Well let me jump on the Microsoft iPod reporting bandwagon. Our sister sites engadget and PVR Wire have posts on the Microsoft Argo Personal Media Player including a scoop on the first look on the device.

Now to add the Droxy angle to the discussion, with the WiFi connection it is rumored to have, will it come with some kind of podcast aggregator built-in? I think it would be a great advantage for them to have that built right int the device. Anytime you go to a feed on the wifi connection it check to see if it has any enclosures in it, and then ask if you want to subscribe to it, if you are not already.

Of course this is all just my dreams for the device. It would require a little more of an interface to allow browsing of feeds. But I would guess they will be having some kind of interface to whatever music (or should we say media) service that you can buy / download stuff from. So if they add some kind of Podcast (Argocast, or maybe just Gocasts, or in the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, Arrrrgcasts) directory like in the iTunes store, it could work.

Microsoft, if you are listening, this would clinch me as a convert from my iPod.

[via PVRWire]

Blubrry.com a new podcasting social network aimed at the listener's user experience had it's big debut at Gnomedex. Blubrry is another product offered by RawVoice, Inc. who is also responsible for Podcasternews.com (where I am a podcaster hosting two shows). The new site offers the typical social networking features, podcast directory, and tagging podcasts by users.

Podcasters can join the network for free as long as they agree to promote the network on their podcasts. For this the podcasters get another presence for their podcast on the web, and the chance to be involved in network ad buys setup by the blubrry team. According to the CFO of RawVoice, Inc.,  Jeevan Padiyar, "We've taken the model that is already making money for podcasters on the PodcasterNews Network, and are using it on this site." He went on to mention that there is no lock in of content producers with RawVoice.

The registration has been open since March but if you have been waiting to see the conference sessions before registering, now you have no excuse for not getting over to their site and registering for the Expo. On Saturday the 27th they announced that they had released the full session schedule on the Expo's website. The schedule and other things are discussed on this week's "Podcast Brothers" podcast, check out the site and the podcast for more information on the sessions available.

One session on Friday that sounds interesting, and is aimed at the people attended Track 3: Corporate Podcasting, is the "Podcast to Your Employees and Improve Your Internal Communications" being presented by Shel Holtz of Holtz Communication + Technology. Having been in big companies and seeing the whole site shut down and no work get done while attending company wide meetings I can see the advantage of podcasting to get out company information.

What sessions are you going to attend? Leave a comment here on what sessions you are attending or find interesting.

The Walt Disney Company has been in the podcasting space for a while. They have had podcasts on iTunes since that software started official support of podcasts directly in the software. They contacted Michael Geoghegan in the summer of 2005 to do a series of podcasts on the start of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Disneyland in California. These turned into the Official Disneyland podcast which is released monthly and still produced and hosted by Michael Geoghegan. Walt Disney World followed with a weekly podcast started in late December 2005.

Now the Disney Cruise Line is getting in on the action, sort of. The podcast feed is at the DCLNews.com site, which is designed for use by news media outlets and professional journalists. There are only two items in the podcast feed so far, which are an audio segment and a video segment on the press conference announcing the 2007 Disney Cruise Line Mediterranean cruises. These were produced by David Brady who is producer and host of the Walt Disney World Resort: Plugged In podcast, which is the official podcast for Walt Disney World. He does a good job with the Walt Disney World resort podcasts, and did another good job with these two segments. I personally hope for more podcasts from the Disney Cruise Line and The Walt Disney Company in general as they could do some really imaginative things.

EXPO magazine has released their 2006 Best New Shows Awards, and the Podcast and Portable Media Expo was the winner in the "Trade and Consumer Show" Category. In the first year of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo had over 2,000 attendees and 60 exhibiting companies converge on the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario California.

The 2005 Expo was in November, but this year it is being moved up to September. The registration is open for this years conference as reported previously. And if you are interested in going to this year's show you are in for even more. In an email from Tim Bourquin, he said there will be about 80 companies exhibiting this year which is a third more than last year's show. And to accommodate the additional companies at the show, as well as the over 2500 attendees they are expecting, they have moved to a bigger hall to accommodate everything and everyone, myself included as I will be there covering the event for Droxy.

Over at Libsyn's Soundoff blog they posted a report on their numbers for the first quarter of this year. What does the post cover? It starts with the number of unique IP addresses to libsyn.com requesting feeds and media files. This is a huge number reported. They have over 45 million unique IP addresses for the first quarter, and this is a 200% increase from the previous quarter. Thats from the previous quarter, not to the previous year.

The post then breaks down the statistics on the podcatchers being used by those users. Apple's iTunes still has the vast majority at around 72% which is reported as being almost a 5% drop from the previous quarter. The next category is web browsers at around 22% of which Internet Explorer makes up the largest share at 12% of the overall numbers.

More after the jump.

I think that 12% could be a little deceiving, as any Microsoft Windows application that uses some of the built in controls and do not set the headers to send an application name will come across as Internet Explorer. I ran in this when doing some IIS (Internet Information Server) log data mining at a previous job where the custom client application used did not do this and the requests came in as being from Internet Explorer and could not tell they were from the custom application.

Libsyn then breaks down what is being podcast. Of course audio is still the overwhelming winner in that stat with around 88% of the files served. Video comes in at around 5% which they say is a 2-3 % increase from the fourth quarter of 2005. They then go into general numbers on shows and their size. Across all of their 3800 users over 1 million media files are served each day. The impressions (see post for definition) for the most popular shows are over 100,000 a day, and are in the 6 figures for audience size (see post for definition).

The Virtual Podcasting Expo we reported was happening is now open. If you follow the "Read" link at the bottom of this post you can get into the virtual lobby. From there you can view the schedule and take some orientation tours of how the virtual conference system works.

From the schedule they seem to have some interesting topics being covered, like the "What Makes (Or Breaks) A Podcast - Podcast Listeners Speak" by Leesa Barnes, the "Podcasting Networks - The Best Way to Market Your Podcast" being offered up by Todd Cochrane, as well as several sessions on Feedburner uses with podcasting. But there are also some that are a little confusing on how they relate, like the "Top 10 Tips for Running a Political Campaign" session, I am sure one (or more) of those is to have a podcast on your campaign site to build community with your potential voters.

If you check it out, please leave a comment on what you think about it.

Back a while ago we covered the advertising impact from a research study, and fellow Weblogs Inc Network (WIN) blog The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reported on the audience size aspect of the report. Now we have a blog post from the Geek News Central blog that their numbers for the current podcasting audience size is way off. Geek News Central is getting their counts from being involved with TechPodcasts.com network of podcasts and Podcasternews.com as well as also several other sites that are using the RawVoice Generator.

The post over there shows that if the Forrester Research report was  correct  that the numbers they have verified stats for would be a large percentage of the whole audience that the report says there is currently existing. Of course they know there are lot more other podcasts out there than they have the stats for, so they reach the conclusion the numbers from the report are way off.

If you can't make it to the Portable Media Expo, which is taking registrations as reported here, or just don't want to wait until September, you can check out "The International Podcasting Expo" which is being held April 21 - 23, 2006. The unique thing is that this expo is being held around the clock, and online. The expo will be a non stop 48 hour event using a virtual expo system. There will be a cross platform audio conference room which will be recorded. Listeners can participate in live podcasts which will be available shortly after they are recorded on a special expo feed.  You can go sign up for the expo at their site.

Are any of our readers planning on signing up for this virtual expo?

So podcasting may have just became a lot easier to do on the go. I saw a mention on James Kendrick's blog jkOnTheRun of the press release of a new PocketPC application. AudioBay by AcroDesign Technologies that is being billed as a complete podcasting application. Scott Thibault, AcroDesign's President and Founder said in the press release "We are excited to release the first software to allow mobile users to create and publish podcasts."

See the feature list and a second screen shot after the break.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Below is the feature list from the VoiceAtom.com site's product page.

• Simple podcast creation
• Generates standard RSS 2.0 feeds
• Generates HTML interface
• Includes free hosting for 12 months
• Includes podcast reader
• Location-based podcast search

It sounds like it has some nice features. I like the free hosting and reader included in the application. I may have to run by the office and pick up the XV6700 I have temporarily for development to try this out over the weekend.

It seems the registration for the 2006 Podcast and Portable Media Expo is open. This conference is going into its second year and from all accounts I have heard it was great fun had by all who attended the expo. It is at the Ontario Conference Center in Ontario California again, although it is moving from November to September. It is still two days of vendor exhibit hall, keynote presentations and conference sessions.

This conference is mostly aimed at those in podcasting, although I know a lot of podcast listeners went last year for the exhibit hall, and to mingle with, meet and see their favorite podcasters. It is also a way to get advertisers and podcasters together to facilitate sponsorship deals.

The conference has five conference tracks this year which are listed after the break.

• Podcasting 101 - A to Z for Beginners - Getting Up To Speed Fast
• Podcasting As A Business - Turning Content Into Profits
• Corporate Podcasting - Communications and PR Best Practices
• Podcasting As A Hobby - For Those Who Create Purely for Enjoyment
• Portable Audio & Video - Moving Traditional Content Into a Portable, On-Demand World (includes sessions for educators, musicians, and other specific interests)

They have a Frappr map setup for attendees to show where they are coming from on the attendees tools page. One of the other tools on the page is a link to the forums setup for discussion and side meeting arranging.

I am hoping to be there either in some way, either as a podcaster, just a podcast listener, or covering the expo for Droxy. Are any of our readers going to be there? Leave a comment if you plan on going.

PodioBooks has launched a new compilation of previously produced podcast works of fiction. The first "volume" from Voices: New Media Fiction went live and features 18 stories from 18 different authors. At some point it looks like users or creators will have ability to submit their works to the site for consideration for inclusion in future collections. Voices is put up under a Creative Commons license and you can either listen online or download to sync with your MP3 player of choice.

[via BoingBoing]