Nielsen and Twitter today announced a deal to create a Nielsen Twitter TV Rating system for the US market.

Under the agreement, Nielsen and Twitter are creating a ‘standard metric’ to measure ‘the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter.’

On the surface, everybody wins:

• Nielsen gets to control a new Rating standard;
• Television gets a standard yardstick for social media engagement, making it easier to focus their social media investment;
• ‘Ad dudes’ get a lot of new work; and
• Twitter gets increased focus & investment from broadcast media.

The losers in the deal, though, appear to be Twitter users.

The deal effectively gives broadcast media a huge incentive to promote and manipulate discussions on Twitter, and that’s exactly what they plan to do:

“The proliferation of smartphones and tablets….create(s) the opportunity for content providers like CBS to offer engaging interactive features for our viewers,” said David F. Poltrack, Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation. “We are already engaged with Nielsen and Twitter in a program of research and experimentation in this exciting new area.”

Here’s what Fox has to say about the deal:

“Combining the instant feedback of Twitter with Nielsen ratings will benefit us, program producers, and our advertising partners,” said Peter Rice, Chairman and CEO, Fox Networks Group.

Note that nowhere does he suggest that the new system will benefit either TV viewers or Twitter users.

The new system is slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season.

Google – as you probably already know – today introduced a new Google Maps app for the iPhone.

Google says:

People around the world have been asking for Google Maps on iPhone. Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that Google Maps is here—rolling out across the world in the Apple App Store. It’s designed from the ground up to combine the comprehensiveness and accuracy of Google Maps with an interface that makes finding what you’re looking for faster and easier.

While Google is putting a positive spin on this, it’s actually a huge win for Apple and iPhone users, and a validation of their app strategy.

As usual, John Gruber is one of the few tech analysts looking at the real implications of the news:

This iOS 6 mapping saga has been a source of tremendous controversy, but here we are three months after iOS 6 was released and iPhone users now have a better Google Maps experience than they did when Google was providing the back-end data for the built-in Maps app. It all worked out.

Before Apple introduced its new Maps app, Maps on the iPhone was becoming second rate, with features that many users were asking for missing in action.

Now Google has to compete for users on the iPhone, has to ask for permission to use your location and has to deliver a great mapping app for people to even bother with using it.

Expect more jockeying on this – but Apple’s strategy successfully neutralized a potential threat from Google.

Microsoft has announced that it is dramatically expanding the availability of the Surface RT tablet, effective immediately.

Neowin reports that the Surface RT tablets are already available at Best Buy’s site.

“Our plan has been to expand the retail presence for Surface after the first of the year. Based on interest from retailers, we are giving them the option to carry Surface with Windows RT even earlier,” said Steve Schueler, corporate vice president, Microsoft Retail Sales and Marketing.

Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Surface tablets have met with lukewarm reception, at best. Surface RT sales have additionally been hampered by limited availability.

SonicMaps is a new Locative Audio (GPS AudioTour) platform that’s designed to be a complete solution for sound geolocation.

With SonicMaps, you can create an audio guide to a popular place, a located music composition/playlist, audio games (e.g. Treasure Hunt), located poetry, or simply send geolocated audio messages to your friends.

Using the 3D audio engine option, sounds can be fixed to real world positions, so they are consistently perceived into space while rotating your device (panning) and levels are attenuated according to distance (intensity).

To use SonicMaps, you:

• Upload your audio files to your favourite hosting service.
• Go to the desired location and start placing sounds around using the SonicMaps Editor iOS application.
• Then, you can publish and share your project with other users who will be able to experience your composition as they walk on the selected location.

SonicMaps uses “on-site” editing, avoiding common inaccuracy problems in similar web-based services due to high buildings, maps displacements, etc.

Features:

• 3D Audio Engine
• “On-Site” editing using your iPhone/iPad
• Easy project publishing and sharing GPS tracking
• Sounds are activated as you walk

Note:

• Requires an internet connection to download/play sounds (Wifi or 3G)
• Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
• Audio files links must point to the actual file name which should be in the mp3 format (e.g. http://sonicmaps.org/sample.mp3). Short or encoded links are currently not supported.

SonicMaps is $2.99 in the App Store.

The most noticeable difference between professional and amateur videos often isn’t the quality of the video, but the quality of the audio.

This video series, by Sennheiser, takes a look at recording audio for video. It covers microphones for video recording, wireless mics, handheld mics and more.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I-Jingle Pro is an app that turns your iPad into a professional jingle/sample cart player.

Easy to use controls let you either play up to 8 jingles simultaneously, cross fade 2 jingles, fade out the first jingle while starting the next or simply stop the first and start the next. So called 2nd touch settings allow you to stop, fade out or re-start a jingle.

At any moment you have 35 jingles on screen and scrolling up and down through the jingles or quickly switching between presets allows you to access up to 300 jingles without leaving the main screen.

I-Jingle Pro is $24.99 in the App Store.

Note: I-Jingle Pro is not recommended for the iPad 1.

AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka reports today Apple is planning to move podcasting out of iTunes and into a new dedicated application.

He writes:

Why have podcasts disappeared from the new version of iTunes that Apple started showing to developers this week?

Because Apple plans on giving the recordings their own bit of digital turf.

People familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that when its new iOS 6 software becomes widely available this fall, podcasts will have their own app, where users will be able to discover, download and play them on mobile devices. Users who access iTunes via laptop and desktop machines will still find them in that version of iTunes, though.

This could be simple housecleaning. iTunes has become a bloated jack-of-all-trades app, and it could use simplification.

The success of iOS devices has shifted Apple’s priorities, too. iPhones and iPads are no longer primarily peripherals to computers, but are Apple’s most important platform.

There may be much more to the news, though. Instagram’s billion dollar sale to Facebook highlighted that mobile devices are rapidly becoming the default platforms for content creation.

With Apple’s existing strengths in mobile audio and video content creation, they have a huge opportunity in rethinking their approach to podcasting.

Think podcasting is getting demoted? Or do you think Apple see a bigger opportunity for mobile media sharing?

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a demo video for the iRig Mic Cast, whic is a $40 portable micrphone for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

The iRig Mic Cast is designed for recording podcasts, interviews, lectures, voice memos and speeches. It features a unidirectional pickup pattern that minimizes background noise, making it ideal for single-source audio recording.

The video demonstrates the difference between using the iPhone’s built-in microphone and the iRig Mic Cast, in a couple of noisy locations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This tutorial takes a look at how to make enhanced podcasts with GarageBand.

An ‘enhanced podcast’ is an audio podcast that can also contain images, chapter markers, hyperlinks, and artwork, synced to the audio. When an enhanced podcast is played on a compatible device, the additional information will be displayed in time with the audio podcast.

Media community Blubrry has its podcast publishing plugin for WordPress, PowerPress 4.0. The update adds support for the latest iTunes podcast specs and more.

iTunes upgrades include:

• An updated iTunes image requirement — RGB 1400×1400 — throughout the plugin for better cover image quality throughout.
• “Feature Episode” that allow podcasters to designate a primary episode, which can be used to introduce the podcast or lead in to a new series.
• An iTunes Order feature that allows a podcaster doing a series of episodes to have each listed in the desired order.

Other PowerPress 4.0 offerings include:

• A new video player option: VideoJS HTML5 JavaScript player — a player that has its own plugin. By adding this plugin, the new player will be available as an option in PowerPress video players list.
• A Feed Episode Maximizer “option” for shows with episodes in excess of what can currently be included in a feed. This feature allows the podcaster to maintain the latest 10 episodes in iTunes with all of the extensive episode data. The rest of the episodes are listed in a way that maximizes the number of episodes that can be listed on iTunes / Zune etc. Perfect for the serial podcaster with an extensive episode library.

See the Blubrry site for details.