Category Archives: adam curry

Reserve Your Todd Cochrane Signature Podcaster Pro Now!

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Podcaster ProThis week marks the launch of the Podcaster Pro Indiegogo campaign. I’m sure Todd has mentioned the campaign on the show. But just in case, the Podcaster Pro is a new all-in-one audio production device designed in part by The Podfather himself, Adam Curry:

The Podcaster Pro is a USB Audio device that has been over a decade in the making by Adam Curry. The Podcaster Pro, your laptop, and an XLR mic are all you need to make podcasts that sound like they were recorded in a professional recording studio! The Podcaster Pro brings Mic Preamps, EQ, Compressor, Noise-gate, Mix-minus, and Voice Processing in a single USB device about the size of a hardcover book.

The campaign to make the Podcaster Pro a reality has an ambitious $500,000 funding goal. As of this writing, the campaign has reached 6% of that goal, with just over $32,000 raised. To help entice potential backers to the campaign, the makers of the Podcaster Pro are offering a number of incentives, including a signature line of Podcaster Pro devices.

Each signature model comes with the signature of an influential podcaster laser inscribed into the Podcaster Pro’s casing. Those reserving a signature Podcaster Pro can choose a signature from the likes of Adam Curry, Dan Benjamin, Brian Brushwood, GNC’s own Todd Cochrane, and more. Prices for these special signature edition devices range from $647 to $727 each.

If you’re not interested in owning a Podcaster Pro but would like to contribute to the campaign, you can donate any amount you’d like. At the $33 level, backers get access to Club 33 (a not-so-subtle nod to Adam Curry’s podcast No Agenda), which is described as an exclusive portal to content made by Adam Curry specifically about the Podcaster Pro.

If you’d like to learn more about the Podcaster Pro’s Indiegogo campaign, click the link at the top of this article.

Todd Cochrane Being Inducted into Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame

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AoP LogoSome exciting news came down the tube earlier this week when the Academy of Podcasters, a new group created by the founders of the Podcast Movement conference, announced that the man who puts “Geek” into Geek News Central, our very own Todd Cochrane, will be inducted into the Podcasters Hall of Fame.

Todd will officially be honored along with five other podcasting luminaries; Adam Curry, Danny Peña, Leo Laporte, Mur Lafferty, and Scott Sigler at a ceremony held in Dallas on Friday, July 31. The ceremony will also include the first ever Academy of Podcasters Awards and it will take place the night before Podcast Movement officially kicks off.

Todd is being recognized for these reasons (according to the Academy website):

Todd has been executive producer of Geek News Central, an audio and video tech show, the past nine years. Cochrane is also the co-host of the New Media Show and is the founder of the People’s Choice Podcast Awards and the Tech Podcast Network.

In 2005, Cochrane wrote Podcasting: the Do it Yourself Guide, the first book on podcasting. Cochrane is the CEO of RawVoice, representing 17,000 media creators and podcast networks. RawVoice provides podcast data analytics, media hosting and advertising ppportunities.

Of course, we all know that Geek News Central started in 2004 and has been running longer than nine years. Regardless, it’s great that the Academy chose to include Todd in its inaugural group of inductees.

On behalf of all of the Ohana – congratulations, Todd!

Big App Show For Android

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Adam Curry is a clever guy. Back in 2004 he was working on the concept of podcasting. Now he is pioneering smartphone apps.

About 6 months ago, Adam Curry came out with a free iPhone application called “The Big App Show.” Each day, day in and day out, Curry records a new video of himself demonstrating an iPhone app.

The Big App Show is now available for Android. The concept is the same, except with the Android app the apps Curry demonstrates are obviously for Android and are available in the Android Marketplace.

The Big App Show is a very witty app that really takes advantage of the power of Android and iPhones. Curry is adding value by demonstrating the apps right on the screen as he talks rather than giving dry descriptions. He puts out a new app video on both the Android and iPhone platforms every day of the year.

Bravo Adam! I think you are on to something!!!

Waxing Nostalgic

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The year was 2005. The month was November. The setting was the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. The event was the first podcast media expo. The phenomenon of podcasting, brought to life by Adam Curry and Dave Winer, was a bit over a year old. At least a couple of thousand podcasters as well as many podcast listeners showed up from around the world to meet each other face to face for the fist time.

Looking back in my own mind and the minds of many others who attended, it was as if there was a special magic that happened at Ontario. This first event brought a bunch of strangers together, yet it had the happy feel of a family reunion. Soon enough it would be over and time for us all to go our separate ways.

The Ontario Convention Center turned out to work especially well for in-person social networking for people who were heavily involved in this brand new form of social media. It was very easy to identify other attendees because of the convention badges. Most people were staying in the nearby hotels, particularly at the Marriot across the street from the Ontario Convention Center. People ended up milling back and forth between the convention center and the Marriot. Many people ended up meeting each other and striking up conversations at random as they accidentally met each other while walking around or just hanging out.

I was always up front about the reason I attended these podcast expos. I was there to meet people and hang out with podcaster friends. I did not sign up for or pay money to attend any of the expo’s sessions. I was there to socialize. I don’t believe I was the only podcaster who thought this way. From a social standpoint, the podcast expos held in Ontario were a tremendous success. Sadly, from an expo-promoting business standpoint, perhaps they weren’t so successful.

There would be a total of three of these expos held at the Ontario Convention Center before the gathering was moved to the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada starting in 2008. The 2008 expo ended up being sort of lost in the middle of a mega-building probably most well known for housing the annual (and gargantuan) Consumer Electronics Show every January.

With literally thousands of Las Vegas tourists, combined with other conventions going on at the same time, meeting and socializing with the reduced number of podcasters that did make the effort to show up in Las Vegas in 2008 and later in 2009 became difficult. Gone were the happy accidental meetings. Pretty much gone was the accidental social networking aspect that had happened every year at the convention center in Ontario.

Those three magical expos at the Ontario Convention Center will never be repeated. Many of those early podcasters have moved on to other interests, as well as many of the early podcast listeners that also made a point of showing up. The social aspect of podcasting has seemed to wane a bit as larger commercial and educational organizations expanded into the space.

Podcasting is alive and well in 2010, and is taking its place in this new and continually evolving world of Internet-distributed digital media production and distribution. There are more podcasts available for download than ever before. Priorities change, and people move on.

Those first three podcast expos at Ontario, California were exceptional social networking events where many exceptional friendships were formed.

Podshow gets tough on Blubrry Listed Podcasters!

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We have received two request from podcasters that are contracted aka “Owned” by Podshow to have their listing removed off Blubrry.com. Podshow has told them that they cannot be listed on our site as they have classified us as a competitor. This is a pretty amazing admission by Podshow podcasters.

RawVoice the owners of Blubrry.com have always prided ourselves in the fact that we do not lock people into contracts, and that we do not interfere with a podcasters right to list his or her show where they see fit. This action by Podshow management is a very obvious move to limit shows they control exposure and earnings capability.

We have also offered shows that were listed on Blubrry.com that were also a part of Podshow, advertising deals that they never responded to. I have been told that they are not allowed to respond. I have also been told that they have to forward any ad deals straight to the Podshow sales department. It’s to bad in some of these cases that Podshow has apparently refused to allow these podcasters to earn income with other companies that are capable of putting cash in their pockets.

We have given podcasters an opportunity to make money and the Podshow management has apparently told them that not only can they not participate in any ad deals we bring to the table but they also cannot be listed at Blubrry.com

I am not surprised really as I have talked to other vendors that have offered advertising deals to Podshow listed podcasters in which those podcasters were not able to participate because Podshow has them locked into a contract. I just hope that these podcasters are actually making some money with Podshow and not just getting screwed out of the rights to manage their show.

Dave Winer takes a Swing at Apple’s Photocasting RSS Implementation

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This morning when I woke up I saw that one of our editors here at Geek News Central had done a great iLife 06 review, and when I went to look at her photocasting page via my Windows machine it said I could not view them as the browser wasn’t supported both Forefox and IE would not load the page.

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So I switched over to my Mac Mini, I loaded Firefox and tried to load the page and to my suprise I could not view the page. Finally I had to resort to using Safari and the page loaded and what they have created looks pretty cool. But I kinda of did a are they kidding me routine when it took 4 browsers to get the page to load. What the heck is wrong with Apple? They should have a big ass disclaimer that say Photocasting is limited to Safari browsers on Mac operating system only all others go away!

Then I read Dave’s post on his six month mostly positive experience with a Mac, but what shocked me is how much he paid for it, The system cost him $5500.00 and he is complaing on how slow it is (Dave did that include the monitor cost),
he like many others are no longer willing to be locked into a platform and I think that is a good stance to have.

I will be the first to admit I really like what they have done in Garageband though, for Podcasting that was a definite step in the right direction.

On a side note though it was a interesting revelation that Adam Curry the so called PodFather has switched back to an inexpensive PC to do Podcast recording because of the trouble he has had in production recently [Dave Winer]

Adam Curry has essentially let the cat out of the bag!

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It is pretty obvious to me listening to the last weeks worth of Daily Source Code that Adam has let the cat out of the bag on what they are going to be doing in part. First he has a immediate hire of a server guy who can setup a lot of servers and can manage multiple blogs, Second he tells people to start getting their show auditions ready. That to me spells Podcaster Network. Pretty ironic actually.

I have heard through the grapevine that he is cherry picking podcasts and have been presenting contracts that are shall we say restrictive, and locks one into the podshow network. I have not seen one of these contracts but I have heard enough to hope that those that sign it protect their interest and make sure they get paid. Today he asked people to start preparing demo’s that they will go through and decide which shows will make the cut to join their network.

Podcasters need to realize that it is possible to replace your current income with your shows if your are serious enough about it. Don’t sell yourself short, and make sure that any deal you agree to has your best interest in mind. Remember this is not the record industry were you get pennies on the dollar demand your fair share.

My motto remains Podcasters do the work Podcasters get paid, and we are living that motto at Podcast Connect don’t sell yourselves short!