Adobe have released a beta of their Soundbooth application.

Soundbooth is best described as being comparable to the open-source favorite Audacity. It’s simple and to the point (they say “in the spirit of Sound Edit 16 and Cool Edit 2000″) - not too much in the way of in depth control. It’s designed for a more video-oriented audience though, rather than the audio professionals who are likely to jump to Audition or an even more dedicated environment such as DigiDesign’s Pro Tools.

I won’t stick too much commentary here, it’s already been blogged to death by the likes of DownloadSquad, DVGuru, etc.

You can find Soundbooth at Adobe Labs.

Over the past few days, Ze Frank and Andrew Baron have had a bit of a catfight over the actual viewers of Rocketboom. It began in Ze’s “the show” two days ago, and was quickly countered by Andrew Baron. The story was picked up in the blogosphere, and was covered by video blogging heavyweights like Robert Scoble.

Today, Ze has updated his site with a full-on offense against Baron’s points, outlining statistics, hypocrisy, and where the current audience measurement technology just isn’t up to snuff.

This is an interesting battle indeed, and it does confirm that “the show” ends March 17, 2007. Ze, you’re killing me!

Apparently, one talent agency have decided to focus on signing talent from sites like YouTube, according to an article from the New York Times.

The talent agency referenced here, UTA Online, spends its time scouring the web for the next Gary Brolsma or similar hit. Like Ajit at DVGuru points out, video is hot- and the talent agencies want a cut of the profits.

Frankly, I’m cynical and skeptical. These agencies are going to be wading through a lot of crap - and even if they do find someone they consider star-worthy, they’re going to have to convince them to completely change their life to take on a public identity that could damage them.

YouTube and the like are certainly fantastic places to find stars, I don’t doubt that - but it’s going to mean work — and lot’s of it. For now, its easier to have the stars come to you… a tad easier in my book.

Via DVGuru

Apple have updated their full product line of MacBook Pros to feature Core 2 Duo processors.

Apple is boasting a 39% speed increase with this update, which is helped along by an increase in the amount of available RAM (up to 3gigs) and the increase in possible storage space.

FireWire 800 is also being included in this upgrade.

Via AppleInsider

Since video cameras were put into cell phones, there has been a natural interest in creating films with the cell phones. There’s even a dedicated film festival called “CellFlix“, with the winner receiving a five thousand dollar prize for the best cell phone movie!

This is certainly interesting territory. As we becoming increasingly mobile, and cell phones become more like personal computers, we’re going to see content created specifically for them - and why not create content for a phone with a phone?!

Digital Producer has an interesting article chronicling some efforts to create “cellflicks”. This is an interesting medium, and though it isn’t one that I choose to work with, its certainly a niche that can’t be ignored!

Via DVGuru

iFilm have launched a brand new beta site for the next incarnation of their popular video hosting/sharing service.

iFilm, which is owned by Viacom International, has always stayed on the legal, content producer side of video hosting, featuring content by its parent company and sister companies (such as MTV Films, Paramount Pictures).  As such, Viacom’s holdings, such as the music video channel VH1 feature tie-ins with the service, such as the television show “Web Junk”.

This update, however, features a very prominent upload option for those users who are creating their own video.  Users always had the ability to upload with the old iFilm, however it was a relatively hidden option.  The movement of this to the homepage will make it far easier for the so called “User Videos” to permeate through and share equal billing with the Viacom content.

via DVGuru

Cory Doctorow recently made a statement that struck a chord with me:

“Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.” via

This is an intriguing statement, because, for so long, I’ve thought that content was the critical element. Cory raises an interesting point though - if stranded on a desert island, you chose to bring a DVD library over a group of friends, you’d be labeled a sociopath. He’s right, content is just something to talk about. Content spurs conversation, effectively crowning conversation as the new monarch.

How do we create a good conversation though? How do we engage our readers, listeners, viewers?

There are many ways to do this. The big media companies are starting to realize that conversation is king as well - they’re creating tools for us to hack up their content (as I’ve covered before), which spawns all sorts of discussion about the media itself. They’re afraid that these mashups will remove the focus from their original creations; they’re just realizing that these have the opposite effect — they put the spotlight back on.

The secret project I mentioned a few days go involves conversation, quite heavily. In our meeting about the project today, the team and I came up with an even more exciting way to keep the conversation up, and I’m extremely excited about it. I think you will be too.

In the meantime, why not start a conversation yourself? Comment below or email me (editor [\at/] youmakemedia [\dot/] com). I’d love to hear from you!

Avid has a series of 14 tutorials for editing on their Avid Free DV software.

The tutorials cover all the basics of Free DV, which is a fantastic free version of Avid’s professional editing offerings. Free DV is amazingly well stocked with features for it’s lack of a pricetag (the next version up being $495!). Even though it’s ability to output is limited to Quicktime, it presents a fantastic introduction to the confusing interface of Avid.

Because the entire Avid platform is an industry standard for editing - it is used in major productions such as Lord of the Rings, the presence of these tutorials is great for those who are looking to get a basic primer in professional editing applications (and I’m sure they’ve already been used by some going into this field).

Tom Jeffries, CEO of Divvycast posted a comment with an update on Divvycast and I thought I’d re-post that here:

[T]he inital response to Divvycast has been so strong that we have been able to open up a free hosting level that will allow bands approximately 1000 downloads of a 5 minute clip featuring music, tour dates, and interviews. We’re very excited about this new addition.

Tom Jeffries
CEO, Divvycast

This is a great improvement, since as I mentioned in my initial review I was rather upset about the cost of the service. Hopefully this will help them gain some users who can “move through the ranks” to the top subscription levels.