RSS feed is here .

CUNY Radio, a service of the City Universtiy of New York, has introduced a series of podcasts, ranging from school news to sports and other topics.

“With these free podcasts we are now able to reach faculty, students, friends of the City University and the general public with timely, important and useful information,” said CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations, Jay Hershenson. “Podcasting also offers the media access to the ideas and opinions of CUNY faculty experts on a host of important topics.”

iBloks today announced a Windows Video Podcast Starter Kit designed to empower podcasters to easily create world class quality video podcasts. The Starter Kit includes the iBloks Video Podcaster software, a headset with noise canceling mic, a virtual 3D stage and a training video for $49.99.

The iBloks drag and drop interface supports photo, graphic and video file formats and it can automatically sequence and pace the clips. Once they have their first show, customers can make a home for their new video podcast on Blubrry, a podcast community.

“The iBloks Video Podcast Starter kit provides an incredibly powerful and easy way for podcasters to unleash their creativity on a 3D virtual stage to people everywhere,” said Julia Miller, president and CEO of iBloks. “We’re freeing podcasters to create and share rich, high-quality visual experiences by showcasing the exciting podcasts to people around the world.”

According to a poll by Metro.co.uk, a quarter of UK urbanites have downloaded pirated music recently.

Almost half the 18 to 44-year-olds who took part in the survey said they downloaded tunes. While 37 per cent said they had downloaded legal tracks, 25 per cent admitted to downloading illegally in the past six months.

While 91 per cent of people downloaded from home, eight per cent did so at work. It may be time for UK businesses to check their firewall/proxy configurations….

Jupiter Research’s Michael Gartenberg has an interesting post with his thoughts on what Microsoft should learn from the Zune.

He makes four main points.

• Zune lacks elegance ‚Äì It‚Äôs actually not bad looking device but put it next to a 30gb iPod as every reviewer has and it looks and feels clunky by comparison.
• The Price is Wrong – While Microsoft priced Zune at $249 and losing money at that price all that did was bring them to Apple‚Äôs price point for a unit with no cachet. Let‚Äôs face it, Apple and iPod are strong premium brands for consumers. Zune is not. It‚Äôs hard to price yourself the same as a BMW when you‚Äôre an Hyundai.
• Need for a Flash Player ‚Äì Nano is the most popular iPod sold so why take on the market with a 30gb hard drive player? There really needs to be a Zune flash player ASAP.
• Zune doesn‚Äôt feel complete ‚Äì Zune needs to get some premium video content into Zune marketplace. Of course, there also needs to be an integrated podcast client. Lack of Vista support will no doubt be fixed before January 30th, but the reports that Zune didn‚Äôt work on Vista made Redmond look silly.
• Get Someone From MSFT on the Road ‚Äì One of the worst parts of launch was watching Microsoft let others take the Zune message to the media.

Gartenberg’s points are excellent, but Microsoft needs to go further. Even before the Zune made its debut, it was clear that there were multiple things that Microsoft needs to do to fix the Zune. Several of these issues are very important for Microsoft to address, if they want the Zune to get anywhere.

Key among these are getting rid of the point purchasing system and making the wireless capabilities useful. As it is now, wireless capabilities are the key selling point of the Zune (Welcome to the Social….) but they are so limited as to be useless.

Hammacher Schlemmer has introduced an inexpensive iPod DJ Mixer. The mixer has little to do with the high-end MP3 mixers that DJs use, though, and more to do with iPod toys.

Description: 

This is the personal music studio that connects to an iPod or similar musical device with an audio output and allows you to create your own digital mixing effects, such as scratch, digi-sound, and voice. The mixer has two discs that, when rotated or scratched, produce up to six different background rhythms and fill-in sounds, three drum fills, and three voice effects. Volume and tempo controls allow you to adjust sound levels so that you can hear your effects accompany the songs played through the iPod. Mixer can be attached to a Mac or PC for saving using appropriate audio connector (not included). Requires four AA batteries. Ages 8 and up. 3 1/2″ H x 10 1/2″ W x 12″ L. (1 1/2 lbs.)

The Johnson Space Centre released a batch of images this weekend, and one of them shows that an iPod’s got a place of honor on the International Space Station.

The image above shows European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter on board the International Space Station – with his iPod. The image released by NASA clearly shows an iPod and a Belkin external battery pack taped to the equipment rack in front of the astronaut.

Closeup below….

The University of Florida Warrington College of Business has introduced its first podcast, Tuesdays with Tosi.  Hosted by Henry Tosi, a McGriff professor of management, the weekly podcast features conversations with some of the business college’s leading researchers and entrepreneurs addressing such topics as management, finance, entrepreneurship and marketing.

In the first podcast, Tosi talks with Mark Lutz, J.C. Penney professor of marketing, on the topic of the “recreational shopper.” Schedules for the next three episodes are currently posted on the Warrington College of Business Web site at www.cba.ufl.edu/. Planning for new episodes through April 2007 is under way.

Tuesdays with Tosi is the first ongoing series for the college.