Category: Other

Apple has now stopped iTunes users who use DVD Jon’s PyMusique hack. It made it possible to download songs without any copy-protection technology attached. But in order to plug the security hole, Apple is now requiring anyone who wants to buy songs from the iTunes Music Store to upgrade to at least iTunes 4.7.1, and it has some negative side effects.

Two weeks ago Virgin Radio became the first UK radio station to podcast a daily show. The shows are free thanks to advertising. Writes Brand Republic:

The programme will be around 40 minutes long and should be available from about 10.30am each morning for listeners to play back whenever they want. Ads will appear at the beginning and in the outro, with short ads interspersed through the programme.

This is quite interesting because it means that I will now have access to international radio even if I’m not strapped to my computer. It would also be interesting to see if this kind of advertising works or if listeners simply fast forward the ads.

Current.org has a list of broadcasters who podcast.

Former Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards is going to start podcasting next week, according to CNET.

I just recently listened to my first podcasts. I hadn’t really bothered to try it out until there was some content that I’d be interested in. But fellow PR bloggers Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson are doing a groundbreaking job with their podcast “For Immediate Release – the Hobson and Holtz Report” so I simpy had to tune in. And I must say it is a terrific show, it’s like having a one hour radio show about PR and blogging twice a week that you can listen to any time you want. Highly recommended (although I had some trouble with the latest podcast which was all messed up in my mp3-player).

UPDATE: Seems that the file is working the second time I tried it. No idea why.

Now it seems that SR, Swedish public service radio, are starting podcast trials, initially with 5 or 6 shows that will be available in mp3-format. There are still some copyright issues to be solved regarding for example signature tunes.

This is not good. Really not. According to reports from the other side of the pond, well-known blogger Jeremy Wright has been “detained, strip searched, and banned from the United States after attempting to legally cross the Canadian-United States border on a trip to New York to meet with uber-publishers McGraw Hill, who were set to sign him as a consultant to the company on blogging.”

Apparently the US Immigration officials accused him of lying as they didn’t believe that he could be employed by blogging, with one official allegedly stating “you couldn’t be doing this blogging thing for a living”.

Wright have since the incident removed certain posts from his blog for legal reasons, but knowing Wright he will post them once the whole thing is over. Hang in there Jeremy, you’ve got our support. [Link via Micropersuasion.]

UPDATE: Jeremy seems to be a-wright. Interesting comment to his post: “If Canadian bloggers had flown the planes into the Towers, I might understand.”

Dylan Jones, editor of men’s magazine GQ, reveals in Media Guardian (reg. required) that more than half of the magazine’s editorial content has emanated from PR efforts. And he does not view it as a problem.

“In the last issue of GQ, of 155 editorial pages, over half were originally generated by PR. GQ is full of PR-generated material and this usually stems from personal relationships,” he told a PR Week conference, PR and the Media.

On a similar note, this week’s edition of Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer has a long article about the ever growing importance of the PR industry (subscr. required).

Larsåke Larsson, associate professor at Örebro university, is about to publish a study about PR consultants, journalists and democracy. He says:

“PR consultants claim that they get a lot of articles in papers, while journalists claim that they can’t. But my impression is that it is the PR consultants’ view that is most correct. They do get a lot of stuff in.”