Christian.com has introduced GodCast1000.com, a podcast directory dedicated solely to Christian podcasts.

“Religious believers want more “God on their iPod,”, and churches are rapidly finding that through podcasting, church members can take the Sunday sermon with them throughout the week,” said Lee Raney, president of Christian.com.

The Bob Moog Foundation for Electronic Music has introduced a podcast, the Moog Foundation Podcast. The first episode (MP3) features an introduction to the foundation and a look at the band Perpetual Groove, a synth rock band from Athens, Georgia.Moog, the creator of the Moog synthesizer and a pioneer of electronic music, died last year on August 21st at the age of 71.

About.com, a New York Times property, has launched a sponsored medical podcast about heartburn and acid reflux.Each podcast will be approximately three to five minutes long and will be introduced monthly. The series is the first of its kind on About.com.

The series is sponsored by AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company that makes Prilosec and Nexium heartburn and acid reflux medications.

“The podcasts allow us to provide educational information to patients in a unique and creative way,” said Dana Settembrino, brand communications manager, AstraZeneca.

Pharmaceutical companies are rushing to increase their spending on Internet advertising.

According to an eMarketer report, drug companies’ Internet spending will increase by about 25% in this year alone, to $780 million, as marketers shift from consumer mass marketing to more targeted opportunities on the Internet. By 2008, online spending is expected rise to $1.3 billion.

The spending increase is spurred by federal regulatory crackdowns on pharmaceutical advertising, and the fact that 31.6 million Americans turn to the Internet first for health care information.

Recently, Apple has had its share of bad publicity, with much of it focusing on labor practices at a Chinese iPod manufacturing facility.Apple has issued a statement that says they have audited the supplier’s practices. While they found the supplier to be in compliance in the majority of the areas audited, they also confirmed that the supplier was violating Apple’s Code of Conduct.

“Recognizing that some aspects of workplace auditing (such as health and safety) lie beyond our current expertise,” notes Apple, “we‚Äôve engaged the services of Verit√©, an internationally recognized leader in workplace standards dedicated to ensuring that people around the world work under safe, fair and legal conditions.”

Hundertelf, an Internet company in Cologne, Germany, has launched a new mobile podcasting service, Cellcast. The service lets registered users call from their cell phones, record a message or song and make it available on the Web.

The phone calls are recorded and converted to MP3 files, which can be stored on the Cellcast server or transferred to a server requested by the user. The service is free, but the company plans to charge for premium services.

CBS plans to introduce a live online broadcast of the Evening News with Katie Couric when the program debuts September 5th, the network has announced.In addition to the live simulcast, the program will also be available in two other ways. The complete broadcast will be able to be viewed as an on-demand program any time after the live simulcast or viewers will be able to build their own broadcast by choosing individual reports.

“Technology has become an integral part of everyday life for most people, and it’s dramatically changed the way they consume news, so this is a fantastic development,” said Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the broadcast. “Now people will have access to great reporting by all the CBS Evening News correspondents, literally, anytime they want. It’s another example of how we intend to use our website to complement our broadcast — and, most importantly, to benefit our viewers.”

Apple admitted earlier today that iPods were being built in Chinese factories under conditions that violated Apple’s Code of Conduct.Unacceptable conditions included dormitory style sleeping arrangements for workers where employees were stacked on bunks three high; employee wage schemes were overly complex, making dispute resolution difficult; “normal” 60-hour work weeks were exceeded 35% of the time and frequent 7-days work weeks. Fortunately, the company found no evidence of forced labor or child labor.

Apple said that their supplier complies with most of their code of conduct, and is making changes to address violations.

The International Podcasting Expo is inviting podcasters, podcasting professionals, and podcasting software and services companies to present seminars, workshops and podcasts during the October 20-22, 2006 online event.

Presenters receive an online Exhibitor Booth, 20-person audio conference room during the Expo, and a 2-CD set of all Expo recordings. All seminars are conducted and recorded in PC and Mac compatible audio/visual conference rooms during the Podcast Expo.

Break.com, a popular digital entertainment network for men, has announced that it has launched video syndication tools that let content creators distribute their videos to iPods and Sony PSPs.Break.com audience members can now receive automatic updates from their favorite content creators, as well as easily migrate their personal and viral video collections to any device.