Apple has released a new tool, the iPod shuffle Reset Utility, that is designed to restore the original iPod shuffle and resolve a variety of problems with the portable media players.

The restore process completely erases all music and data on iPod shuffle and reinstalls software version 1.1.4.

Ron Nasty’s Final Taxi podcast, a show that looks at the lives of the recently deceased, is focusing on the undead this week, featuring stories of ghosts, vampires and haunted houses.

“Halloween is about taking the morbid, scary and unknown and then making it something fun and celebratory. ‘Final Taxi’ has a similar goal — taking news of a tragic loss and turning it into a nostalgic and fun celebration of life,” said Ron Nasty. “A week of true horror stories was a perfect fit to commemorate Halloween with some truly creepy podcasts of those who never quite got out of their Final Taxi.”

Nasty’s first segment (MP3) looks at the true story of an English woman reputed to have been buried with a stake in her heart, and her vow to come back from the dead.

The US Portable Music Device Forecast, a new report from Jupiter Research, predicts that over 100 million portable MP3 players will be in use by 2011 in the US alone.

According to Jupiter, the iPod will keep its position as the most popular MP3 player.

“Despite the coming of Zune, the return of closed-loop digital music service-device combinations, and music phones on the horizon, the iPod should not lose significant market share in the next 12 to 18 months,” said research director Michael Gartenberg.

The study highlights flaws in MP3-ready mobile phone systems, noting that, though the devices will outnumber dedicated MP3 players by 2009, the actual usage of the phones for listening to music is “nascent in the US”.”US mobile phone carriers are underemphasizing or ignoring altogether the necessity of enabling users to sideload existing music collections onto a phone because they cant charge for it,” said Jupiter Research vice president and senior analyst David Card, who served as lead analyst for the report.

The report comes as Microsoft prepares to launch its highly-anticipated Zune player on November 14, just weeks after SanDisk and Apple rolled out major upgrades to their MP3 players.

Wizzard Software announced today that it has agreed to acquire Libsyn, the world’s largest podcasting network. Wizzard is on a spending spree; recently it announced several other podcast-related acquisitions.

“Libsyn is on a mission to empower the content creator in this new age of independent media by creating unique opportunities to share advertising revenues with its podcasters,” said Chris Spencer, CEO of Wizzard Software.

‚ÄúBy joining forces, we can provide Libsyn with the operating capital it needs to continue its impressive growth, increase capacity and maintain its dominant status in the industry while at the same time expand our revenues by helping podcasters monetize their shows through unique advertising and sponsorship engagements,” he added.

Evan Williams has announced that he has created a new startup, Obvious Corp, and purchased the assets of the podcasting community he helped found, Odeo.

Odeo has struggled to meet William’s expectations; though it’s a relatively popular podcasting community, the field is dominated by Apple.

“I screwed up several things, which hindered that quick success,” confesses Williams.

“I believe there is a lot of value in what we’ve built,” adds Williams, “but I did not believe the structure was going to lead to the kind of success we wanted. In the new company, with a new structure, and a new model, I think they are great investments.”

Veeker announced today the Beta launch of a mobile-to-Internet service that lets U.S. consumers publish video content from their mobile phones. According to the company, it is “positioning itself to help these and other consumers evolve their mobile communication habits from audio and text to video.”

Mobile videos sent to Veeker are viewable within seconds at Veeker.com, and can be distributed on any website that accepts embed codes, such as MySpace, Xanga, and Blogger.

Videos are sent from mobile phones as MMS messages, using the MMS message composer resident on every mobile phone equipped with a video camera. Consumers do not need to install special software, and they do not need a data plan from their cellular provider.

“Mobile phones have evolved from communication devices that transmit audio only, to audio and text and photos, and now the most effective communication medium, video,” stated Alex Kelly, Veeker CEO. “Communicating with mobile video is extraordinarily powerful—a 30 second video message conveys a lot of information.”

The company reports that early test users have been using the service in multiple ways, including: showing and inviting friends to a party in progress, sharing a wedding with family members who can not be there, leaving others video messages instead of voicemails, asking for advice from friends while shopping alone, creating a real-time video travelogue, archiving one’s life as a video diary, leaving video notes-to-self, capturing and sharing interesting sights with video or photos—Veeker accepts mobile photos as well.

Robert Scoble has posted an interview with, Matt Jubelirer, the product manager for Microsoft’s iPod competitor, the Zune.

Apple today announced that its entire MacBook Pro line of notebooks now includes the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor, delivering performance that is up to 39 percent faster than the previous generation, according to the company.

All MacBook Pro models now offer double the memory and greater storage capacity than the previous generation, as well as a FireWire 800 port for connecting to high-speed peripherals. The new MacBook Pro’s stunning, lightweight, aluminum enclosure is just one-inch thin, available in 15- and 17-inch models, and features a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go.

“With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, greater storage capacity and FireWire 800 connectivity, the new MacBook Pro delivers unprecedented performance and mobility in an incredibly thin and light design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

A dialog about podcast statistics between vlogging gurus Ze Frank and Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron appears to have quickly descended into a bragging match about size and penetration.

“Ze Frank has laid into me because he doesn’t believe how he could only have a fraction of the audience size of Rocketboom,” writes Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron.

Baron’s post is a response to Ze Frank’s recent show, in which he users the term “Rocketbooming” to describe the idea that podcasters can lie with statistics, and most people won’t realize it….

Black Box Theatre Company, a non-traditional theatrical troupe based in San Francisco, has announced plans for a World Premiere podcast of The Creature, a new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The Creature will be taped before a live studio audience at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre (Fort Mason Center, Building D, Laguna at Marina Blvd ) on Monday, October 30 at 8pm. This one-night-only, live, concert-reading and digital recording of a new adaptation of Mary Shelley‚Äôs Frankenstein will then be podcast the next day, Halloween.

On October 31 at 5:00pm (West Coast Time), Halloween, the World Premiere of The Creature will be Podcast at the Black Box Theatre site.

“There are two sides to every tale, this is the creature’s story,” said Creature “creator” Trevor Allen, founder of Black Box Theatre Company.