Ofcom, the regulator for the UK communications industries, is proposing to make it legal to use small FM transmitters, like those found in Griffin iTrips and other devices, in the UK.

Ofcom proposes to permit the use of micro” FM transmitters on a licence-exempt basis. “micro” FM transmitters are designed to facilitate easy connection between audio sources (such as digital audio devices and MP3 players) and normal FM broadcast receivers by way of a radio link.

InterLingua Educational Publishing wants to put Shakespeare on your portable media player.

The company announced today the availability of NotePods, a collection of $1.99 audio downloads for iPods and MP3 players designed to help students with their exams and term papers.

“NotePods are audio summaries of books and plays by Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen and other required authors that can be played on a student’s iPod, MP3 player or computer,” says Jack Bernstein, President of InterLingua Educational Publishing.

“The NotePods are being written by university teachers and recorded by professional actors,” says Bernstein, “so they should be accurate, comprehensive, and easy to listen to. By formatting the summaries for use on an iPod or MP3 player, students can study while riding on the bus, jogging, biking, laying on the grass, and even walking the dog.”

Santa Monica College has announced the launch of SMC on iTunes U, making a wide range of podcasts available to students and the public alike.

SMC is among a growing number of colleges and universities turning to podcasting as an educational tool, including Stanford, UCLA and Duke in North Carolina.

SMC on iTunes U features course content, audio podcasts of various guest speakers at the college and public SMC Board of Trustees meetings, and a documentary video about SMC’ s pilot podcasting program.

All material is available for free to the public. SMC plans to continue to upload material onto SMC on iTunes U, enriching the content with new educational material and students’ work.

KEF Audio, a UK based company that specializes in high-end audiophile-quality sound systems for home cinema, hi-fi and custom installation applications, has introduced the KEFDock iPod Docking Station, a dock designed to integrate both audio and video iPods with the KEF Instant Theatre system.

“The design philosophies embodied in the iPod and KEF Instant Theatre Systems are identical,” stated Alec Chanin, president of KEF America. “Both greatly simplify access to audio and video entertainment, and both share an exceptionally beautiful yet simple aesthetic design. The new KEFDock integrates the two, thus enhancing both.”

Russell Holliman took a few minutes to talk with Elisabeth Lewin, Publisher of Podcasting News, at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. Holliman discussed his company, Podcast Ready, and their podcast client, MyPodder.

“Our company started [at the first PME] last year,” said Holliman said. “We found our first hardware partner here, and our backer. It led to the formation of Podcast Ready. It was our mission to mainstream podcasting technology — to make it ubiquitous.”

He also touched on the company’s recent Cease and Desist letter from Apple, which objects to the use of the syllable “pod” in their company and product names, especially in relationship to the marketing of portable media players. Apple gave them until October 5 to respond to the complaint.

“We’re kind of stuck at the moment,” noted Holliman. “We have hardware partners out there that are selling our products as part of their MP3 players, and they are printing hundreds of thousands of boxes with PodcastReady on it. It’s not just a matter of calling up and saying ‘I need new business cards.’ There’s a lot of people involved here.”

“We don’t really feel that ‘pod’ as it pertains to our trademark, infringes on anybody’s,” adds Holliman.

Starbucks and Apple have announced the availability of the Starbucks Hear Music catalog on the iTunes Store, giving iTunes users the ability to preview, buy and download a variety of Starbucks’ Hear Music titles.

Hear Music produces a wide range of albums showcasing new and classic artists including the Artist’s Choice series, Opus Collections, Debut Series releases by emerging artists, as well as new works from major artists. Starbucks Hear Music offerings will be available in a special new Starbucks Entertainment area within the iTunes Store and will include a wide variety of popular content as well as playlists created specifically for iTunes.

“We’re excited to work with iTunes to add a significant new digital experience to the innovative buying experience we’ve been offering in Starbucks locations for more than 10 years,” said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment. “Many of our customers want to listen to our music on their iPods, and now that will be easier than ever.”

PodZinger today announced the launch of its advertising platform, with free opt-in for podcasters. PodZinger’s service is designed to solve the problem of connecting consumers with relevant advertising in online audio and video content.

With PodZinger, advertisers are able to mine multimedia search data and leverage usage and topic filters to arrive at a better understanding of how consumers are interacting with content. Based on this insight, advertisers can identify the most valuable audio and video programming and deliver the most relevant and effective messages, targeted specifically to the content viewed and its context.

Best Buy has joined forces with Rhapsody and SanDisk, unveiling the Best Buy Digital Music Storec. The new service is powered by the RealNetwork’s Rhapsody 4.0 music service, and features both a permanent download store and a subscription download service.

As part of this launch, Best Buy also will carry and promote the SanDisk Sansa e200R Rhapsody MP3 players, which have been optimized to work seamlessly with the Best Buy Digital Music Store. The Best Buy Digital Music Store and the Sansa e200R Rhapsody players will both be available at participating Best Buy stores as of Sunday, October 15th.

“Our goal is to deliver entertainment to our customers how, when and where they want it, and to help them have the best possible experience,” said Jennifer Schaidler, vice president of music for Best Buy. “The Best Buy Digital Music Store and Sansa e200R Rhapsody are part of that goal allowing us to provide an end-to-end digital music solution that will deliver unique content and a premium customer experience. Whether they want to purchase downloads or a subscription and have access to all the music, we’re giving consumers the ability to enjoy entertainment on their terms.”

We’ve been testing a Griffin SmartDeck recently, looking for a more convenient way to listen to podcasts and other digital audio in the car. We’ve tried FM tuners and always found them lacking in sound quality and power. While regular cassette adapters do a decent job at piping the audio output of iPods to car stereos, their lack of controls mean you have to divert your attention to your iPod, which can be dangerous while driving.

The SmartDeck Intelligent Cassette Adapter with Dock Connector for iPod looks like other cassette adapters – a cassette with a long cable hanging off the back. What makes it different from typical adapters is that it connects to your ipod via the dock connector, instead of the audio jack.

By doing this, Griffin is able to allow limited two-way communication between the adapter and an iPod. The SmartDeck has internal sensors that sense when you use the forward and rewind buttons on your car stereo, and translate these actions into signals to jump to the next or previous track. Pause and stop buttons pause and stop your iPod, and pressing the eject button automatically pauses the iPod.

According to Griffin, the SmartDeck is compatible with any dockable iPod except the 3rd generation iPod with touch wheel. We tested it with a 5G video iPod and had no problems.

The deck has two modes. In standard mode, using the fast forward and rewind buttons on your stereo tells your iPod to skip to the next or previous track. In Scan mode, the fast forward and rewind buttons will fast forward or “rewind” within the current track.

Overall, we found the SmartDeck to be a convenient way to use an iPod in a car. The SmartDeck may be a kludge adapting the world of digital audio to work with older technology, but it’s a kludge that gets the job done.

Organizers have announced Jornadas de Podcasting Barcelona 2006 (Spanish), a 3-day podcasting event scheduled for October 20-22 in Barcelona, Spain.

The meeting in the capital of Catalunya is expected to gather podcasters from all over Spain. Conferences and workshops about podcasting scheduled.

The event is free and open to all.

The best reason to go? On Friday, the idea principal is beer & podcast.
Location:

Centre Cívic DRASSANES
Nou de la Rambla, 43-45,
08001 Barcelona

A preliminary schedule of events is available at the site.