Day: January 25, 2008

Very neat! RawVoice Media, Inc., the folks that are behind the Techpodcast Network, and the Blubrry podcast community, have started a new service… called PodcastFAQ. Check it out… it is an awesome collection of info on podcasting and podcasting technology and promotion!

PodcastFAQ Service

Here’s what they say on the Home Page:

“Welcome to podcastFAQ.com, a website committed to providing everything you need to know about podcasting. This site aims to contain the most up-to-date information for podcast creators, consumers and businesses. The content on podcastFAQ.com is intended to be easy to find, to the point, and without clutter.

Whether you’re a new or seasoned podcaster, an avid listener/viewer, or just someone interested in podcasts, we hope to have something for you. Go ahead; it’s easy. Use the navigation on the left to explore the breadth of the site.

podcastFAQ.com is the result of a bunch of us podcasters – who are also the founders of RawVoice Inc. – going to meet-ups, podcamps and expos preaching our love, passion and knowledge of podcasting. It dawned on us that we had all this information about podcasting, but nowhere to put it.”

Digg is changing the way it elevates popularity of it’s entries. This is proving quite controversial!

Digg overhauls its definition of ‘popular’ articles

“The social networking and news sharing site has always kept the precise details of its popularity algorithms a secret. But today, Digg did announce the nature of a change which could alter the entire meaning and purpose of the site. Up to now, the way any online news publisher got one of its articles publicized through the Digg social service is by hoping enough people were interested in it to vote in favor of moving it up the Digg scale — of giving it enough ‘Diggs.’ Starting today, however, that changes: The secret to a heavy publicity on the Digg service won’t be having enough people, but having the right kind of people. And how Digg determines the right kind has already become a subject of controversy among its community. This morning, Digg founder and chief architect Kevin Rose unveiled the key to its new popularity algorithm. Described as involving ‘diversity,’ it apparently involves an unusual way of determining whether recommending members are diverse enough from one another: by ascertaining just how much they don’t get along with one another. ‘One of the keys to getting a story promoted is diversity in Digging activity,’ reads a statement Rose posted to his corporate blog yesterday evening, whose text was also added to the site’s FAQ. ‘When the algorithm gets the diversity it needs, it will promote a story from the Upcoming section to the home page. This way, the system knows a large variety of people will be into the story.'”

I told you that IPTV was coming… and it is getting hotter and hotter! Now a service is competing with Apple TV for viewers.

Vudu drops its price to compete with Apple TV

“High-definition on-demand service Vudu has announced it is slashing its price for its console by 25 percent, perhaps in response to Apple TV’s having replenished its own value proposition. In the short few months it has been available, Vudu has tried numerous offers in an effort to eke out a measurable stake in the video on-demand market: First, it offered $50 of free movies with purchase, then it announced a tie-in with Sharp’s Aquos HDTV line. Now, it’s taking a cue from HD DVD by instituting a severe price drop. By pulling the unit down to a $295 price point and offering $100 movie credit to those who purchased it within the last 30 days, Vudu is now on par price-wise with competing service Apple TV, which retails for $229 for its 40 GB model. Many are predicting that the high-def disc format war will end when streaming HD becomes affordable enough to be adopted by the majority. A price war between Vudu and Apple TV may be the first step away from the seemingly interminable Blu-ray vs. HD DVD fight.”