Alltel Wireless will be the first in the US to combine podcasting and mobile phones, after inking a deal with podcast community Melodeo, Inc. Called Axcess Mobilcast service, subscribers will be able search and listen to podcasts on their mobiles for about $4 a month.

Perusing my feeds the other day, I came across a press release from Schwartz Communications announcing the launch of a podcasting service.

A key aspect of lead generation is to engage people as early in their buying process as possible, because that’s where you can make the biggest difference. Simply put, engage early and often.

“Go, Beach Bums!” Alright, so they could have done better with the name, but last year when it was announced that the Frontier League, an independent professional baseball league, was granting Traverse City an expansion team, I was excited.

Nielsen Netratings issued a press release yesterday (PDF) with some interesting stats on podcasting in the US. Here’s how it starts:

ClickZ has details of a misleading study conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings that suggests podcasts are more popular than blogging. Be sure to catch the subtleties in the study’s claims…

I was intrigued by the PRWeek headline: “Free podcasts become driving force in BMW branding push.”

I don’t agree with his position, but Steve Forbes makes some good points against Network Neutrality on PodTech.net today. Catherine Girardeau (who’ll be my coworker at PodTech starting on July 6) did an awesome job interviewing Steve.

In an effort to attract a younger demographic, CNN is set to launch a new series of podcasts. The Cable News Network already offers some more traditional content in podcast form, but the fresh offerings will be of a decidedly more offbeat variety.

Taking college courses from the comfort of home may become a reality, at least for some students. No more 8 AM lectures, no more tramping across campus through a snowstorm or in the baking heat. Not for students of Bradford University’s Dr. Bill Ashraf, who has ditched traditional lectures, turning instead to podcasts.

Here’s a good example of a mainstream medium that gets it’ concerning its journalists blogging.

Eric Mattson of MarketingMonger is on a mission to have 1,000 conversations with marketers, and to present them all as podcasts.

Here’s the choice: support a medium where a company could reach an audience where 100 percent of them have an interest in the company’s products, or keep tossing money into mediums where 98 percent of the audience sees the message as an intrusion.

Speakers at a morning session at the Syndicate Conference discussed ways to use one form of syndication, the podcast, to build and enhance a brand name.

New guidelines have become available for podcasters with the intent of helping them avoid legal woes. The Podcasting Legal Guide specifically addresses issues related to remixing audio clips that may or may not be the legal property of the podcaster.

A number of items have crossed my desk that lead me to conclude that podcasts are growing more and more interactive, a neat trick for a medium that has been decried as nothing more than glorified downloadable audio.

Podcasting is a great new medium, but creating a podcast is only half of the work. Promoting a podcast is equally critical to its success.

A pugnacious pursuer of ColdFusion information can discover knowledge and product tips through podcasts available online.

Clients of some investment firms will soon have the opportunity to download podcasts of financial research for easy listening.

In the case of the Web 2.0 Watermill, there are primarily four areas where technology is beginning to facilitate a vastly improved Internet: knowledge collection, knowledge discovery, knowledge building, and knowledge sharing.

This year’s Pubcon in Boston was held at the Elephant in the Castle, a good sized Boston bar/pub.