Beutelevision

Here is my most favorite person in the whole world. It’s a staff profile of Joyce, but it doesn’t really explain how awesome her cooking is.

There seems to be a lot of interest in the Rowica* Podcast Player, so here is my two cents about it:I agree with Dave – it must be an RSS aggregator/podcatcher. If it is to aggregate consistently, it needs a charger/cradle. Whenever I’m not using it, it goes in the cradle and the batteries get charged while it captures podcasts from WIFI. The cradle can be anywhere – it’s not connected to any computer.There needs to be a deluxe version for those of us wanting to create and post our own podcasts. So put in a mic and some basic bumper music, and then let me upload.Have a website where I can adjust my subscriptions.There seems to be some confusion about the need for connectivity to a computer, ala iTunes via USB. Part of the reason that iTunes exists is to serve the needs of DRM’ed music. The Rowica doesn’t do DRM, so it doesn’t need something like iTunes. A website will do just fine.*Rojas-Winer-Calacanis

MacNN notes rumors about Google talking to YouTube. They go on to note that Apple and Google have apparently talked about getting Google’s video library to play on Apple’s upcoming iTV product.What I find so interesting here is what this might mean for independent video artists and producers. Apple’s iTV will already play video podcasts, but as a video producer, you have to provide your own bandwidth and that’s expensive. On the otherhand, both Google and YouTube provide bandwidth for free (or at the expense of some ads being attached). This would be good for producers, who would be able to choose:- Self hosting the video, at some cost- Hosting the video at YouTube, for free- Perhaps even selling the video at Google, and collecting some money for the contentAs costs in distribution go down, so many possibilities open up for video artists. Cool.

Who’d have thought it possible? T-Rex Soft Tissue

Wow, talk about an investment. Branson Pledges to Fight Global Warming

Here’s an idea (and I’m sure this is not a new idea): Build a local RSS server, that delivers my Bittorrent downloads to iTunes as video podcasts.Now I can view my Bittorrents on my flat screen TV with iTV.I’m sure that there are issues, like video formats that will need to be converted to m4v or whatever, but I’m sure that can be automated.

I’ve been thinking more about Roughly Drafted’s iPod Blogger idea and I’ve come up with a list of what I would like to see in an iPod that can serve as a blogging platform:WIFIMicrophoneCamera to take pictures and video.Built-in studio. The ability to record audio and/or video, and do some minimal editing.Ability to upload podcasts/vidcasts/pictures to my blog, .Mac, etc.Ability to upload pictures to Flickr, etc.Ability to upload video to YouTube, etc.Ability to send any of these to an email address, as a linkAbility to download podcasts/vidcasts automaticallyAbility to comment on podcasts/vidcasts and upload those to my blogUpload and download whenever I’m in range of a WIFI signal – in other words, don’t wait for me, just do it!I would flip over an iPod like this! The more I think about it, the more I want one now. Apple could make it work, and work elegantly and simply. Unfortunately, I think the focus for the iPod is still music player and not enough consideration is given to the possibility of it being a two-way device.I know that there are cell phones that have some of these capabilities, but it seems to me that cellphones are crippled. Crippled by being associated with the cell phone network, and not being free to use WIFI.Over time as something like this catches on, I think this would dramatically increase the amount of material posted to .Mac, YouTube, Flicker. This is goodness.

Check out this Hybrid Mini Cooper with the electric motors in the wheels. 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.I think quiet electric cars are going to be all the rage in a few years, primarily for their awesome acceleration, not to mention their fuel economy.

Robert Young has a good idea, namely Apple should buy YouTube. I would add that if Apple does so, it should also consider how an iPod Blogger model might fit into this. Apple makes a big deal about making podcasts using its platform. I think the time is right for an iPod that can capture audio and video and instantly upload it to YouTube.

Engadget covers what we know and don’t know about the up coming iPod killer called Zune. Apparently it will have WIFI, but will it have an RSS reader and podcast downloader? If it doesn’t, I can’t really see how this is an interesting or better product.Now if it actually had an RSS reader and it automatically downloaded podcasts whenever WIFI was in range, I’d run out and buy the first one. That would be a HOT product!