Your wedding's coming up and you need all the info you can get to make this day the most unforgettable day of your life. Here's what you can do: turn to your iPod. That's right...the now ubiquitous iPod has something new up its sleeve, and it's gonna help you with your wedding plans.

The Wedding Podcast Network offers advices from "the love doctor", tips for the bride and groom, clips of couples who planned their own weddings, a "meet the masters" section, and a workout schedule for the bride-to-be. Perfect for the nuptial-bound couples.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will be handing out Emmys for the most outstanding original programming in mobile devices, including cell phones. The Emmys are usually held for the best daytime shows but because of all the digital influences and technology nowadays, the Academy has decided to include a new category for popular mobile devices and technology. The new category was created back in November due to the growing interest in mobile devices like iPods, computers, and cell phones.

It seems Singapore's government have taken a turn against modernisation and banned political groups from 'spreading the word' via PodCasts - during the next general election, at least.

In a statement released by Dr. Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Information, he states that there are rules and regulations for internet activities contained by political groups; these rules and regulations known as the 'positive list' contain do's rather than dont's. Dr Balaji continued, 'Podcasting does not fall within this list', and then went to describe PodCasts as, 'the provision of an audio feed over the Internet to subscribers.'

Further through his words, Dr Balaji explained that bloggers must be careful too, as if they continue to consistently propagate or promote political beliefs, they must register with the MDA (Media Development Authority) in an attempt to lessen the risk of explicit political imagery and content. The current party, the People's Action Party, have ruled for over 41 years, and the current Prime Minister has been in office since 2004.

So I'm chilling back, getting funky to some Gnarls Berkley on my iPod in the college common room, when I get a bit annoyed by the constant muttering of a fellow student in the corner of my eye. After about 5 mins I rip off my cupped headphones and demand to know what he was listening to, I receive 'Nothing, just a sermon I downloaded off the net'. To this I was a bit amazed, I knew it had to come some time, but it looks like the religious in us have developed a skill of transferring sermon's over to iPod. Of course I'm talking about PodCasts, however, this beauty is know becoming known as GodCasts.

A simple search on the net points us to a multitude of sites offering PodCasts with religion on the boards. Many of you may know first hand how difficult it is to get the youth of today to have an open mind and stand by and learn from religion, but it looks like this method might just catch on. Now teenagers dont have the excuse that they have no time, or that they find religion boring, cause now all they have to do is bang on their favorite MP3 player, and begin multitasking while acknowledging Jim Cymbala's lesson's on life.

This is an example of how Apple have managed to change our lives further. Of course it'll be impossible to say what the take-up on religion would be, solely down to GodCasts, but something inside me tells me its gonna be a small number, but it'll strengthen those who already are faithful. For those out there who do not follow religion, well, you still have a vast library of PodCasts including The Simpson's and even match highlights.

On this special issue of MacBreak, Leo Laporte and Ben Durbin has demonstrated actually running a Windows XP SP2 on Mac mini with Intel Core Solo built in. The system ran as fast as on a genuine PC on the Mac mini in this video, with only some driver restrictions that limited its performance. But we are sure that the community will try to hack more drivers to make the Intel Mac run Windows XP better and better!

Running Windows XP on a Mac has been a dream for the Mac fans. Until recently, the high bonus hanging above by Colin Nederkoorn has finally been taken by Narf. Now this discovery/creation has unleashed the ultimate possibility Intel Mac, making the users having more choices when buying operation systems for their Intel Mac.

Download: [MacBreak Special - XP On A Mac mini]

Jack Black, one of America's emerging comics and actors. This guy, you either love him or hate him. I personally enjoy his off-the-wall style and comedic abilities. I just can't get that damn song he's got on a commercial on Nick out of my head, though. If you do like this guy, you'll be happy to know that you can carry around his sage musings on your iPod.

During the filming of his new movie, 'Nacho Libre,' Jack Black in his free time would plop himself in front of a camera and sort of chronicle how the movie was coming along. Of course, not all of that is deep analysis on the subtleties of cinema. In other words, you'll get to see the guy doing what he does best, making an ass of himself.

The short movies are now available on iTunes and through the Quicktime website for all of you who are curious.

Hauppage has officially announced a new software suite that will make it possible for PC users to record television shows to transfer and watch on an Apple iPod. Called Wing, the software is available as a download on the company's website, or from selected retailers.

This comes as a worthy app for everyone who is tiring of paying $2 per show on iTunes. Though it remains to be seen how good the quality output is on the program, and its ease-of-use, the product is availble now.

According to Pocket-lint, the $24.95 package aims to complements Hauppauge's PC-based WinTV-PVR and HVR personal video recorders. Wing records in H.264, MPEG-4 and Divx formats, and also will record directly to a recordable DVD disk. The application can also be used to transfer shows and other media onto the Sony Playstation Portable.

[Via, Pocket-lint]

British TV news station Sky News have launched their first free video podcasts. The service is starting out with their weekly '7 Days' programme, but will expand to cover other programming in time.

7 Days is Sky News' regular look at the lighter side of the week's news, this week's show (for example) covers the man with bionic arms, an animal version of Big Brother, the stuntman who goes up, up, and away, an Elvis celebration and a soapbox spectacular.

The Sky News video podcasts are pre-formatted for iPod viewing, just subscribe to their podcast through iTunes on this link.

This launch is the first step in a major iPod videocasting strategy from Sky television.

Looks like the iTunes podcast ranking system can be easily manipulated. The guys over at plastictrees have figgured out a way to move your podcast up in the rankings. Basically, the iTunes podcast list isnâ??t updated by which podcast is the most popular. It is only updated when users click â??subscribeâ?�. This allows users to click it hundreds of times, or use hacks like the one found here to increase their podcast rank. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

Source: timesonline

Advertisers fear their messages may get edited out by the growing band of iPod listeners, writes Paul Durman

PERSONAL video recorders, such as Sky+, are already scaring the living daylights out of television advertisers, fearful that viewers will quickly learn to fast-forward through the commercials. Now the podcasting phenomenon is posing a similar threat to commercial radio.

Podcasting can make radio broadcasts and other audio files available over the internet, allowing them to be downloaded and saved on an iPod or similar digital music player.

Since podcasting started to gain popularity last autumn, it has quickly been embraced by conventional radio companies, in addition to the many amateur broadcasters who were the first to adopt the technology. The BBC and Virgin Radio are both in the vanguard of those experimenting with podcasts.

It is easy to see the appeal. Podcasting breaks down the temporal and geographical limitations of radio. If you want to listen to the Today programme in Toronto at 10pm, you can.

Chris Kimber, head of radio interactive at the BBC, said feedback from listeners had been â??overwhelminglyâ?� positive. â??The feedback is: â??We absolutely love this. When are you going to start offering more of your programmes like this?â??â?� The BBC trial includes the Chris Moyles show from Radio 1, as well as the main interview from the Today programme and Radio 4â??s From Our Own Correspondent. Kimber said: â??You can listen to it on a plane or on holiday in France. You can take it with you.â?�

He said the BBC was keen to ensure that radio remained relevant to a mobile generation growing up with the iPod.

The danger, at least for commercial broadcasters, is that the podcast generation will stop listening to the advertisements. It is almost as easy to skip ads with a digital music player as it is with a Sky+ box.

Roger Parry, the chairman of ClearChannel International, part of Americaâ??s biggest radio company, said: â??You have exactly the same sort of issues that you have with a Sky+ box.

â??The conventional, 30-second spot is threatened. The more power you have to listen to something under your control the less likely you are to sit through (an advertisement).â?�

Audiences could also fragment if podcasting takes off in a big way. That could have commercial implications. Our listener in Toronto is not very valuable to an advertiser offering tool hire in Tooting.

But there will also be new opportunities. James Cridland, head of new-media strategic development at Virgin Radio, said: â??We believe we can reach new audiences for our advertisers that we otherwise couldnâ??t. Itâ??s a great marketing tool.

â??There are a lot of people who will be able to sample what our breakfast show is all about who perhaps would not have otherwise listened to Virgin Radio.â?�

Virginâ??s Pete and Geoff breakfast show began daily podcasting in March, the first such move by a British radio station.

The podcast is stripped of the news, weather and travel information that would date it. More awkwardly, for copyright reasons Virgin also has to remove the music.

Cridland said: â??What you end up with is the best of our breakfast show and what people tune in for â?? which apart from the music is the entertaining and wry observations on the world.â?�