Jef Raskin has passed away, at only 61.

Real Networks is having a hard time exciting Wall Street.

When RealNetworks founder and chief executive, Rob Glaser, pitched his stock yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium, the room was half empty and only a handful of investors stayed around to ask questions.

Digital media is hot, but RealNetworks apparently is not, at least in comparison with Apple. Apple boss Steve Jobs didn't make it to Goldman's conference, but the company's chief financial officer came and drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 institutional investors.

Ouch.

Power of the iPod Dept. It ain't just for music....

Rafat Ali gives an update on the ever-evolving portable media players market:

The considerable and constant morphing of portable media players and mobile phones into swiss-army-knife devices is taking its toll on PDAs. Sony already had pulled back on the elegant but high-priced Clie in its overseas markets but now is halting development in Japan. Sony is trying to spin the move away from getting out of the PDA business; a spokesperson told IDG: It's a chance for us to recharge our batteries, to sit down and consider the business." But it's hard not to see it as a big step back. Will Sony put PDA operations in its portable media players? Its already moving into MP3 phones.

Meanwhile, Apple acknowledges the competition by expanding iPod options and lowering some prices. For instance, the 4GB $249 iPod mini that didn't compare so favorably price-wise to the 5GB $225-ish Creative Zen Micro is now a better deal at $199. Ditto for the new 6GB iPod for $249. The iPod Photo has better price points and more functionality. Apple isn't going to be able to own the market forever but moves like this should help it rule a lot longer.

Welcome to podcasting, the medium that promises a future where anyone can make radio, instead of just listen to it. The biggest podcast audiences now number in the mere tens of thousands. Yet real radio, the kind with bona fide mass audiences, is starting to use the technology to make its shows available for download.

More.

Peter Chernin has some rules to ensure survival for new media companies....
(pdf link)

Bad news for the newspaper industry:

"Print is dead," Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? "Get over it," meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism.

Rare is the paper these days that is not embracing the Web. In addition to their own sites, papers such as the New York Times, the Miami Herald and the Houston Chronicle e-mail free headlines and news summaries to people who don't have time for the newspaper but carry BlackBerrys and other electronic gizmos.

More from the Washington Post.

Home Bartending Dept. I always enjoy the Stoli Dolis at Capital Grille. While it's advertised as pineapple-infused Stolichnaya vodka, you know there's something extra. Once when I asked for the recipe, the waiter said it was a secret.

Not anymore. The infusion factor is over-sold. A good stoli-doli is basically Stoli (infused or not) with Cointreau and Dole pineapple juice. In other words (hush hush) a Cosmopolitan with Dole instead of cranberry juice....

Massimo Polidoro gives Dan Brown a history lesson. What a surprise....

Windows' security holes are becoming an increasing nightmare for small businesses (and large). Which is why I think you are going to see more stories like this....

"David Talbot, a pioneer of online journalism who founded Salon magazine in 1995, will announce today that he is stepping down as the magazine's editor in chief, chief executive and relentless cheerleader. He will be replaced as editor, he said, by Joan Walsh, his longtime deputy."

More from the Times story.

Everyman continues to find new audiences...I just discovered a link to the movie from Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina....

Real Networks a target for acquisition? Maybe Steve Jobs should look into this. A better opportunity for Apple to expand its market share (in media if not in computers).

Good Question Dept. Mark Morford at SF Gate asks, "Why does Windows still suck?"

Apparently iPods are big with employees of Microsoft—and Bill Gates ain't happy about it....