I enjoy Jason Calacanis. I guess it’s his downright cheek which makes him entertaining. If you view everything he does in terms of self promotion and publicity then it all makes perfect sense.

Microsoft’s Silverlight will change the way we use the web. Good overveiws at TalkCrunch and ScobleShow. Look out Google!

Could the new Nokia N95 be the answer to my audio/ video podcast needs? It would appear so. Now, I’ve just got to get me one.

I’m using Netvibes as a full-on media consumption and creation manager and as such it’s proving to be amazing.

I can upload, store and playback mp3s. I can do all my show preparation right up to recording (for which I use Castblaster) and then use it to manage all post recording managing and posting.

I also use it read all my RSS feeds as well as watch all the video content I subscribe to which it plays right in the page. I used to live in Google Reader but right now I can’t see me going outside Netvibes. Pageflakes is for geeks. Netvibes is for the rest of us.

I’ve been an avid podcast listener for over two years and it’s only now I’ve started my own - a weekly music show called The Nick Reynolds Show.

Since starting barely two weeks ago I’ve had two offers to produce podcasts for two other people (one’s a company actually) which makes me wonder if there isn’t a service here I can sell over and above the podcasting I do for myself. We shall see.

I’ve been hankering after a video iPod for many months now as a way of watching much of the video content I subscribe to in iTunes. The thinking goes like this: I don’t have time to watch things like Rocketboom, Ze Frank or The Scoble Show at work or at home so the ideal time would be during my train commute to and from work. It is during this period that I consume most, if not all, the audio podcasts I download.

Yesterday I did a little experiment. I transferred a few videos on to my Nokia N70 to see how I enjoyed the videos in anticipation of a video iPod. Funny thing was I didn’t enjoy them at all. And not because of the relative quality of the screen but because it just didn’t feel right. The screen captured all my attention and this felt uncomfortable. I can’t really explain why but audio is in many ways more powerful than video. The only places I can comfortably dedicate all my attention to a screen is in a cinema or at home in front of the TV. But not out in the world where there are so many distractions. It’s interesting how audio lets you comfortably split your attention between the sounds coming in and whatever else might be going on around you. When I’m out in the world I like to interact with it and not ignore it which mobile video, alas, has a tendency to make me do.

For some reason, I still want a video iPod though. Damn you Steve Jobs.

Finally Google Reader embeds and plays videos from Google Video, YouTube and a few others. It only plays the video if it’s embedded in the original web page however and not if it’s an enclosure. Shame. I want Google Reader to play video podcasts in the same way it plays audio podcasts.

I love my iPod but it’s an ageing 4th generation version with no video capabilities. I need a video iPod to watch my videos on the go but I don’t want to buy the current version as it will probably be obsolete when the new version appears. I’m also on a budget.

Now this had made things very interesting. Seagate has just announced a new product called DAVE, which stands for “Digital Audio Video Experience.” Here’sthe lowdown from Robert Scoble who filmed the announcement.

What is it?

It’s a small black box. Costs less than $200. It’s thin, fits into a shirt pocket.

It has a small USB port on one side. And an on/off switch.

But, other than that, there’s no other interface on it.

This is no Apple iPhone.

But, here’s the rub. Inside is a small hard drive. 10GB or 20GB. That’s the “Seagate” part of this.

There’s also a Bluetooth and Wifi antenna.

That’s it.

“So, Scoble, that sounds really lame.”

I don’t think so — this is a new kind of wireless device that enables a whole bunch of new scenarios, particularly around cell phones, which is why I wanted Steve Jobs to see this — it’d be an awesome way to add on more music to the new Apple iPhone which I’m planning to buy in June (this comes out in May). Oh, I forgot something. There’s also a software API. They’ve already used that API to build an interface for Symbian and Windows Mobile cell phones. So, you get a new cell phone that only has 4GB of internal flash storage but you want to drag around more media? You’ll want D.A.V.E.

I can see a whole number of scenarios. Particularly for digital photographers, or people who want to carry a lot of stuff around with them in their pockets (this is far more useful to me than one of those USB memory drives, because I can keep a couple of these in my backpack and get to them via Wifi or BlueTooth (Bluetooth works up to about 30 feet from your cell phone or computer, Wifi goes even further).

As well as my iPod I also carry around a Bluetooth enabled Nokia N70 phone which could act as the visual interface to DAVE. Or I could use my Bluetooth and Wifi enabled Orange SPV500 Windows Smartphone as well.

The separation of the storage media from the interface seems so obvious it hurts. The next best thing to storing the date in the Cloud which is prohibitive because of mobile carrier date costs.

I’ll be watching this very closely.

I already use Google Reader to aggregate and listen to podcasts when I’m on other PCs  so how long will it be before I can watch video podcasts too? Not long surely given that Google already has an online video product. I just wish they’d hurry up!

googlereader, video

This is no way to have your product perceived if it’s going head-to-head with the iPod.
zune, turd, brown, microsoft

A great little movie made by Steph. Shot on an old Fuji Finepix digital camera and edited using Windows Moviemaker.

Dave Winer posits that Martin Scorsese’s latest, The Departed is possibly the best movie ever made. Mmm. It’s certainly very good but it felt like the kind of movie any half decent thriller director could have made. If I’d watched this film without knowing who had directed it I would never have known it was a Scorsese picture.

The star is Leonardo DiCaprio turning in a stunning performance making Matt Damon look a little wooden. Mark Wahlberg is excellent. Jack Nicholson is, well, Jack Nicholson and Ray Winstone is completely out of place.

Technorati tags: film, movie, cinema, thedeparted, martinscorsese

In an attempt to get my Podcasts OPML out of the iTunes silo, off any particular local PC and onto the web where I can access it from anywhere I decided to give Odeo another go.

What a good a good idea. For someone like me who only listens to about 20 podcasts it’s perfect. I can listen to the latest episodes straight off the web, download individual episodes to my hard drive or subscribe to my most recent episodes inbox with iTunes.

But the most exciting and unexpected aspect of returning to Odeo was in discovering how easy it is to record and publish a podcast. While certainly not a solution for podcasters with professional aspirations, OdeoStudio makes recording a simple podcast about as easy as it gets. Without really trying I had recorded and published a short podcast in a few minutes. Yes, OdeoStudio has no editing capabilities but that is not it’s aim. For people who simply want to record and publish simple audio solely using a web service (no application download required) I don’t know of a better solution.

Listen to the Podcast

Technorati tags: odeo, odeostudio, podcasting, itunes, OPML

Having listened to the first two episodes of Shadow Falls I have to say I can’t listen to anymore. While I applaud the Podshow team’s efforts and desire to rejuvenate the art of audio drama I can’t congratulate the result.

While the production is good the whole thing is let down by poor writing. For students of drama writing Shadow Falls is a good example of the great sin of exposition. This means the script tells the audience what is going at the same time as doing it in the action. The writer(s) of Shadow Falls, while not short on imagination, seem unable to let the listeners imagination do the work we enjoy and need to do. You don’t need to keep telling us what is going on. We can hear it, deduce it and imagine it from the sound effects, the dialogue and the action.

Listening to Shadow Falls is like hearing a joke and having it explained at the same time or watching a film and having an annoying friend whisper an explanation every other minute.

Listen to the Podcast

Technorati tags: shadowfalls, podshow, audiodrama, drama, writing, exposition, podcast

Too many features. Too complicated. Too much hard work. Not evil. But no fun.

Technorati tags: podcasting, podshow, podshowplus

I read a live newspaper which is updated every minute. The content comes from hundreds sources all over the world including established media outlets as well as my friends and myself. It features news, photographs and video. I can enjoy it on my computer, my mobile and my iPod. The times they are a changing.

Technorati tags: newspaper, aggregation, rss

You know the entire fabric of publishing and media is undergoing a revolution when you look at the phenomenon of Roger Smalls.

This lone (and by his own admission lonely) soul hooks into the network via nothing more than a lowly dial-up modem from his home in Guildford, Surrey. He blogs and records audio clips on his mobile phone. Many of these clips have been played by Adam Curry on the highly successful podcast The Daily Source Code. Roger's audio clips have proved so popular that they get their own jingle whenever Adam Curry plays them on the show. It has even been reported that some media executives have the Roger Smalls theme tune as rings tones on their phones.

This has not gone unnoticed by Nokia who have given Roger a free phone to review and record podcasts with. And it's on this very phone that Roger now contributes a one minute spot to BBC Radio One's oneclick/ future show.

'The Roger Smalls Show' is only a matter of time. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated while the incumbents make their way to the exits.

Where indeed? While I admire and respect Rocketboom as one of the web's innovators helping bring about the reinvention of media, I just don't find it particularly funny. Amanda Congdon may be a skilled actress (I have no idea having never seen her act but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt) but she's no comedienne.

The furore surrounding TechCrunch's redesign reminded me of a debate I used to have with clients all the time. They would insist that their website was theirs because it belonged to them. I would say quite the opposite is true. Your website belongs to your customers/ users not yourself. You don't actually use your website. You might look after it, tend it and generally make sure it's working for it's audience but the idea that you would redesign your site for yourself seems peculiar.