Excited about the new version of Speed Racer?

Hulu has a collection of classic Speed Racer episodes available on demand as streaming video.

Ever struggle to get a decent recording of your voice for a podcast?

This video, from poykpak, shows that there’s more to life than great voiceovers….

“TV on the iPhone is now real,” said Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks. “Steve Jobs may think that buying shows from iTunes is the same as watching TV, but iPhone users know better. When the NBA playoffs are on, you want to see the game, live, wherever you are. Free.”

To get around the iPhone’s extreme limitations on supported video formats, Orb created a special application, OrbLive, to enable the streaming of any video format to iPhones. Here’s a short demo video:

“Although the iPhone provides users with a great way to experience the web, it offers a ridiculously sub-par streaming video experience. When all the carriers’ free phones can stream lots of things that my iPhone can’t, something’s seriously wrong. OrbLive finally brings the iPhone’s streaming video experience up to par with other mobile phones.”

Orb’s service requires a jail-broken iPhone at this time.

He’s also known for having strong opinions, on topics ranging from the PodShow/Mevio name change to the quality of podcasters’ RSS feeds.

I asked Todd about his perspective on user-generated content and the state of podcasting:

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: PodShow changed its name to Mevio recently, in part to distance itself from “podcasting” and user-generated media. Does user-generated media, in your estimation, mean amateur or poorly-produced media?

Todd Cochrane: I think many people have lost focus on the fact that we live in a period of time when anyone can create content. The barrier to entry is nearly non-existent. With the barrier to entry being low, the quality of the content is going to vary.

The beauty of the space remains that anyone can create content. But when it comes to judging content this is a very subjective subject. There are millions of people in the United States alone, and what I may consider to be poorly-produced content may in fact be content that my neighbor connects with.

Podcast content is not about the production quality, it’s about message and the ability to connect with others that have a similar interest.

For example - When we started my mom’s show, the goal was to reach a single person. She does not care if the show reaches thousands. She wants to reach people that can take what is said and use to their benefit. The content is produced by me.

While it may not be the highly-produced content (Mevio CEO) Ron Bloom is referring to, the important thing is that she is connecting with a lot of people worldwide that she would not otherwise. Thus, the payoff has been reaching and affecting people worldwide.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Does the term “podcast” carry a stigma? If so, is there something that podcasters should be doing to correct this?

Todd Cochrane: I do not hear this from media buyers or people that consume the content.

Those creating podcast in the mainstream media and Mevio would like people to think the user generated content carries a stigma. The failure of a company to meet their financial numbers is not because of the content.

I think the comments by Mevio leadership is part of a bigger strategy…. What I think is being attempted by the folks at Mevio is to establish a “podcast class system.”

It appears on the surface that they are in trouble as a company, and they need to make the appearance that somehow the produced content on their site, much of which they have no rights to, is superior to all others in order to demand higher advertising rates. Ron (Bloom) took the first step in establishing a class system, by slamming user-generated content, and spitting on those that allowed them to get two big rounds of funding.

I cannot even imagine what we [Blubrry and Raw Voice] would have been able to accomplish with that kind of money. I can guarantee we would not be spitting on those that have supported us and [would] have a lot more to show for it.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: You wrote recently on your blog about your frustration with incomplete shows - podcasts that are missing important information, descriptions, artwork, categorization, etc. Where do these incomplete shows come from?

Todd Cochrane: Many are being auto-added by new people in the podcast space who are just desperately trying to get exposure, but do not take the time to complete their profiles. Part of it is because many simply do not know the benefits of good show listings and rich meta data.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Do these half-baked podcasts perpetuate the (mis)perception that podcasts are amateurish or poorly produced?

Todd Cochrane: I think what happens is, people have great intentions, but then figure out creating content over a long period is hard work. This is why more than 50% of shows never make it past show #7.

It may add to the “amateurish” perception, but from a business model, it impacts nothing. Generally, those new shows have not yet decided to monetize their content.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: In another post on the Blubrry blog, you set a deadline and threatened to get rid of those shows with incomplete feed information. What has happened with that?

Todd Cochrane: So far, as house cleaning goes, we suspended about 400 shows.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: What do you see happening with podcasting, both on your podcast network and with podcasting in general?

Todd Cochrane: This does not directly answer your question, but I asked a podcaster recently, that was making a very significant amount of money with his show, if we could use his show as a case study. The podcaster declined — because he was making full-time wages on a part-time basis. He did not want his employer to find out he was making more money with his podcast then he was on his 9-5. The podcaster is loving life as he can double dip and have the best of both worlds.

On the other hand, we have shows to which we pay very small checks. They are happy because they understand that their “micro audience,” based on their content, is not in a position to make big money.

This is why podcasters need to pick the ad[vertising] deal they are in carefully. For instance, we have a show with 3000 listeners, which is out-performing a show with 50,000 listeners, simply because the show producer of the 3k show has amazing engagement with his audience. That show with 3000 listeners is making more than $8k a month on one of our media buys.

The subject of money is a tough one for sure.

So far as what is fair, my only hope is that companies will be transparent.

For the record:

• CPM-based buys that I have dealt with range in the $20.00 to $45.00 level.
• Flat sponsorships for specific buys have had CPM comparables much higher than the $45.00 level.
• Flat sponsorships can pay very well.
• We also have a variety of CPA buys.
• To date the most we have paid a single podcaster on a “monthly” basis on a CPM buy is well over $10k monthly.
• The most we have paid a podcaster on a CPA buy has been between $6500 - $8300 on a monthly basis, for over a year.

But I have to caution your readers, the focus should not be on the big payment numbers. The focus should be on the thousands of content creators. They have the simple ability to make something, and get what they have to say out there. If they so choose to monetize, we are here to help them with no strings attached, along with providing the audience-building tools we are known for on our communities.

That philosophy, focusing first on the content, not on the money-making, as applied to our business model: we treat each and every content creator exactly the same. But we temper that with some realities. Some shows have the ability to generate significant revenue, other shows may only be capable of generating enough revenue to pay for hosting and or take the wife out to dinner.

The AT&T site now touts 3G support for the iPhone:

Data Access

In order to use data such as email, Google Maps, YouTube videos and web browsing, AT&T recommends using iPhone in a 3G or EDGE Network (coverage viewer), or from a local Wi-Fi connection.

It also notes that iPhone users get free WiFi access:

Individual Plans

To use iPhone, you’ll need to sign up for a 2-year service agreement. Plans start at $59.99 and include Visual Voicemail, Unlimited Data (email and web), 200 SMS text messages and access to AT&T’s more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks* all for use in the U.S.

*Wi-Fi available at U.S. company operated Starbucks locations equipped with a hotspot.

Higher data speeds and free wireless are welcome; this, along with the upcoming flood of software for the iPhone are going to make the iPhone a mobile content creation platform.

via MacRumors

Beet.tv’s Andy Plesser reports that the co-producers of lonelygirl15, Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, have raised $5 million in venture funding for their new company, EQAL.

They’re building a digital media studio and working on product placement and licensing deals.

“We’re going to teach Hollywood how to do it right,” said Beckett.

The company remains “excited about the long-term prospects for our business”, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. said, despite the fact that “an uncertain economic backdrop and evolving recorded music industry make a conservative approach to our balance sheet a prudent strategy.”

For the quarter ended March 31, the recording company reported a net loss of $37 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $27 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest results include a two-cent loss from discontinued operations.

Revenue rose 2% to $800 million, although in constant currency it fell 3.6%. The mean estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were for a loss of 12 cents a share on revenue of $780 million. Gross profit margin climbed to 48.4% from 45.5%.

The site, now in beta testing, is designed to make creating a Web radio station trivial, letting you browse through vast music, jingle and content libraries made available by Radionomy. You can also integrate your own musical creations or recordings.

Radionomy also supports a variety of social networking features, including tagging, embed code and station sharing. Here’s an example embed:

Radionomy broadcasts your station free of charge and bears all the costs, including copyrights. Radionomy is supported through audio ads broadcast with the stations. Radionomy offers a revenue share based on your station’s audience.

The name Radionomy come from the merger of two concepts: Radio + Autonomy. The founders of Radionomy thought that Internauts should be able to create radio with full autonomy.

The proposed settlement is the result of two iPod owners suing because rechargeable batteries in the second year of use conked out after just three hours, contrary to the advertised claim of eight hours between recharges.

Apple agreed to a settlement covering both claims. As many as 80,000 Canadians could be eligible, including 11,310 Quebecers, said Montreal lawyer Philippe Trudel, who represented Lenzi.

It comes as a result of a New York Times article that looked at why NBC pulled its TV content from Apple’s iTunes store and is now distributing it for the Zune.

NYT’s Saul Hansell writes:

Late Tuesday afternoon I reached J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, to ask why NBC found Microsoft’s video store more appealing than Apple’s.

He explained that NBC, like most studios, would like the broadest distribution possible for its programming. But it has two disputes with Apple.

First, Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99. NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it chooses.

Second, Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos.

Microsoft, by contrast, will accept NBC’s pricing scheme and will work with it to try to develop a copyright “cop” to be installed on its devices.

Microsoft’s official word has been to deny this. According to Microsoft’s Cesar Menendez:

We have seen some chatter in the blogosphere over the last 24 hours around a couple of posts speculating about what Zune may or may not do in terms of putting content filtering features directly into the Zune family of devices in future releases.

We know you guys are following this discussion closely, and wanted to be absolutely clear on this issue:

We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.

We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued. Again, no plans are in place toward this end.

Menendez’s comment are unlikely to clear up the controversy.

There Are Good Reasons To Fear Microsoft’s DRM & Content Filtering

Microsoft has demonstrated that it’s more than happy to screw its customers with DRM in order to cut costs, even as it rakes up profits of 4.4 billion in a quarter.

DRM is still a major stumbling block limiting the consumption of digital video. With Microsoft’s dismal record with DRM’d media, the NBC deal is doomed to failure.

If NBC, and other networks, are serious about digital media, they are going to have to either figure out viable ad-supported free content models or go the way of the music industry, and sell unencrypted content that will work on any player.