Best Wifi Hotels

Talk about a great resource for the mobile traveler... I've been surprised to find that sometimes nicer hotels have worse amenities in the WiFi space than cheaper hotels. Now my suspicions and anecdotal experiences have been confirmed by the folks over at Hotel Chatter. Take a look at their 2008 Best WiFi Hotels for more...

How does your iPod's illegal tracks stack up against the average teenager?

The Times of London reports a study regarding the amount of illegal tracks on the typical iPod:

Teenagers and students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players, the largest academic survey of young people's music ownership has found.

* * *

The average digital music player carries 1,770 songs, meaning that 48 per cent of the collection is copied illegally. The proportion of illegally downloaded tracks rises to 61 per cent among 14 to 17-year-olds. In addition, 14 per cent of CDs (one in seven) in a young person's collection are copied.

So, how does your iPod stack up? A quick poll here is definitively "under" but we're a squeaky clean kind of operation...

You don't need a million downloads to be successful

I thought this piece by Kevin Kelly was really interesting... he suggests you can find a great deal of success if you have 1000 "true fans" rather than striving for a million downloads. Good stuff if you are trying to find ways to make a living off of your new media.

Feedburner ain't infallible

I just spent the morning cursing Feedburner.

While working on a client's premium podcast, the service that has always been a really nice way of creating a welcome interface for users (play now buttons, choice of subscribe options, etc.) totally rebuffed any attempt to make episode #1 be recognized in an mp3 enclosure. That's fancy talk for "it didn't work, and iTunes wouldn't see a podcast." I still can't figure out if it was a Blogger problem or not, but it was officially not working... despite all the elements being there.

So, it was back to the olden days of podcasting... yep all the way back to 2004. I had to code my own source RSS feed and plug that into Feedburner. Lo and behold it worked. I wonder what people who weren't mucking with hand rolled RSS feeds do when presented with this issue? I suspect they throw their hands in the air and give up... that's a shame, and it shows how we have a ways to go in the industry to truly make it simple when a Blogger-Feedburner handshake won't work on the first, second or even third try...

BTW, if you're in the same boat I was this morning, check out the podcast feed generator. It'll get your feed parsed out for episode one. Beyond that you have to write your own code in addition to what it spits out. Still, a handy resource in a pinch.

Apple's offerings: 2008 MacWorld Keynote

I'm blogging this as we go along... here's Apple's new stuff as announced by elJobso this morning in San Francisco:

9:18 AM - Time Capsule, a new network attached storage device that merges the Airport Extreme with a big old hard drive. Wireless backups for your notebooks... $299/$499 (500GB/1TB)

9:22 AM -iPhone and iPod Touch get a a lot of new goodies, most notably the ability to find yourself on a Google map automatically. Nice feature. The Touch will now include a lot of apps from the iPhone, most notably Mail. Weird part? Apple's throwing in a $20 fee for upgrading current Touch owners... kind of surprising there.

9:36 AM - iTunes Store now offers rentals... most surprisingly it includes ALL studios, including Universal. Universal owns NBS and we all remember that they yanked TV shows from the iTunes Store this season. You have 30 days to start watching it, and once you start you have 24 hours to watch and finish it. Movies are all transferable to iPods and iPhones. $2.99 for older titles and $3.99 for new titles. HD is also now available for a buck more.

9:44 AM - Apple TV Take 2 - an upgrade of the current allows movie and TV purchases & rentals from the screen. The YouTube offerings have increased as well (presumably for iPhone owners too). All purchases sync back to your computer. More HD podcasts as well... good news for those of you who jumped on this! Also new: Flickr integration. That's pretty nice... definite upgrades to a product that was coolly received so far. Existing owners get the new software for free, and new units ship in 2 weeks (with a price drop to $229).

10:08 AM - What we've all been waiting for (and by "we" I mean me) - the MacBook Air. Jobs describes it as the world's thinnest notebook... .16 inches thick at its narrowest point, .75 inches at its thickest (!?!). Fits in a manilla envelope. It has a backlit 13" LED display (that's lower power consumption... nice touch). The screen trackpad has multi-touch just like an iPhone too. It can be skinny because it's using iPod hard drives in it. "Ships with 80GB drive, option of 64GB SSD." So, not a notebook for storing a ton of stuff, but they didn't compromise on speed... its got a full Intel Core 2 Duo in there that's slower than the other MacBooks, but it's probably because it's 60% smaller than the ones in the MacBook line.

USB port and a headphone jack on one side, but no internal optical drive. Apple has an interesting new system that allows the MacBook Air to "borrow" an optical drive wirelessly from other Macs on network. External USB drives are available too for the people that need to spin a DVD or CD. 5 hour battery life... this sucker ships in 2 weeks... $1799.

Best of CES

A lot of talk at CES this week about the battle over HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray (hint: go with Blu-Ray, it seems) and a lot of robots. Beyond that, I'd say the best product was one I first heard about on Leo Laporte's show a month ago, that's apparently one of those rare "too good to be true" things that actually delivers.

The Eye-Fi wireless SD card sits in your digital camera like any other storage card. However, it also automatically sends your photos via wi-fi to a host of storage sites like Flickr. Yeah, automatically... no syncing, no looking for that USB cable... nothing. I was skeptical when I first heard of this, but apparently it works like a charm.

Live podcasts

MSNBC reports on podcasters becoming their own talk show hosts using Skype and other services online to put out live shows in addition to the more traditional recorded on-demand podcasts (tradition dating "all the way back" to 2004)... good coverage of the phenomenon here.

Blogging will probably continue to be light through the rest of the week - lots of late-in-the-year projects here at Nineball!

Latest screencast: Sharing creative works

Check out the latest addition to the Nineball Media YouTube channel... a Creative Commons use of a Creative Commons primer! For the original comic this was based on, go to the Sharing Creative Works page at creativecommons.org.

A new resource: Nineball on YouTube

So, Portland's practically underwater and DC is frozen over... a perfect time for Nineball Media to launch its YouTube channel! We'll be providing free video how-to's over there... subscribe to the channel, or just check it out at youtube.com/9ballmedia. In the meantime, check out the cool preview video here:

Wrapping up Blog World

Day two was significantly quieter... I suspect Vegas claimed a few victims overnight! Going to one more session on social networking proved to be one too many as the info wasn't as helpful as yesterday's sessions. I just finished a session on mic technique by the rep from Shure - the crowd was pretty sparse, which was a shame because he put together a nice (if a bit techie) piece. Shure mics are outstanding for the more advanced podcasters out there (their price points tend to be higher than I'd recommend for newbies).

I got to meet Rob Walch at the Wizzard Media booth, and we had a nice chat about all things podcasting and - of course - the iPhone. Rob's an important voice in podcasting (Podcast 411 is a place I tell all people to check out). I also got a chance to see Justine from iJustine wandering about. She was the one with the massive iPhone bill video that got a kajillion views this summer on YouTube.

All in all, a great show. I think I'm going to skip out on the Mark Cuban keynote... if he was going to talk about whether he was going to buy a hockey team, I'd probably go, but for now... I'm ready to grab some coffee and wait up for my red eye back to DC. I've got a lot of work to do based on some of the great info and networking here!

Blog World: Leo Laporte keynote

This is what Leo twittered before he came on stage for the keynote this morning. I have to say, he was not terribly informative, and it might have to do with that lack of prep. I suppose I appreciate the honesty! I like what he's done in the world of tech... his radio show and podcast help a lot of people out, and there's no question Leo has advanced podcasting in ways few have. But this keynote was nowhere near as informative as yesterday's sessions. Oh well, can't win them all.

One interesting piece from the keynote... podcasting is leveling off in some ways, but it's opening up some other avenues through featuring content in webpages and newsletters. I think that's right on... if you rely on iTunes as your only outlet for your content, then you're seriously missing an opportunity. Think bigger and get that content out there in as many ways as you can.

Two more sessions and maybe a keynote with Mark Cuban to go...

Blog World Day 2

I'm off to hear Leo Laporte at the morning keynote (easst coast jet lag allows me to rise at an earlier hour than normal. Did you know the sun is up at 6:30? Who knew?). Looking forward to some good information at the sessions as well. I had a lot to digest last night... I suspect I'll be spending a fair amount of time putting together some new suggestions for clients in the podcasting and social media spheres after this show. You might even see some new additions to Nineball Media's offerings...

AOL shrinking at a rapid pace

Once mighty AOL has lost 1/3 of its paying clientèle... in a year. Ouch. In some ways I'm not surprised... how many people do you know who still use AOL? When it first came out, AOL dominated the online access market with its ubiquitous free floppy disks and later CDs coming at you from every angle.

But then, people grew seemingly more interested in the broader array of content offered through the Internet, and AOL seemed like a sad middleman for the last 7 years or so. It will be interesting to see if its advertising model works...

Montreal in November

Greetings from Montreal. Memo to those traveling to this beautiful city on business or pleasure... it's friggin cold. Much colder than Portland or DC. I suspect Vegas next week will be warmer for us at Nineball Media.

Back to Montreal... it's very wired. Lots of wifi access points, and perhaps more than one would expect. Coming from DC which feels less wired than it should be, it's a nice change.

Lots of new news on Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), but I promised a little less Apple on the blog, so I'll let you Mac types find the info from the other usual suspects out there. Have a great weekend!

I love the Internets

So, I've been suffering all day doing audio editing with an Apple Mighty Mouse that suddenly decided not to scroll down. Frustration mounted until, in a pique of anger, I googled "mighty mouse wont scroll" (I couldn't be bothered to use actual punctuation). The result? This blog post... which solved everything... all I had to do was press real hard. Who knew!?

It's times like this that I love the Internets.

Whirlwind

As you may have notice from the dearth of posts, it's been a bit of a crazy week here at Nineball Media. I'm currently working on a major recording project that I hope to finish up by the end of the week, plus I'm off to Boston today to do some work with one of Nineball's newer clients, Boston University. Thankfully, the news on new media and tech has been pretty slow lately (comparatively), unless you want to read more stories about iPhones bricking, or AOL's massive layoffs (coming Friday, allegedly).

Anyone in the DC area interested in supporting a good cause... I'm on the board of the Tranquil Space Foundation, and we're holding our first gala tomorrow night. Come on down and support a great cause... details at tranquilspacefoundation.org.

Happy 9th fron Nineball

Google turned nine this week... a very special birthday (if you're oddly semi-obsessed with the number like some of us).

I guess wireless devices *don't* cause crashes!

Having been nearly beaten up by several flight attendants for the audacity to work a cell phone in airplane mode, this brings a smile... Alaska Airlines is testing wifi on selected flights. If you're like me and you applauded the testy interchange between Toby and his flight attendant on the first episode of The West Wing, then this is sweet news. Frankly, if the relative safety in flight depends on (a) our seats and trays being in the full and upright position, and (b) that nothing electronic (except, I guess the plane) is running during takeoff and landings, then I may have to reconsider Amtrak.

But, now this.... not only can we open our laptops, but we can turn on the wifi. Welcome to the 21st Century! Woohoo!

New York Times liberated

The New York Times has ended its pay-to-view experiment, Times Select, after two years. Now, all of its online content is free to read, but it looks like there will be plenty of advertising. WebbAlert reports that The Wall Street Journal may be following suit after Rupert Murdoch completes his acquisition of the venerable paper. Methinks someone at the Times crunched the numbers and realized they'd get much higher revenue from advertising rather than subscriptions...

I go away for one week and look what happens

A quick hit from Costa Rica... Just heard about the new iPods and the
(gulp!) massive price drop on the iPhone. Kudos to Apple for pushing a
rebate to us early adopters though.

From a podcasting perspective, I'm most intrigued by iTunes wifi
music store... I've ranted about the possibility of wireless downloads
of podcasts for months, and this brings us a step closer. From what I
can tell, however, the wifi store does not include podcasts... Maybe a
future add, perhaps? Regardless, I think these new products and
services are good additions to the tech marketplace. And, since I
apparently have a $100 rebate available from my iPhone purchase, I
suspect apple will get more of my money. It's an illness, really.

Back in the States tomorrow... Regular blogging resumes Monday. I
missed you too.