Year: 2006

Samson H4 Handy Recorder

Post ImageWhile at the Portable Media Expo this past weekend, we head the pleasure of being neighbours with the guys from Samson. They make audio equipment, if you’ve never heard of them. In fact, my best microphone is a Samson C03 (they have a USB version now…mine is the original XLR). This weekend they were showing off their latest gadget, the H4 Handy Recorder:

The Zoom H4 Handy Digital Recorder fits in your palm and is ideal for recording live musical performances, interviews, podcasts, meetings, classes and seminars. The H4 allows you to record 24-bit/96 kHz digital audio as well as in MP3 format with bitrates up to 320kbps.

I really wish I had one of these things back when I was doing BlogosphereRadio. Would have made life so much easier. Some of the features include:

  • Two studio quality X/Y pattern condenser microphones for true stereo recording
  • Two combination XLR-1/4-inch input jacks with phantom power
  • Four hours of continuous recording operation from 2 AA batteries
  • 128MB Secure Digital (SD) card included.

And there’s a bunch more too. The combination input jacks are a great idea. When I saw them, I was like “why didn’t anyone else think of that!”

Maybe I don’t want a Zune for Christmas after all?

Read: Samson H4

2006 Portable Media Expo Recap

Now that I am back in Edmonton and feeling a little better, time for a bit of a recap. Dickson has posted his closing thoughts on the expo as well. It’s hard to compare last year’s event with this year’s. In some ways, there seemed to be more people this year, such as on Friday, but Saturday told a different story. One thing is for sure – there were far less “I’ve never heard of podcasting” people in attendance this year.

  • I have to agree with Dickson, the weather in Ontario was really hot. It mattered less on Saturday when I had a bad case of the chills, but still.
  • I am amazed that I met people who were happy to “do it on their own” when it came to podcast hosting. Perhaps this is because podcasting is so new? Heck, I don’t even host my own photo gallery anymore. Why not? Because Flickr does it better than I ever could. I offload all the work to them. That’s what we are trying to do with Podcast Spot too. You as the podcaster can focus on creating great content, because we take care of the rest.
  • Speaking of pictures, you can see the ones I took here.
  • I think we’re going to have to do something more interesting with the booth next year. Our “low-key, low-information-on-the-wall” style worked to an extent, but I think we can do better.
  • We need to do a better job explaining how we charge. We charge based on upload, which is the amount of stuff you send to our servers in any given month. This is in contrast to charging by storage, which is the amount of stuff you have put on the servers since you became a customer. If we charged by storage, you’d eventually hit a limit, after which you wouldn’t be able to add anything new without first removing something old. Fortunately for you, we charge by upload so you never run out of space!
  • I just re-read that, and perhaps it still isn’t clear. I’ll record something soon that should explain it a little better. Visuals always help!
  • Generally speaking, I have the feeling that the Expo is missing something that would take it to the next level. What that something is, I don’t know. I do have a small wish-list though: wireless Internet throughout the convention center, expanded awards (say a “best podcast hosting service”), and more free food/drinks!

Thanks to Tim and the rest of the team at TNC New Media for another great Expo! I’m looking forward to next year already 🙂

Back in Edmonton

Hey we’re back. Actually we got back around 2 PM today, and I’ve been resting pretty much ever since. Trying to shake this damn sickness.

I would like to do an Expo wrap-up post, but I am going back to sleep so in the meantime, here’s an interview I did with the Seattle Podcasting Network for you to enjoy!

Day 3 Notes

Today was the last day of the Expo, and it went very well for us. Well except that I seem to be sick (bad head cold). Anyway, I’d say the Expo was a success for us!

  • I should probably go to sleep, our flight leaves bright and early tomorrow morning.
  • We did three or four interviews today, but I haven’t found any of them online yet. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth!
  • My bag is full of notepads, so don’t worry, there’s plenty to go around. We have around fifty I’d say, which means over 900 were given out at the conference. They must have worked, because people came up all the time and said “hey the notepad people! what do you do?”

We’ll back in the afternoon.

Day 2 Notes

Today was the first official day of the Expo, and it was definitely intense. And by that I mean, much busier than last year in terms of foot traffic. The trade show floor was open from 10 AM until 5 PM, but by the end of it, Dickson and I were pretty drained.

  • Today was excellent for spreading the word about Podcast Spot. Dickson even managed to snag an interview! The portion with Dickson starts at 19:35 and runs for almost exactly 8 minutes.
  • I really like that the Denny’s here is more diner-like than the ones back home. I don’t like that their iced tea is actually tea on ice. I prefer the fake sweetened stuff 🙂
  • If you came by the booth and we told you that the upload limits on the cards was wrong, I apologize again, it was actually correct. We must have been tired this morning when we looked at it, but when we finally got Internet to check the website, we realized there were in fact no printing errors!
  • We managed to get some more notepads today, so we’ll be bringing some home for those of you that have requested one!
  • I have some photos and video and stuff to upload, but the Internet connection is just too painfully slow, so I am gonna wait until we’re back on Sunday.
  • The guys organizing the Expo have been great, except for “the power incident” today. We didn’t need to power anything at our booth, but all booths have a lamp at the top for the banner, and we were going to turn it on. Thing is, they wanted to charge us $90 to power the damn lamp. So I said screw that. Highway robbery.

We’ll be at the Expo all day again tomorrow, so stop by and say hello if you’re in the Ontario, CA area!

Day 1 Notes

Just a few notes from our first full day here in Ontario:

  • The season premiere of Smallville was tonight, and it was damn good. We made sure to be back to the hotel in time to watch.
  • It was hot today, but it sure cooled down this evening (not that I am complaining).
  • Was nice to see some familiar faces tonight at the exhibitor/speaker/press event at the convention center.
  • Turns out the “Starbucks” in the lobby of the hotel isn’t a full-blown Starbucks, but rather, proudly brews Starbucks coffee. Still, not bad.
  • I absolutely hate paying $10 per day for ultra slow Internet. It aggravates me to no end. At least we were prepared enough to bring our own wireless router.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Expo – should be good!

Portable Media Expo Setup

Dickson and I are just killing time here in the nicely air conditioned hotel until 5:30 when there is an event for exhibitors and the press. I mention the air conditioning because it’s a scorching 94 degrees here today, or for everyone back home in Canada, 34 degrees celsius. Edmonton had just started to get some nice weather again before we left, but it was still only about 15 degrees!

We finished setting up our booth in about ten minutes. Like last year, we opted not to do anything fancy, though unlike last year we have a banner this time. You can see what I mean in the pictures. We also decided to sponsor the conference notepads this year, and I am really happy with the way they turned out.

More later!

The Start of a Great Trip

I think this is going to be a great trip! For the first time in recent memory, Dickson and I were not scrambling to finish anything the night before leaving town. That was kind of nice for a change, we’ll have to do it more often! Today didn’t start out so great though. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, cleared customs without any problems (minus Dickson getting manhandled in the security check by an over-eager young man) and then sat down to wait for the flight. Thing is, our flight was over 20 minutes late. And with a 45 minute window to catch our connecting flight in Salt Lake City, that was somewhat distressing.

Turns out we made it just in time to make the flight, but the lady at the counter informed us they had overbooked as they didn’t think we’d make it. So we volunteered to wait for the later flight (only 2 hours later) and in return we got meal vouchers and a $200 credit with the airline (Delta). It was a pretty sweet deal! And such a difference from last year, when we missed our flight and had to pay a lot more to get to Ontario. Another nice side benefit was that our bags arrived ahead of us, so we didn’t have to wait for them to get off the plane – they were waiting for us.

We’re now in the hotel in Ontario – the DoubleTree, which is very nice by the way. They gave us a fresh chocolate chip cookie each upon checking in, and we passed a Starbucks on our way to the room. See what I mean about being a good start?

We just noticed that Podcasting News has an item on Podcast Spot too. I’m really excited for the Expo to start now!

Roland nails the Globe and Mail on Web 2.0

Post ImageFellow Canadian and photoblogger extraordinaire Roland Tanglao posted some harsh words about a recent Globe and Mail article. The article includes a fairly negative quote from Albert Behr, who says, “you’ll notice that there are no Web 2.0 companies on the [Technology Fast 50] list — they just cost too much to be profitable in this country.” I have to agree with Roland:

The prognostication that “Web 2.0 companies cost too much to be profitable in Canada” will turn out to be just as laughable as the 1990s predictions of Apple’s demise. The whole point of Web 2.0 (the read write web or whatever you want to call it) especially with affordable infrastructure like Amazon S3 and EC2 is that anybody with a great idea and great implementation skills can build a web service anywhere in the world (not just in Silicon Valley) that is useful and scalable.

Roland offers some examples, including Flickr and bubbleshare. I’d add Podcast Spot to the list. Even though we just launched last night, a lot of what Roland says resonates with me. We use Amazon S3, and I would say we have a great idea and a great implementation. Now we just have to work on becoming profitable 🙂

Perhaps it is fair to say that Web 2.0 companies are harder to do in Canada, but a little challenge never hurt anyone right?

Read: Roland Tanglao

Podcast Spot is LIVE!

Post ImageI don’t even know what to say – I’ve been wanting to make this post for so long! Okay, Podcast Spot is now live and ready for you to use. And you’ll note we’re not in beta either; we are not hiding behind a label. You shouldn’t run into any problems on the site, but if you do, let us know. And please send us your feedback too!

For those of you that don’t know, Podcast Spot is a hosting service for podcasters. We’ve been working on it for about two years now. Actually, exactly two years ago last Thursday was when I launched BlogosphereRadio, my first foray into podcasting. You can say that Podcast Spot grew out of that project – I realized that podcasting could be somewhat difficult, and took far too much time and effort. Dickson and I realized we could make things easier, and thus, we set about creating what eventually became Podcast Spot. And while the code might have changed quite a bit in the last two years, our goals have always been the same:

  • To make becoming a podcaster and enjoying podcasts easier and more enjoyable
  • To eliminate the need for technical knowledge, and reduce the amount of time required
  • To empower podcasters and their audience with features designed specifically for podcasting

I’m proud to say that Podcast Spot is a big first step towards accomplishing these goals. That said, it’s just the first step, and there’s still a long way to go. We’re eager and excited to continue improving the podcasting experience, with Podcast Spot and other products too.

Dickson and I recorded a quick little introduction message earlier this evening, which you can listen to at Podcast Spot. Even if you don’t want to be a podcaster, I encourage to check the site out! If you have comments or feedback, we’d love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on one of our blogs, post to our forums, or email us. And if you’re going to be at the Portable Media Expo later this week, come see us in booth #408!

Read: Podcast Spot