Apple has played a major role in the acceptance of portable media players and the adoption of podcasting. They’ve delivered a software/hardware combination with iTunes and iPods that works easily and seemlessly, and iPods have been wildly successful as a result.

Nevertheless, the state of portable media could benefit from more competition. It’s with this in mind that we’ve been watching Microsoft’s plans for the Zune portable media system. A strong competitor could force Apple and others to be more innovative and provide users with more value for their money. Strong competition could also help expand the audience for portable media.

Unfortunately, much of the initial buzz that Microsoft generated with its Zune announcement has been replaced by surprise that a company with its resources would come out with something that doesn’t manage to differentiate itself from dozens of other pedestrian iPod wannabees.

Based on Microsoft’s official announcements, the Zune platform isn’t going to offer a compelling alternative to the iPod in terms of price, capabilities, design or marketing.

Instead of speculation that the Zune will be an iPod killer, the buzz now is that the Zune will instead kill off Microsoft’s PlaysForSure licensees. If the Zune is a disappointment, you can at least reasonably expect it to have a future, unlike music systems built on the PlaysForSure platform.

We’d like to see Microsoft do more than just kill competition in portable media player market. We’d like to see Microsoft come up with something that could top the iPod, and reintroduce some excitement into the portable media player market.

With this in mind, here are 7 things that Microsoft needs to do to fix the Zune.

At the Podcasting and Portable Media Expo, held last weekend in Ontario, California, we had the opportunity to talk with Andrew Michael Baron and Joanne Colan of Rocketboom, right, before they headed out to LA for the evening.

As you can tell from the photo, Baron and Colan looked exuberant to be at the Expo. But it wasn’t just the event that had them excited.

Baron gave the Saturday Keynote address, and he took the opportunity to discuss some recent deals they’ve made that help demonstrate the commercial viability of independently-produced video podcasts.

Just a few months ago, Rocketboom’s fate seemed to be in question with the public split of Baron and his partner and former host Amanda Congdon. But the controversy created a spike of interest in the show, and Baron seems to have made the most of the situation.

Baron said he’s just done an advertising deal worth $80,000 for a week of commercials on Rocketboom. It sounds like this is a new peak for Rocketboom. Baron noted that if he liked the product and it aligned with the interests of their audience, they same ads would go for $60,000.

According to Baron, this is an example of the “extremely huge revenue potential compared to the very small production costs” (MP3) of short-form niche video podcasts.

We talked with Baron about several other, non-Rocketboom, projects that he’s working on, one of which may have him spending time Podcasting News’ neck of the wood. We’ll look forward to revisiting Baron’s plans when he makes them public.

Several weeks ago, we noted that Microsoft’s Zune announcement was disappointing, in large part because its wireless capabilites missed the mark, being tailored more towards selling music rather than the interests of users.

Now, Zunester David Caulton has posted an explanation of the portable music player’s wireless capabilities, noting that peoples’ comments indicate that “the details of Zune sharing aren’t completely clear.”

“The wireless happens to be wifi (802.11 b/g),” notes Caulton, “but Zunes will not (at launch) connect to the internet via your home base station network. Zunes can not download songs over the air from the internet service.”

What they do have is the ability to set up ad-hoc Zune to Zune connections and exchange files, sort of the Nintendo DS Animal Crossing version of wireless support.

Cingular Wireless and Melodeo today announced the availability of Melodeo’s Mobilcast podcast service. Cingular customers can now search and listen to thousands of podcasts on their Cingular phone.

“Mobilcast further enables the mobile news and entertainment capabilities of your cell phone by providing quick and simple access to podcast favorites while on the go,” said Jim Ryan, vice president, consumer data services, Cingular Wireless. “We are excited to team with Melodeo to provide a rich selection of audio content that appeals to an array of interests.”

Despite their relative similarities, it looks like Microsoft’s Zune portable media player is going to be a little larger and fatter than Apple’s iPod. The Zune has a slightly larger screen, which may have required a larger housing.

The Podcast Film Fest is an online film festival that hopes to help filmakers get exposure to their work. PCFF plans to build an online community of filmmakers and film enthusiasts where they will be able to share their point of views and critique filmmakers.

Prizes will be awarded to filmmakers and film enthusiasts at the end of the festival.

via VPN: The Podcast Film Fest 

Closing out the official activities on the first day of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California, was the second annual Podcast Awards Ceremony.

Previously announced winners of the PME Awards for Podcast of the Year were the folks who produce Grape Radio. In keeping with the gravitas of the occasion, the winners all mounted the stage to accept the award with beer bottles in hand.

Winner of the PME Podcast Person of the Year was Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv, who also delivered the opening keynote of the conference.

Todd Cochrane, of Bluburry, organized the People’s Choice Podcast Awards. He said that 3,285 sites were nominated this year, and 82,914 ballots were cast with 1.1 million votes for favorite podcasts in over a dozen categories.

Among the winners of the People’s Choice Podcast Awards were Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion, above, of the Feast of Fools podcast. If there were an award for best-dressed podcasters, they would have won, hands down. They accepted their award for Best GLBT podcast sporting retro smoking jackets (Fausto’s in a brilliant blue) with matching ruffle shirts.

PirateWeather, a service that offers robocasted weather reports for every Zip code in the US, has introduced a new service for MySpace users.

Pirate Weather’s podcasts are automatically generated using text-to-speech software, and available via embedded players or podcast feeds.

If you’re interested in trying this out, send a request with your Zip code and MySpace homepage URL to pirate Robbie Schmelzer: callrob (at) gmail.com.

We’ve asked Schmelzer to consider automating this process, and will follow up with an update if this becomes available.

Added to Podcasting Software list: PodcastBlaster is a free online service for generating podcast feeds.

To use, you fill out web form fields that are used to generate the RSS file. Each time you creates a new episode of your podcast you can come back to your Podcastblaster account and add a link to that new MP3/MP4 file. The site generates a new RSS file to replace your previous one.

An account at the site is required.

Sony Ericsson has introduced a Bluetooth Watch MBW-100. According to the company, the MBW-100 is the first mainstream Bluetooth fashion accessory from a mobile phone supplier. Crafted from high quality stainless steel with a silver facia, the analogue watch will go on sale globally during Q4 of 2006 with a guideline retail price of approximately EUR 300.

Designed in partnership with watch industry leader Fossil, the MBW-100 acts as a remote interface for your mobile phone. An OLED display beneath the watch face displays who is calling when a call is incoming. A key press on the watch can reject the call, meaning you can remain in control of your calls in the utmost discretion.