ShieldZone Founder Phillip Chipping and CEO Robert Pedersen speak with Brad Baldwin about the benefits of protected, “naked” gadgets. Industrial designers are working hard to create the sexiest and sleekest products. Why hide the design behind a bulky, unattractive case?

Chipping took a protective film developed to

The functionality of the new Apple iPhone, which comes in 4 gig ($499) and 8 gig ($599) models, appears to be far superior to the regular iPod. Trouble is, it doesn’t store enough music for people who keep large collections at their fingertips. The iPhone may turn out to be ...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivered one of his most dazzling MacWorld keynotes as he unveiled Apple’s new iPhone. The device uses a patented touch screen system called multi-touch. Cisco, which owns the iPhone name, says it expects to close a deal with Apple on some sort of trademark royalty for ...

At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Seagate’s Senior Director of Marketing, Diana Cartwright, explains that Seagate is managing two well known brands: their own and Maxtor. Each, she says, serves in a very different and important capacity when it comes to managing personal data storage and ...

Microsoft’s Zune came out of the Christmas season with less than 3 percent of the MP3 player market share. Its overall sales rank on Amazon - a recent check showed the various 30 GB Zune models fluctuating between #77 and #512 in Electronics - has put ...

In the flurry of Apple iPhone rumours, we take a moment to talk with two long time Mac watchers about the possibility and philosophy of the “iPhone” (not the new Cisco device, but the long-rumored and name-unknown phone that may be coming soon from the company that brought us the ...

Disclaimer: Seagate sponsors my show, which I greatly appreciate — that sponsorship lets me continue bringing you all the other people and products you see here (no one else pays to be here).

Here’s our second entry in a series where we’re getting around inside Seagate to learn about what ...

While YouTube finds its footing with Google, not everyone’s concerns over the site’s reliance on copyrighted material have been settled. In particular, there’s a certain Mouse that might need some special attention. Disney fires a warning shot. Also, today is the day that Delta and its creditors will hear the ...

Microsoft has been accused of playing catch-up with Apple’s iPod for years. After its deal with Universal Music Group this week, Microsoft may be ahead of the mp3 curve for the first time. But in a good way? Also, a video-sharing update from Web 2.0 in San Francisco, Yahoo tweaks ...

Understanding what consumers are doing with new media is instrumental. Speaking together at the Dow Jones VentureWire Consumer Technology Ventures Conference, Larry Gerbrandt tells PodTech’s Jennifer Jones about iPod research that will move the needle for executives assessing podcasts.

Click here for transcript.

Shan Appajodu of RingCube Technologies talks about MojoPac - his company’s cool new technology that has been variously described as “a computer in your pocket” or “pour your PC into your pocket.”

Recently, MojoPac won the DemoGod award in San Diego, where they first unveiled their product.

Shan ...

Lower-than-expected consumer confidence rattles the markets, Sony’s in even more trouble than it was in yesterday — this time it’s the Feds, Microsoft gets open source religion and Apple releases a new iPod shuffle, just in time for the holidays. Halloween. It’s PodTech News.

Photo Credit: WordRidden, via Flickr/Creative Commons

Click here for transcript.

Last Monday, Veer Bothra (seen here on the left) asked me to join in the monthly mixer he organises, called Mobile Monday. It’s loosely tied in with an eponymous event held around the world, an opportunity for mobile platform stakeholders to meet and talk about change … and more of the same.

Veer wanted me to talk about podcasting, not the nuts and bolts, but where it’s at and its relevance to the radio paradigm. That’s a juicy opportunity, I thought to myself, and so found myself making the difficult journey to North Mumbai (needs planning and a sort of instinctive feel for which combination of segments and modes of transport make it the least painful overall).

SANTA CLARA, California, October 5, 2006 (PodTech News) — Conventional wisdom says the mobile industry is set to explode with content offerings. After all, the billions of handsets in the world dwarfs the market penetration of the iPod. “In reality that situation doesn’t suddenly explode,” says ARM Holdings CEO Warren ...

I captured the demo of ZING the new device that records music off of Sirius network and the Internet. Here is Tim Bucher, CEO, showing off his new product.

Zing stole the show with a kick ass demo.

LOS ANGELES, September 18, 2006 (PodTech News) — Only days after Microsoft announced that its Zune media player will be released in time for the holidays, Seattle-based RealNetworks unveiled plans to partner with SanDisk on a new portable music player set to arrive in stores sometime this fall. The new ...

Part 2 of 2 of Apple’s announcement of new iPods, games, movies, and the upcoming iTV.

Listen to part 1 of 2

Photos on Flickr

Steve Jobs delivered a special announcement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco this morning. Major points:
- New iPods.
- iPod games can be purchased from iTMS.
- Movies are available from iTMS.
- iTunes 7.0 includes new interface and CoverFlow (browsing by ...

SAN FRANCISCO, September 9, 2006 (PodTech News) — Anyone who calls his company Pioneers of the Inevitable has got to be either deluded or a visionary. Rob Lord is clearly the latter. He’s worked on projects and started companies, including Winamp, that have been acquired by AOL and Yahoo. In a loft he calls the “songbird nest” in San Francisco’s Mission district, the serial digital media entrepreneur is quietly incubating his latest, and potentially greatest, project. Songbird aims to play not just media, but the entire media web. PodTech’s Catherine Girardeau talked with Rob at the Atlas Cafe to find out more.

Mobile device companies are lining up for their take on mobile music players. PodTech’s Michael Johnson reports on some of the contenders.

MENLO PARK, September 5, 2006 (PodTech News) — An announcement today that Apple will be holding an invitation-only press event in San Francisco on September 12th is providing plenty of grist for the rumor mill, with the fringes dreaming of iPod-phones, and the mainstream predicting full-length movie downloads (and an upgraded iPod to play them on). PodTech’s Catherine Girardeau spoke with Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group to sort through some of the grist from the mill.

Since PodTech is expanding from its core audio podcasting expertise to include text and video blogging, I thought I would explore some of the differences of the three communication forms in a series of blog posts.

I originally stumbled across Professor Walter Ong’s work while studying language acquisition at Santa ...

BOSTON, August 25, 2006 (PodTech News) — Government representatives from Denmark, Norway and Sweden are meeting this week to discuss possible legal action against Apple. Consumer advocates say that Apple’s iTunes music store is unnecessarily restrictive, in that music and videos purchased through iTunes are only playable on the company’s iPod player. At issue is Apple’s Digital Rights Management, or DRM, which ties iTunes files to the iPod. Scandinavian countries want Apple to loosen its DRM. Apple says its products are, for consumers, the best way to get and enjoy digital music.

PodTech’s Clark Boyd speaks with Torgeir Waterhouse, of the Norwegian Consumer Council, and Peter Brown, Executive Director of the Boston-based Free Software Foundation.

Everyone has always wondered when is the iPod going to be a phone? Now there are hints from Steve Jobs according to the AppleInsider. Engadet has more on this story.

AppleInsider reports “One person familiar with the ongoings believes the Apple cofounder has commissioned the release of ...