Cool free app: Jing

I’ve just been lead to a great new app called Jing… it’s a free application that makes image capturing and screen videos a snap to make. Coolest part? It’s cross platform and includes free hosting for all of your images and screencasts. Now if you need to show your mom how to do something on the computer, make a simple 5 minute video on Jing and send her the link. She can play it like any other video. No more typing out instructions! Also, since it’s cross platform there are no worries if you’re a PC owner sending to a Mac person, or vice versa. There’s even a Linux version in the works… very cool.

Check out the overview video here… it explains it better than I can in a paragraph, which is kind of the whole point of Jing, isn’t it?

Apple announces something non-iPhone related

Red alert! Looks like Apple is announcing long-awaited upgrades to some part of their hardware line. The rumor mill has been jamming the system with thoughts on new iMacs. If you believe Fake Steve Jobs (and who wouldn’t for fake Mac news?) then you know what’s coming. My venerable PowerBook has put in to go from full-time to part-time… 3 years and it wants a pension and a gold watch! Still, with the amount of audio and video it’s processed, it deserves to let some new beastie to come along and handle the processing load…

The limits of podsafe music

I’ve been working on a project for a client who is looking to directly monetize her audio content (that’s fancy talk for selling those mp3s), and we’re running smack into a dilemma that faces anyone who wants to do the same thing… if you just give away your podcasts, there are several very good sources for free, licensed podsafe music. I happen to like the variety of IODA Promonet and Podsafe Music Network (although the latter needs a serious user interface revamp). If you dig into the licenses for both, the second your show has a commercial hook (fancy talk for, you make money off of the podcast), then you are either out of the licensing agreement, or you owe someone some money.

Now, this makes perfect sense… if you are able to capitalize on a product and use these artist’s music, they have a hand in the money you are making. Some artists may see their exposure as enough renumeration… in many cases it could be pretty valuable. However, for the here and now be mindful that selling your podcasts has a consequence… you’re going to have to find truly royalty-free music, get proficient with Garageband, or negotiate a license deal with your favorite artist.

Who knew we’d be getting into intellectual property law when we got into this? Luckily, there’s Collette Vogele’s excellent podcast and guide to help out beginners who aren’t blessed with an IP background…

KATG making waves

Our favorite podcast rebels are at it again… Keith Malley of Keith & The Girl bought thesimpsonsmovie.com in 1999 and was recently forced by the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization to hand over the domain name for the Simpsons movie opening today. Although his loss was total and complete, Keith has parlayed the story (and his investment) into massive exposure for the podcast in the mainstream media (like this, this, this, and this). Sure, he’s often referred to as a cybersquatter and other less desirable names, but I think Keith can handle it.

In other KATG news, it looks like their brief hosting experiment with TalkShoe is over. In a recent show discussing the split (Show 541), there was an almost Festivus-like airing of grievances. Needless to say, that didn’t end well for TalkShoe. KATG is moving hosting to Wizzard Media… a major upside to the switch is that listeners no longer have to hear the truly annoying pre-roll ads anymore. Coming to Wizzard is a bit like coming home for KATG… the show had been hosted for years by LibSyn, which was acquired by Wizzard in March.

New Apple podcast app

Interesting developments in the podcasting world of Apple… the next operating system – OS 10.5 Leopard – has a new application suite called Podcast Producer. Apple describes it as, “a complete, end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts.” What is interesting is that this app is being developed for the server version of OS 10.5, not the version that runs on most Macs. The Apple Blog has more here… will Apple be moving this into a new iLife app and out of Garageband eventually? If they keep Podcast Producer with the OS X Server I probably wouldn’t recommend the cost for it, but if it ends up on Leopard for non-server Macs, it looks like it might be a nice upgrade from Garageband. No matter what, unless you’re a developer, nobody can get their hands on this until Leopard is released in October…

Ditching MS Office

A lot of people are getting tired of shelling out hundreds of dollars to Microsoft so that they can use Word, Excel and (sometimes) PowerPoint. But, most of them are loathe to do otherwise, since it seems that these programs are essential if you want to interact with others in the business world. Well, the times they are a changing. What if you could read and write all of the MS Office docs but pay… nothing.

Enter the world of open source projects OpenOffice and NeoOffice. Both of these projects (Mac and PC for the former, Mac only for the latter) offer complete compatibility, open source codes that are constantly improved, and a whole lot more… for free.

Sometimes you get what you pay for, but in this case, I’ve found these open source options to be a nice alternative. If your budget for a new computer is off by a few hundred dollars because you are factoring in the purchase of the latest MS Office suite, consider going open source and replacing MS Office.

iPhone review

There have been a ton of iPhone reviews, but none as balanced and as well-written as this one at Information Week. I’d recommend it for anyone considering the big leap.

I’m off to Nineball Portland today… should be a good week of work mixed with a little fun (a little birdie tells me the Oregon Brewfest begins this week…)

Kapow… another revised look

I’m finding that upgrading the look and usability of the Nineball Media website has addictive properties. However, after this rev, I’m thinking we might have a little more stability. You’ll notice that the blog and the rest of the site finally has total synergy. Better yet, the rest of the site has additional content and description of services. Since the bulk of Nineball Media’s work revolves around audio, it was high time we got some of that integrated into the site!

The future of high speed internet?

A Swedish woman has a pretty decent broadband connection. It’s so fast, she can reportedly download a full-length movie in less than 2 seconds. If this is for real, and broadband speeds keep ratcheting up (and are made available to the general public for a reasonable price), the variety of on-demand media will be staggering. On top of that, consider all current forms of communication… TV, radio, telephone, etc. … will pretty much get swamped by a data-driven replacement.

I’m still waiting for those flying cars though…