Very cool, glad someone else is doing this so I don’t have to…

From Techcrunch

TalkShoe is a podcasting service and directory that combines recorded conference calls with revenue sharing for show hosts. It appears to be very simple to use and the community elements make me think this service could be successful. I can’t imagine many show hosts are going to make much money off of this, but the online video world has shown that when sharing is easy people will do it.

If the world really is changing to put user generated content at the center of media, some body’s going to find the right formula for audio. This looks like a move in the right direction.

Here’s how TalkShoe works. A Windows desktop client allows up to 25 people to participate in a conversation and chat behind the scenes. Calls are automatically recorded and entered into the site’s podcast directory. Show hosts receive money from the site’s ad revenues according to the number of their show’s listeners and for referring others to the service.

Google ads, ads in feeds and audio ads inserted in the podcasts themselves will all be used to monetize the site.

Conversations can be public or private and site visitors are encouraged to call in to live recordings underway. Participants can use telephone, Skype, Vonage or Yahoo to call in. The company says that SIP support is coming soon.

Finished podcasts are entered into the TalkShoe podcast directory where users can write reviews and leave comments. The site is set up to encourage subscription and scheduling of future episodes. There’s not a whole lot of activity on the site yet, but it looks like it could really catch on.

Featured podcasts so far include shows on Barry Bonds’ home run race, wine making at home, traveling in Italy and a debate between Mac and PC enthusiasts.

Many people say that podcasting is still too difficult for non-technical users. TalkShoe seems pretty simple. If there really are a large number of people interested in creating or listening to home-made audio content, this service could be a good way for them to do so.

Read the whole article with photos and comments at TechCrunch.

From Podcasting News:

Sony has introduced an update for the PlayStation Portable, version 2.70, that adds support for downloading podcasts to the device for playing offline. Previously, the PSP only supported streaming media content.

It appears that Sony is avoiding use of the term podcast, though. In their information, podcasts are called “RSS Channels.”

The update lets PSP users save audio podcasts from an RSS Channel (podcast feed) onto Memory Stick Duo media. Version 2.70 also adds support for Macromedia Flash Player 6 content.

The PSP now supports saving podcasts three ways:

* Select only 1 item to save – Select the item that you want to save, and then select [Save] in the options menu.
* Save items within a channel – Select the channel that contains the content you want to save, and then select [Save] in the options menu.
* Select multiple channels and save items within those channels – Select the channels, and then select [Save Multiple] in the options menu.

A sample podcast and tutorial is available at the PlayStation site.

The update is for customers who own PSP (PlayStation Portable) system model number PSP-1001 sold in North America. The update is a free download from the Playstation site.

App Streamlines Converting Video for Web, iPods, PSPs
From Podcasting news –

Unfortunatley it appears thatt his app is made for the mac and no PC / windows version is currently available…

Digigami today announced it is shipping MoviesForMyPod/PSP 1.0, a batch movie converter that is designed to make it easy to convert a collection of QuickTime videos for delivery to Web, Video iPod 5G and/or Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) devices.

“Most Podcasters and internet sites (including video.google.com) are currently offering two distinct downloadable movie types in order to serve both the Video iPod and Sony Playstation Portable (PSP). Yet both devices utilizes the MPEG-4 SP file format.” said Digigami CTO, Gen Kiyooka. “What we have done is taken the sheer simplicity of our program and added the necessary magic in order to create one output MPEG-4 movie file which plays perfectly on both devices. So you can offer a single movie file on your web site which syncs and plays flawlessly on both devices. We continue to use Apple’s MPEG-4 encoder because in our tests, the encoder produced superior audio quality.”

MoviesForMyPod/PSP a Universal Mac OS X binary, and is also designed from the ground up to be multi-core aware, to take advantage of single, dual and quad-core CPUs, Intel or PowerPC.

MoviesForMyPod/PSP is designed with the video prosumer or professional in mind. According to Digigami, “Podcasters will enjoy the fact that QuickTime metadata is preserved when making podcast movies. And internet webmasters will find their job simplified by the automatic creation of PSP thumbnail files.”

System Requirements
MoviesForMyPod/PSP requires QuickTime 7.0.3 (or higher) and iTunes 6.x (or higher).
Intel, PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 Macintosh Computer with OS X Tiger (10.4 or higher)

Pricing and Availability
MoviesForMyPod/PSP is free to individuals, podcasters, students, educational users and small “sole proprietor, less than three (<3) employee” business. Corporations pay just $89.00 under an honor license system. The free version is offered without technical support, and the paid version includes Digigami technical support services.

Download here.