The adult entertainment industry's hesitancy to enter the portable video market appears to have ended, according to The Washington Post:

One of the quickest industries to take advantage of the new video iPod, and other new gadgets, is one that has often been at the forefront of other technological innovations: porn.

Pornography is spreading from the computer desktop to the small screen, to pocket-sized devices such as cell phones, digital music players and portable game players. The phenomenon is being pushed not only by alternative-culture sites such as SuicideGirls but also by old-school skin traders such as Playboy and Penthouse, which this month announced plans to offer movies for viewing on portable devices.

At one point in the story, gay porn entrepreneur Michael Lucas employs a new gay stereotype (in the name of marketing, of course):

"I don't have one gay friend who would not have the new iPod," he said. "Gay people are much more technologically advanced."

Yeah, straight guys like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are soooooooo behind the curve.

[Washington Post] Mini-Porn Could Be Mega-Business (via Furdlog)

Usually eager to exploit new technologies, the adult entertainment industry is staying away from the video iPod -- at least for now:

When it comes to the iPod, [Brickhouse Mobile president Andrew] Fayling said there are few rewards and many risks. Fayling emphasized the pitfalls of combining a device designed for younger audiences with content they are prohibited from viewing.

"There's already a public perception that we (in the industry) are preying on youth," he said. "Without safeguards you open yourself up to more scrutiny from government and parents' groups."

To avoid such scrutiny, and litigation or legislation, Fayling said the industry will likely follow three guidelines regarding porn for the iPod: Customers will be age-verified through a credit card, no content will be offered for free and the material will be copy-protected so it can't be shared.

[Wired News] No Porn for You, Video IPod!

Apple released version 4.9 of its iTunes software this morning. The big news for this release is that podcast subscriptions are now supported. By incorporating this functionality directly into iTunes, Apple effectively renders obsolete a number of other, separate programs designed to perform the exact same task.

Personally, I hadn't even bothered with podcasts until now, mainly because most third party podcasting software seemed to malfunction frequently. Once I downloaded the iTunes update earlier today, however, that all changed. I'm now an official podcast convert.

Subscription #1: The Grateful Dead Hour (RSS feed)

To learn more about podcasting, read Wikipedia's entry on the topic.

Update (11:00 a.m.): Apparently (and predictably) I'm not the only person looking for podcasts this morning. Two notable podcast directory sites (iPodder and PodcastAlley) are currently down, presumably due to heavy traffic.