Author Scott Sigler first made news when he decided to release his book EarthCore as a weekly podcast last year. Sigler produced the audio book himself and released it a few chapters at a time via podcast and garnered 10,000 subscribers. The innovative author has now achieved a “second first” by putting the audio novel on the iTunes Music Store. The entire 20 episode audio book can be purchased from iTunes for $9.99 and it will be interesting to see how well this sells. It could pave the way for other authors to self-publish in audio format.

(via iPod Observer)

Todd Cochrane of GeekNewsCentral posted about some comments he received from several podcasters claiming their shows no longer show up in iTunes searches. I can attest to this as neither the OnTheRun with Tablet PCs nor the jkOnTheRun Audio Edition podcasts are showing up in any iTunes searches as of this past week. The shows were turning up properly in searches until last week when they just dropped off the map. The shows are still available in iTunes but only accessible via a direct link from the outside. It seems to me this goes against the claims Apple made when first launching podcast support in iTunes. Now the only shows that regularly show up in searches are either professional podcasts or commercial ventures. Once again the little guy gets knocked out of circulation which is sad, but usually the case. I’d like to here from other podcasters who have any information to add about this.

I think it would be really cool if someone could come up with a way to automatically derive written transcriptions from podcasts. This would work similar to speech recognition programs but it needs to be speaker independent to be effective, kind of like closed-captioning used by TV stations. The purpose for producing written transcripts would be two-fold- make podcasts available to those in the community who are deaf and unable to access the information shared in the many podcasts now available and to make the shows searchable once the transcripts are published.

I would love to hear from those in a position who have thoughts about possible solutions that could be used from existing technology. I am willing to work with anyone using any of the podcasts I produce as a test case, with the hope of eventually using this on a wide range of podcasts. Please contact me if you have any ideas along these lines, or post a comment here. Let’s see what we can come up with as a community effort.

Now that we are starting to see video podcasts becoming more commonplace there is confusion on what to call them. A term I see used a lot is vlog and I really hope this term doesn’t stick. I mean, how do you pronounce it, vee-log or valog? Either way sounds just plain silly to me. Blog sounds like a real word but vlog never will. Another term that affects me like fingernails on a chalkboard is vblog. We don’t call audio podcasts ablogs so why call videos vblogs? The word just sounds goofy to me. The only term I’ve heard used that sounds OK to me is vidcasts. That kind of fits along with the whole podcast thing and makes sense to me. Of course, I’m open to good alternatives if anyone has some ideas.

I get a lot of email and IMs from friends and readers asking which applications I use and recommend to others.  In the course of a normal day I tend to use a lot of programs depending on the task at hand so my list is pretty long.  I do not use every program every day but each program is important to me when I need it.  I figured it a good time to list my most used applications here on jkOnTheRun so here is the list.  Not all of these programs are Tablet PC specific so I have indicated the programs that are for those without Tablets.  The list is in no particular order so the top of the list is not necessarily more important to me than the bottom.  I’m not going to provide links for each of these, Google will find them very quickly.

1. Outlook/ TEO– I live in Outlook all day for email, schedules, time billing, etc. TEO adds full ink capability to all areas in Outlook and I consider it part of it.
2. OneNote– the second most used program I have
3. SnagIt!– simply the best screen capture program on any platform
4. KnockOut– free utility that kills Outlook and Word instantly if they fail to shut down, which is often
5. Skype– can you hear me now?
6. Onfolio– RSS reader and information collection tool, very good
7. BlogJet– my preferred blogging tool, works with most major blog engines
8. True Launch Bar– turns the Windows taskbar into something truly useful
9. Snipping Tool (Experience Pack)– Tablet PC only, captures anything on the screen with the pen
10. Ink Crossword–Tablet PC only, just what it says
11. iTunes– my default music player and podcatcher/ player
12. Adobe Acrobat– I do a lot of work with PDFs
13. Internet Explorer– Firefox who?
14. Audacity– free audio recorder, editor and mixer
15. Zinio– digital magazine reader, one of the best things you can put on a Tablet PC
16. eReader Pro– ebook reader
17. FTP Commander– free FTP client
18. WinDVD– DVD player app
19. Yahoo Widgets (formerly Konfabulator)– good for using those spare resources
20. MindManager Pro– best mind mapping program on any platform, outstanding on a Tablet PC
21. Mixcast Live– audio mixer program, best way to record Skype calls
22. Norton AntiVirus– resource hog but works very well
23. Outback Plus– back up the entire Outlook/ IE/ Firefox environment with one click
24. Outlook Express– I use this for my newsgroup program
25. Quickbooks Premium– professional accounting package
26. Karen’s Replicator– free directory copy/ replicator program
27. SkypeHeadset– lets me use my cell phone Bluetooth headset with Skype on my Tablet PC
28. Sonic RecordNow– came with my dual layer DVD burner, is the only way to record dual layer with this drive
29. Windows Media Player– version 10
30. Send to OneNote 2003 (Education Pack)– Tablet PC only, excellent utility for sending stuff to OneNote as background for inking
31. MS Word– for final drafts
32. MS PowerPoint– slides, slides, slides
33. MS Excel– I use this a lot, I spreadsheet everything
34. ActiveWords– shortcut extraordinaire
35. Ink Pad for ActiveWords– Tablet PC only, Tabletizes ActiveWords
36. Time Meter for Outlook– time and billing for consultants, works within Outlook
37. MS Publisher– I mainly make my business cards with it
38. Norton PartitionMagic– slice and dice hard drives easily
39. Perfect Disk– my favorite disk defragger
40. hdi– little hard disk indicator light that sits in the system tray for those systems lacking one

Apple Insider reported today that Apple has made two filings to tradmark the term “iPodcast”.  This might be carrying the trademark / patent thing too far since Apple only recently jumped on the podcast bandwagon but we’ll see.  The really cheeky part of the filings are the two descriptions Apple used to apply for the trademark in the US Patent and Trademark Office:

 ”computers, computer peripherals, hand held computers, computer terminals, personal digital assistants, electronic organizers, electronic notepads, apparatus for recording, transmission and reproduction of sounds, images, or other data; magnetic data carriers.”

“telecommunications services; communication by computer, computer intercommunication; telex, telegram and telephone services; rental, hire and leasing of communications apparatus and of electronic mailboxes; electronic bulletin board services,”

Everyone is up in arms about Microsoft’s attempt to call RSS feeds “web feeds”.  Purists and RSS originators are understandably upset over the audacity and arrogance of the Redmond giant and are bemoaning the fact that MS is trying to control the term.  While I don’t really care what we call the feeds I’ll tell you a true story that happened to me recently.

A couple of months ago, before the whole RSS naming brouhaha, my wife and her friend told me they wanted to start a podcast. Both of them are fairly computer literate so I thought it would be easy to explain to them how podcasts are distributed via RSS.  Let me tell you, every time I said the phrase “RSS” I swear their eyes glazed over and they just didn’t get it no matter how hard I tried to describe it. 

In desperation I finally told them that RSS feeds were just web feeds and the light went on in their eyes and they understood that immediately.  They both told me, almost in unison, “why didn’t you tell us that first?”  That simple term made sense to them and I for one am glad that someone is trying to simplify and promote a term that is easy for anyone to understand.  Too bad it was Microsoft since many have a knee-jerk reaction to anything they do.

I am fortunate to be located in Houston where we have one of the most tech-savvy local newspapers in the country.  The Houston Chronicle has been running computer related and tech advice columns for a very long time and recently they added several blogs that are top-notch.  One of my favorite blogs on the Chronicle web site is TechBlog (naturally) written by tech columnist Dwight Silverman.  TechBlog always has interesting items both local and global that make it a staple in my feed list.

Dwight posed an interesting question on TechBlog yesterday that made me very happy– the Houston Chronicle is considering (just considering, mind you) to add podcasts to the web site.  He is soliciting ideas for what readers would be interesting in hearing covered on such podcasts.  If you are in Houston, heck anywhere really since the web is a global place, jump over to the article and leave your ideas in the comments.  I know I would love to hear what they might produce as I’m sure they would do it in a totally professional way, just like the blogs.

Sheri and SuZan’s Real Women Show is available for download on The Podcast Network or iTunes.  The girls are getting really good at this podcasting stuff so give it a listen.  Their blog Celebrating Women is now famous as the New York Times referenced a post on the blog about the shuttle launch yesterday.  Way to go, ladies!

I am basically ripping this off from kct’s digital world on the off-chance that Kevin Tofel will forgive me since it’s for a good cause.  Well, that and I wanted to get the word out but don’t have time to research like Kevin did.  Here’s how to win an iPAQ:

1. The Dave’s iPAQ podcast is up for one the TOP awards at the Podcast Awards site. He’s up against Adam Curry, so this will be a tough battle, but if you’ve listened to Dave, Jack, and Steve, you know that they put a top-notch show together week after week. You can help support the gang there by voting daily over at Podcast Awards.
2. If you subscribe to Dave’s podcast through iTunes, he is giving away an HP iPAQ 6300, courtesy of Microsoft! What a deal! All of the details are in a special, short podcast that you can find here.

Thanks Dave and Kevin!