With a little bit more time on my hands, I’ve had the chance to think about some of my other blogs - and I quite quickly came to the conclusion that I had too many. Who really needs seven blogs? Really? A couple of them were on hiatus, never to be added to again. Some of them have an unknown future, but whatever future they do have, it will take place here.

Part of the BBC’s review of what they’re doing now and how they want to keep doing it in the future involves looking at their presence on the web. I found an interesting post on the Internet Blog regarding the use of direct URLs on the BBC, and how freaking many of them there are! The plan is to reduce the list and in doing so, it will help them to reimagine the way the site works. I think.

Dorling Kindersley have released one of their internal videos that was created for a sales conference within the group. Apparently it was such a hit that they wanted to release it externally and give it a wider audience. It’s good, although you have to have some patience to make it worthwhile. We found this via the OUseful.Info blog and there are some interesting thoughts over there on how it is not an original idea but a fascinating storytelling device.

The background Viacom is suing YouTube for the copyrighted material that keeps appearing on the video sharing site. Viacom thinks YouTube should do more to stop it happening, whilst YouTube are hoping for safe harbour from the DMCA - meaning they do their best but ultimately can’t be held responsible for what users upload. The blog post On the official YouTube blog, a post appeared yesterday with some rather revealing information. The entire thing is worth a read but here are some snippets:

Have you seen a new site called Compare My Radio? It’s from some lab type people at Absolute Radio, and is currently in Beta, but it’s a very clever idea. Their short little blurb says: Compare My Radio tracks UK radio stations’ “now playing” information and makes sense of it so you don’t have to. The basic premise seems to be to find a radio station that is right for you, depending on what you want from it. You can search for an artist and find out who has played them the most

I found this video on the Inside TWiT TV blog, posted by Dane Golden, who is unfortunately credited as Dave in the video itself. It’s a 20 minute look inside the TWiT cottage including chats with Leo, Dane and Colleen - the engineering genius behind it all. Well worth a watch, particularly if you are crazy Leo fans like us. The video builds on something I wrote about previously - whether watching live streams is the future.

Behold! I am back with another podcast, and in a relatively reasonable timeframe as well! I had planned to do this a few days earlier, but a sore throat kept me from my microphone. Hopefully all the stories are still relevant! I’m sure there are budgetary reasons for this as well On episode seven of Media. Future. Change. we investigate the buzz behind Google Buzz, who is living in a box, why there are cutbacks at the BBC, and how you can keep track of your dog.

I’ve mentioned in a couple of MFC episodes that YouTube are doing more and more to bring content into the site, moving away from the home video side of things, and dealing with broadcasters and networks. I’ve not really invested too much time in watching what’s available, although I do keep my eye on what deals they’re making. It came to my attention yesterday that our hero Leo Laporte has his TWiT videos available on YouTube now as well.

If you haven’t seen the latest music video from OK Go, then you must view it now. I know. Wow. Right? It’s taken me a while to be convinced that it is actually real but after reading a great behind the scenes piece on it, I’m gonna go with it. Some facts you need to know:

There’s been a story doing the rounds recently about the Billboard Top 40 Money Makers, with U2 topping the list. I mentioned this to Mr C, as he’s a former crazy fan who now just keeps an eye on what they’re up to. He questioned the idea, and that led to a fascinating conversation. I wanted to blog some highlights, as it raises a lot of questions. Credit: Andrew3000/Flickr

Everyone has been talking about this, so I guess I should too. I tried to resist but it is impossible to ignore. More information is available via Kottke. When it’s cold outside, people are using sausages on their touchscreens so they don’t have to take their gloves off. I find the whole idea kinda gross and would much rather use something like the Etip Gloves.

The first episode of 2010 has a brand new look, and covers a wide range of topics that have caught my eye over the past month. It doesn’t work like that anymore From the Apple iPad, to the Amazon Kindle and everything in between, MFC gets a fresh look for 2010. Topics in this show also include how to keep wiki sites in business, and what would happen if you printed Twitter.

I’m currently listening to some old episodes of Net@Night, one of the TWiT stable of podcasts, and Leo Laporte was talking about feed readers. The episode is about a year old now, and even back then he was discussing the fact that everyone gets their news from Twitter, they choose a few key sites to visit every now and then, and that having a news reader is just too much information.

A news item I have been catching up with on Buzz Out Loud recently has me a little bit stunned. In Chicago, a young woman was at a birthday party where they rented out an entire cinema for the duration of a screening of New Moon. She was filming some video of the party-goers and managed to get about three minutes of the film on camera as well. This is odd to me because I can’t imagine the cinema letting a camera get in the screening in the first place, but still, perhaps just a short word to say: “Please don’t film here.”

Ooh, at last, something from the movie industry that is both progressive and good! Presumably in an attempt to both halt the many unauthorised film clips available, and perhaps monetise it along the way, Paramount have opened up a site that allows you to select a clip from a movie, and purchase the licence to it. From the article where I learned of such things: Paramount will initially restrict use to business customers — advertising agencies, mobile carriers, foreign broadcasters — that want to license pieces of films for commercial use. The plan is to ultimately open the site to consumers. People wanting to embed a specific scene from “The Godfather” on their blog could go to ParamountClips.com and buy it.

I have returned with another episode of Media. Future. Change, catching up with some of the news from the past few weeks. Google have been dominating things recently, with lofty goals and tons of new products, but there’s plenty more to discuss in this episode. It’s down to the user to be sensible Coming up today we’ll discuss how you can celebrate New Year at home, why Switzerland isn’t a fan of Google, and when video viewers are switching off.

Mashable has a brief article about a new advert taken out in the USA Today newspaper from chewing gum company Trident. Supposedly the tweets were discovered naturally, rather than the writers being sponsored to talk about the gum, and everybody was consulted to make sure they approved being included in the ad itself. A bizarre concept of micro-blogging turning back into print media.

For a long time, the Christmas Number One single in the UK has been rubbish. I don’t remember the last time there was a decent song at the top, but then again, there haven’t really been an enormous amount of worthy festive songs released recently anyway. For the past few years, the Yuletide number has been dominated by the Simon Cowell sponsored X Factor winner, and that’s usual a cover version of a song that has nothing to do with snow or Santa or anything.

The BBC released some statistics to coincide with the iPlayer’s second birthday ahead of the festive season. Some facts: Average of 5 million unique users a week iPlayer on mobiles peaks on weekday nights between 7pm and midnight The top streaming series for the year (Top Gear) generated more than 1.5 million streams, whilst the top radio was just 183,000. Supposedly Mac users prefer comedies, while PC users prefer dramas. Just after these numbers were released, the BBC Trust provisionally approved plans for the Beeb to get involved with the Project Canvas initiative.

I’m not sure how long this has been around for, but I noticed today that YouTube have a new section called Shows. This is an expansion of the idea that broadcasters and networks have been signing up and posting clips of their TV programmes to YouTube in an attempt to a) stop people ripping their stuff and b) still use the site as a marketing tool. Now, though, there is the option to watch full episodes of selected shows. The first thing to note is that the list of networks is extensive. They are including both online and television networks alongside each other - which is good. The lines between these two formats are becoming blurred.

For a while now, Mr C and I have been engrossed in the Spotify world, only just managing to stop from signing up for the premium service to get rid of the pesky ads. It is too much money and not quite worth it, but only just. Now though, I’m starting to wonder what we ever saw in it. The fact you can play music from many different genres, decades, albums for free is good, but there are drawbacks.

Browsing through Kottke, I stumbled across this interesting item about a potential future for the magazine industry. It links through to the original article, and a brilliant video. It’s a little dry, but the production is great and the concept is fascinating. Things I found of note:

I saw this story ages ago, was going to blog about it but promptly forgot. A father looking for his long lost daughter bought a domain of her name and set up a simple message saying: When you read this, please send me an email. Of course, nothing happened for a long time, but eventually the girl in question, April Becker, googled herself and found the site. She emailed the address and after some verification on both sides, father and daughter were reunited. At the time, she wrote on her Facebook page:

Some more pretty graphics to display those lovely new media stats. This time, the iPlayer and how it is growing: Read more and view the full image here.

From Mint.com: View the full image for more stats.

Here is the fourth episode of Media. Future. Change. It’s taken a while to come to fruition, so it is packed with interesting news snippets. With Formula 1 heading into the off season, you might find a few more of these episodes floating around soon. This is what goes for news these days This week we’re going to talk about a USB stick you might want, Google taking over the world, or music at least, and news that isn’t really news.

Alex has written an interesting post about the types of things people pick up on when they see you using an iPhone. Once, when I was watching Friends, I heard two people talking next to me about how, having seen that, they were going to get iPhones. And on two separate occasions, people have asked me how difficult it is to get shows on there. And the answer is - it’s simple.

The idea with these shows is to keep them under ten minutes, so as to be a nice concise wrap up of all things media. Episode three is already a failure, but there is a bumper lot of news to get through, and we only just missed the target. Everybody is watching sport on the internet Today we’re talking about football on the internet, images with disclaimers, and broadband as a legal right.

Amazon have finally got around to offering up the Kindle to parts of the world outside the US, although at the moment it seems to still be a US Kindle. The UK site redirects to Amazon.com for purchasing, and you buy the device and subsequent books in dollars. It also ships with a US charger, which would need a converter. It seems as though this is a rush decision to capitalise on the markets eager to get their hands on a Kindle (ie. me). However, I’m not convinced. Buying in USD doesn’t really appeal, and I’m not sure how or if they’ll change that in the future.

Here we are with the second episode of this rough and ready podcast. Don’t be expecting them on any schedule, mind you, just because I’ve done one for the last two Thursdays, and just cos I mention next week. Shh. Kinda Hard to Describe in Audio This week we discuss all things piracy and newspapers, plus an iPhone app, a Google Labs project, and a really expensive gadget. All that and more in our whirlwind round up of all things future media.

Okay, fine, I’ll hold my hands up and admit it, not only am I a blogaholic, I am also a podaholic. Instead of writing several posts on our very new project Media Future Change, I thought I’d dive straight in and create a podcast. It’s a simple trip through some of the news of the past week or so, looking at how the media is changing or resisting the changes that are coming. It sounds kinda weird, I know, so let me clarify. The first show looks at video advertising in magazines, music editing on the web, and why there’s no camera in the iPod Touch. It’s only six minutes, so you may as well have a listen, and let me know what you think!

I found myself with quite a few stories to discuss today, and rather than spend time trying to string sentences together on the page, I thought I’d bite the bullet and get on with the podcast. If You Want More Than 140 Characters A roundup of media news over the past week, including behind the scenes of TV shows, editing podcasts in the clouds, and a small victory for ebook fans.

Here are a couple of Twitter bits and pieces I have found that I wanted to share - when Twitter does good. Cabbie’s tweet reunites lost Blackberry with owner - a simple tweet saved a lot of headaches, which is a really nice story. However, the way Twitter is organised at the moment makes this kind of thing really unusual, as you have to be searching for something specific and just happen to see the tweet in question.

It finally happened - the App that has been hitting headlines for weeks now has made it into both the Android and iPhone store. There was a lot of doubt over whether Apple would allow the app into their store, particularly over in this corner of the web. However, it’s there, it exists, and it’s time to see what all the fuss is about! Here’s a first impression review of the iPhone app.

Not only have I just uncovered a new site covering the world of eBooks, but it is a site that is asking for contributions. Yay! Starting from the beginning, I read the Random Acts of Reality blog which is written by an ambulance technician (I’m not sure they’re still called that, sincere apologies), and is a really fascinating read. The author, Tom Reynolds, also compiled a book on the same subject, and is now starting this new venture: Paper Not Included. There isn’t much on the site yet, but just the title got me excited.

The Telegraph has been doing some digging into when Hulu will reach European shores and although it looks like deals are still be negotiated, progress is being made. Of course, they only have “a source” for their article but it claims that ITV are the closest to signing a deal with the online video provider and that would most likely have some exclusivity associated with it. The source says: Hulu has been in talks with all the major British broadcasters but has made the most progress with ITV. It has offered each broadcaster the chance to take equity in the company in exchange for full-length programme rights.

Another reason print is dead (to me). Once a month, F1 Racing falls through my letterbox on a Saturday morning at 8am with a massive clonk and wakes me up. PDFs do not do this.

The BBC have teamed up with online video service Blinkbox to deliver some of its TV Shows for a price, plus a few programmes for free that come with ads. It’s important to point out this is BBC Worldwide, which is the commercial arm of the Beeb, and essentially completely separate from the non-advertising public service broadcaster. I have never heard of Blinkbox before, but it looks as though it is a UK version of Hulu, gathering content from all over the web, from many different providers.

An interesting thought about the Kindle that hadn’t occurred to me. I wonder how many people have not only fallen for the sheer alleged convenience of Kindle, but because it has filled their minds with works they would not otherwise have touched. Could Kindle be a way to re-educate the world? Could it help us to bypass those scheming, artsy book designers and finally be true to our own genuine interests?

The BBC have always been good at pushing forward new music, even as the industry changes around them. It used to be supremely hard for unsigned artists to get their music heard, but with MySpace and Podsafe music, it’s easier for word to spread. Although this is better for artists, I imagine it might make the BBC’s life a little harder - there is such a wealth of music out there, you have to wheedle out the good stuff. I can speak from experience and tell you that trawling through podsafe music is not fun!

Eidos are taking a leaf out of Radiohead’s book, and charging only a processing fee for their new game. Users are requested to pay what they think the game is worth. The Championship Manager 2010 game is available until September 10th, when the full game hits the shops and the price rises to £29.99. There’s a rather snazzy video of the press conference, and Eidos say: We’re keen to see as many people as possible playing Championship Manager, and think this is a great way to get people playing. There is a small transaction fee to cover costs encountered in delivering you the game and a 1p minimum charge, but the cost for the full version of Championship Manager 2010 is yours to choose…

Over in the US, the purchase of digital music over CDs is rising. The NPD Group released some statistics suggesting that digital sales now make up 25% of the overall sale of music, and that figure is only growing. From the press release: Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking retail footprint for physical products," said Russ Crupnick, vice president of entertainment industry analysis “But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010.

I’ve just discovered this really interesting page on Flickr (via The Next Web) which collates information from all its users and shows us which camera is the most popular. The iPhone has made quite the leap, and other graphs on the page, show that it is by far the most popular supplier of photos from cameraphones. All the point & shoot cameras are Canon’s as well, which is just plain wrong, if you ask me. We all know the best P&S camera in the world is from Lumix.

Mashable posted an article a couple of days ago, with a rundown of 12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive. The majority of the pointers seem to reiterate the notion of not trying to fight the web, to embrace it, and to go niche to protect your brand in print. This makes perfect sense, because the best way to keep newspapers and magazines going is to ensure they provide something that the internet cannot. Glossy pictures and feature articles work better on paper, whilst up to date news doesn’t fit the print model any more.

Whilst I’ve been getting more and more attached to my T-Mobile G1, it looks as though the Android development team are going through the opposite emotions. According to this story on Engadget, G1 users really need to make the most of their recent Cupcake software update, because it will probably be their last! Supposedly, HTC put a limited amount of internal flash space into the G1, and the Android operating system will soon outgrow it. There is plenty of information emerging about the next ‘Donut’ update, but there’s not much point in going through it here, as I still have months and months to go on my G1 contract and won’t be able to enjoy any of the new stuff until I can get my hands on an updated handset.

Part two of a media-related post on our sister site Sidepodcast. Do some keywords fare better than others? Which headlines provided the most interest? Everything is completely transparent, it’s quick and easy to tailor things on the fly and straightforward to vary advertisements according to budget. We have, in the past, run an advertising campaign purely for the live commenting of races. At most that means running ads for a maximum of four hours before closing them again. Try doing that in print.

Part one of a media-related post on our sister site Sidepodcast. Linking makes the social, well, more sociable and without it conversation takes considerably more effort. Which is why we know print is dead. It’s been a long time coming, but social networking has finally rendered the printed page obsolete. Remaining marginally rational for a moment, it’s probably worth adding that the length of the printed material and the type of content held within appears to have a bearing on just how dead it might be. Short passages of content would seem to be first on the chopping block. Quick snippets of content are easily replicated online. Longer pieces may earn a reprieve, and a novel’s worth of content might hang on for a long time to come. Equally print’s lifespan could be categorised by type, with news being the first to suffer, while fictional content may survive in print format for many years.

Sony has announced two new ebook Readers - the Pocket and the Touch. Specs, more pictures, and a brief review available on CNET. At least this one is available in the UK. Are you listening Amazon?

Rupert Murdoch and his many, many media enterprises announced huge losses recently, and that has prompted the newspaper giant to announce that their online news presence will not be free for much longer. Murdoch says he is aware that this will cause copyright problems, and they’ll tighten up on that considerably. However, he is looking forward to cashing in on the celebrity gossip hunters who visit such sites as The Sun and The News of the World.

It’s no secret that Radiohead aren’t afraid to try something new with their distribution models, particularly in the scope of online delivery. Their free release of In Rainbows, where consumers were encouraged to pay what they felt it was worth, garnered them a lot of media (if not money). Now, Thom Yorke has spoken out in Believer magazine, admitting that CDs were never his favourite: There’s a process of natural selection going on right now. The music business was waiting to die in its current form about 20 years ago. But then, hallelujah, the CD turned up and kept it going for a bit. But basically, it was dead.