The internet started getting massively popular more than a decade ago, and with it came a lot of nice nuances that aimed at giving users that whole digital multimedia experience which was all the rage those days. The age of internet entertainment was indeed heralded, but internet TV didn't catch fire as fast as other Media.

Of course there were a lot of reasons why web TV came later than web radio and web games. Technical issues such as slow bandwidth, licensing gridlocks and the lack of available resources were among the factors that slowed down the dawning of an age. Nowadays, however, the world works a bit differently. Almost everyone can afford broadband connections and Youtube found a way around the licensing knot to tear the market wide open.

Admit it or not, YouTube may be the single, most powerful force that changed the way we think about internet TV and videos. By bringing in users who upload videos for other users, it created a viable network wherein just about every imaginable video. Everything from cartoons to porn was there and it was very easy to access.

Apple followed up with its launch of fifth-generation iPods that can play videos as well as acquire them by purchasing them from the online iTunes market set up by Apple. Podcasts were also conceived and now, anyone with enough time and tech savvy can do a broadcast to the web en route to iPods of millions of owners.

And that's not all, with the Apple TV coming up, a seamless bond between the computer, the home entertainment system and the iPod can be forged. Networks are also getting into the act with Al Gore's "Current TV" which features a hodgepodge of professional and amateur content that can be seen on cable channels and its website.

Dan Hett wrote a very informative essay tackling the digital age of entertainment and its implications. He also extrapolates on what the future holds for digital entertainment and who we can expect to play key roles. To read the entire discussion, follow the read URL.

Podcasts are truly catching people's attention. You may listen to books, radio shows, school lessons and others, all with your media player and/or PC. This is why firms are learning to use podcasts for corporate functions such as meetings, staff announcements and maybe speeches of the company bigwigs to be heard by the employees.

The Social Media Forum for Internal Communicators, being held in London, is a forum dedicated in engaging employees through new technology. Researchers say that most firms still hold "improving employee engagement" as a top item in their To Do agenda.

Now, most of us who are part of the labor force may cringe at the thought of the boss being our daily chat pal. That would be like talking about work 24/7 while already living it. But the Media Forum says that some of the new social media communication tools such as blogs, podcasts and videos are catching on because employees can filter them through Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

Podcasts are also deemed to be more popular to employees, because they could listen to downloaded company news at a leisurely pace. With the help of blogs, that are accessible to the staff via intranet, workers may also give feedback as much as they want, and not be inhibited by the public setting of a corporate meeting.

Not only employees but also investors and customers benefit through company podcasts. Well then, it's nice to hear that technology is again being used to advance the society, the way it should be used.

Remember the times when your mom used to tell you bedtime stories? Or the times when your mom was too tired and dad had to do it and he made up some whopper on the fly just to put you to sleep? Those were the days, huh? Well, don't look now, but happy days may be here again.... sort of.

You may have been listening to podcasts for quite some time now and never heard of podiobooks. Essentially, these are audio novels written by independent authors that you can download and listen to.

Don't let the independent nature fool you. The majority of the material that comes out from the source is actually very good. The voice talents are also of excellent quality and often do a nice job of creating an atmosphere where you can totally immerse yourself in.

More importantly, this medium is exciting because of the fact that aspiring writers bow have an avenue to get started and be heard. It's not uncommon to hear tales of great novelists who were initially shunned by publishers early in their careers. With audio podcasts, upstarts have a shot at developing a cult following which will eventually give them the lift they need to break into the scene where bigwigs dwell.

If you're interested, you can start by checking out Podiobooks and downloading stuff that catches your eye. Just read the description of the material you're getting as some have sexual innuendo and brutality in the phrases. We don't want that to play while having dinner with the kids. Enjoy!

You could probably do a survey on this, or maybe it makes little difference to you, but "podcast" still sounds way better than "netcast". Why are we saying this? Leo Laporte, who was recently dubbed as podcaster of the year, with TWiT being just one of his 200 podcasts, wants to rebrand podcasts as "netcasts". Sounds like a real questionable idea, but Leo Laporte won't come up with something like this if he didn't have reasons. Take a look at them:

"It's pod or it's nothing." Basically, Leo Laporte and the rest of Apple's constituents have been all out to preserve the iPod's trademark copyright, after companies who copy, pirate, and try to claim the brand as their own. Laporte and Apple sees rebranding as the only way to keep from experiencing such an insult, and as a way to protect their product.

"Podcasts don't need iPods all the time." A bit on the deeper scale, it's interesting to know that it's become a common assumption for some that to download and listen to podcasts, they need to own iPods. Of course, this is mostly true, and this is precisely why Laporte thinks it's time to cast a wider net and rub out the limitation that podcasting connotes to non-iPod owners. In short, more people would share the world of podcasting once it's been replaced with a more generic "netcasting".

If Apple finalizes Laporte's proposal for rebranding, then it's time you bid goodbye to that beloved, albeit goofy "pod" term. For us, it's what brought Apple more recognition than it ever had. Whether a rebranding to a more generic name such as "netcast" would be welcomed by consumers remains to be seen.

We note that your clients' PODCAST READY and MYPODDER marks consist in substantial part of Apple's IPOD mark, and contain Apple's POD mark in its entirety...

Thus goes one sentence from the two-page letter that Apple's lawyers sent to Podcast Ready's lawyers. Since we don't have permission to display the letter, we instead offer a quick summary of the high notes of just exactly who owns the rights to the word "Podcast" and "Pod."

• The word "POD" has also been adopted and used extensively in the marketplace by consumers as an abbreviation to refer to Apple's iPod player. (Huh?)
  

• Apple has "no general objection," after all, with the use of the word "Podcast" in "Podcast Ready" - "so as long as it's used as part of a trademark for goods and services offered in the podcasting field."
  
• The guess is that Apple objected to the use of "Pod" in Podcast Ready's "myPodder" software partly because "myPod" sounds like "iPod," and also partly because myPodder is a software designed to manage audio file downloads (in this case, podcasts). That makes the software like iTunes (the letter doesn't reach this conclusion, but we're betting that must be what has Apple tweaked).
  
• That and probably because myPodder is also designed to work with the iPod.

The issue's gotten so far that Leo Laporte, Person of the Year in Podcasting, suggests we could use the word "netcast" instead, if Apple successfully yanks out the word "Pod" from common electronica usage. Speaking of which: do you guys call your iPods or mp3 players "Pods" for short?

"Podcast": noun; a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player. Etymology: iPod + broadcast (via New Oxford American Dictionary)

Podcast Ready must have been surprised to see the "cease-and-desist" letter from Apple, ordering them to stop using the terms "Podcast Ready" and "myPodder" because they infringe on Apple's trademarks and cause confusion among customers. (Podcast Ready refers both to the software that pulls RSS podcasts from the Internet onto a portable mp3 player, and to the company that offers the software.) Huh? Hasn't "podcast" been used as a generic, catch-all term to describe, well, podcasts?

Okay, sure, the word owes itself partly to Apple's iPod (and that's trademarked). But the world has also moved to the point of calling all mp3 players as "iPods", regardless of manufacturer, right? Probably not anymore. In another story, this time reported in Mac News, Apple has applied with the US Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the word "pod" (we guess in reference to its use with any gadget's name, like "iPod").

The iPod is a cool device and all - you'll hear no protest from us. And patents and trademarks, well, they're important, too, especially to protect the inventors of original ideas. But in this case, Apple may need to learn that sometimes, it's nice to rest on one's laurels, too.

A college in Dover, UK (South Kent College) has spent over $50,000 to outfit the student body with the iPod Nano. 250 very lucky students will receive the iPods, free of charge, with the expectation that they will use them for handling lectures from their professors- which will of course be in podcast format.

Digital music players are already in use at Georgia college and the State University in Milledgeville (in the US). At many colleges, the use of digital music players, and other similar digital devices that have the ability to record sound, has become an integral part of the coursework.

Surprisingly, some people in Dover have raised objections to the faculty's decision to spend taxpayer's money on what is seen by some as a "bribe" to get students to attend college. Some, like pressure group Campaign for Real Education Chairman Nick Seaton, have even gone so far as to call the program "a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money." Fortunately, others involved with the situation are more circumspect. Mr. Coleman, the principal of the Dover college involved with the case, asserts that the iPods would only be handed out to those teenagers who had completed all their assignments and had full attendance.

He further added legitimacy to the project by adding that the entire project was funded by money the government saved in a business venture and not from a general fund contributed to by taxpayers. Officials at the school maintain that the staff reaction to the plan has been positive.

Lectures surrounding IT, motor vehicle engineering, and childcare will be the first courses that offer podcast formatted lectures with the remainder of the course offerings scheduled to be available as podcasts next year. Although some people reacted negatively to the plan to give iPods to students, the course has already been set.

Technology is an inseparable part of the educational experience. Students who are not acclimated to technology by using it during their coursework each day will be sorely missing out on an important part of the learning experience.

Last year, after the iTunes Music Store started offering Podcasts, Steve Jobs went on record saying that much every topic was fair game except "pornography." The following month, some well-known sex writers began podcasting without their material being censored or removed. It turned out that Apple had labelled these as "Explicit," which was then construed as a policy.

Since then, however, a very popular sex education Podcast entitled  "Sex Is Fun" was removed. The hosts received a letter from Apple about the rejection on the same day it reached the Top 100 Podcasts List on iTunes. Host Kidder Kaper says that other "fringe"-topic Podcasts have also been removed, such as some with homosexual content.

The company that owns Sex Is Fun has contacted attorneys. "We may have a case for discrimination here and we need to hear from the other podcasters that have been removed," said a company spokesperson.

The Sex Is Fun Podcast is still quite popular, but they say that  listenership has decreased since they were removed from the iTMS. Would they have a real case for discrimination against Apple, since the company has never taken an official stance on sexually-themed Podcasts?

"This is the danger of having one giant resource for the media that was intended to be free of censorship and regulation,"  Kidder announced during an emergency podcast in which he was telling his listeners how to find the show in the future.

"If you say something that the giant disagrees with, you can be silenced in the middle of the night and nobody will even know where you went. If it can happen to us, it can happen to any of the other podcasters too. Nobody knows who is next. It could be Violet Blue, or Dawn and Drew or any of the podcasts that Apple decides isnÂ?t iTunes worthy."

Other sex-themed Podcasts are still available, although they are still labelled "Explicit." This points out the dangers of what happens when self-appointed censors presume to be custos morum publicae. How does one define "pornography?" What constitutes "obscene?"

It will be a happier society - and world - when everyone understands and accepts the wisdom of the statement, "An it harm none, do what ye will." In any event, how long these "explicit" podcasts  remain available depends on where this case goes...more details to come.

BYP stands for Broadcast Your Podcast. With a BYP unit, you can go beyond the internet and into a local radio space. If, like me, you have dreams of being a radio 'star', the BYP unit may be the easiest way of setting up your very own radio show.

If you already have a BYP unit set-up, good for you. If not, I suggest you click the 'Read Full Article' link below for a step-by-step process of building your own BYP unit. Don't worry, it's not a tedious process (although you do need a lot of materials). After you build your BYP unit, get back to this article and follow the path to radio stardom.

Know how to broadcast your podcasts in your local radio after the jump!

Together with receiving news about Apple's new 17" MacBook Pro, its seems the UK's Sussex Ambulance service have given Apple another reason for product sales and are offering free audio downloads on how to correctly deliver First Aid in a variety of situations. All 7 situations are based on a series of accident types, for example there are burns, wounds, breathing and baby CPR. This is designed to help those who feel that if they come across a situation one day that they cannot deal with, they can follow instructions from their favorite media device. However the service does instruct all people to get some form of basic First Aid, as you never know when you might save someones life. The project was the idea of a paramedic, Stuart Rutland, who said that he hoped it might help in an emergency. "I like to go running and listen to music - but what if I turned the corner and somebody had collapsed? I have 11 years of paramedic training, but not everyone will. It's just about what to do in those moments before an ambulance arrives." The MP3's were designed with the iPod in mind, however they will work on any MP3 player you may have.

Download: [First Aid for your iPod]