iTunes (and) U

Apple is adding iTunes/Pods to it’s repertoire of Apple Education Slutions. They are now offering US universities free hosting services for their educational content.

Apple shares common goals with education � to advance teaching, learning, and research through innovation, and engage and empower students. Students expect a campus environment that accommodates their digital lifestyle, adapts to their individual learning needs, and encourages collaboration and teamwork. Introducing a way to simplify and meet all these needs � iTunes U.

Let’s see if Creative is able to counter this move to capture the market share. The iTunes U home page goes here.

Audio books, serialised and free to listen

Podiobooks.com is offering 19 titles to listeners in serialised fashion. Best of all, it’s free for all. Here’s more information about the site taken from the FAQs:

What are “Podiobooks”?
Podiobooks is a term coined by Evo Terra of The Dragon Page and Slice of Scifi to describe serialized audio books which are made available in podcast format. Subscribers to the podcast feed for each book will receive a new chapter each and every week. Some listeners keep it on their computers, some transfer the book to CD, but most (hopefully) transfer the file on to their mp3 player so they can listen no matter where they are.
All the books you’ll find on podiobooks.com are provided by the authors to you for free. Many authors do this to get exposure for their work, others do it in the hopes you’ll buy their next work in development. Still others simply do it for the sheer joy of writing. And while it’s not required, you have the option to donate money to the author of your choice. When you consider that audio books run usually 50% more than their hardcover counterparts… we hope you’ll be generous. Authors receive one half of all the proceeds from the donations from listeners. The other half goes to the maintenance and upkeep of podiobooks.com.
Thanks for giving our site a try. We hope you find podiobooks as infectious as we have!

[source: podcasting news]