PC World reports that two Congressmen have submitted a bill called the Internet Radio Equality Act that could save Internet radio broadcasters, including Pandora, from going out of business. The bill is the follow-up to a petition started by the SaveNetRadio group.

Pandora’s founder:

Following our outreach to Pandora listeners, every congressional office was flooded with constituent phone calls, emails and faxes – literally hundreds of thousands in just 5 days! The entire fax system on the Hill was brought to a standstill. We had to hand deliver the faxes! Please take a moment to call your congress person to voice your support for this legislation and urge them to sponsor or support the bill. It’s very important the we keep pressure on the legislators to ensure that this bill is passed quickly.

Dave and I are having a disagreement about the plot twist in the season finale of Battlestar Galactica (I liked it; he didn’t). Fortunately, BSG now has something of a choose-your-own-adventure option. Fans are being encouraged to create their own BSG video clips online. The Sci Fi Channel site gives you visual effects, sounds and music clips to use in your own video masterpiece. You put the whole thing together and submit it by June 1^st for a chance to have your clip aired during an upcoming episode. (“Upcoming” means 2008, which is when BSG actually continues…)

Personally, I think the Sci Fi Channel should provide actual footage of the BSG actors for fans to use. Watermark them or make them low-resolution, but don’t make people rely on the bad acting of their friends.

No, it’s not a new Starbucks flavor. Mochila is a multimedia syndication service that just launched its video player and video content today. It’s an interesting business model and I got a full briefing on it from the CEO earlier in the week. Unfortunately, time has been running shorter than usual and I haven’t had a chance to do a write-up from that briefing. More info to come. In the meantime, check out the company site if you want to learn more.

Time Warner Cable quietly launched PhotoShowTV in Staten Island last week. I say quietly because it appears there was very little press coverage. Granted the service was already operating in Hawaii, but this is the first time PhotoShowTV has been available on the mainland, so to speak. And it’s a very cool service.

SimpleStar’s PhotoShow has been around for quite a while as a simple tool for creating photo slideshows with music, graphics and even some animations. (Comcast subscribers can download the Deluxe version on Comcast.net) The TV part comes in with the combination of PhotoShow and Time Warner’s VOD service. Staten Island TWC subscribers can now create PhotoShows online and then submit them for public viewing on a local VOD station. In other words, what you create in your living room can be watched on Grandma’s TV screen across town. (more…)

I’ve written before about my love for Pandora and about the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) attempt to kill it and other Internet radio services. Now Pandora, as part of a coalition called SaveNetRadio, is fighting back.

The SaveNetRadio group (including listeners, artists, labels and webcasters) started a campaign yesterday with a petition to Congress protesting the CRB’s new licensing rate scheme. The goal is to bring attention to the issue now and then follow up by introducing a bill that would make the CRB’s recent decision to slap unfair royalty fees on Internet radio sites illegal.

With all of the things that have been done wrong in the music industry, Internet radio is one shining example of what’s been (generally) done right. Please help save Pandora! Sign the petition and pass on the URL: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

A press release crossed my inbox today with the announcement of a new camera by DXG USA. Now I have a great digital camera, but this release promised multimedia nirvana in one little device, all for just $199.

Before I get to the catch, here are some of the features of the DXG-589V. It’s a combination 5 megapixel camera, VGA camcorder, video game player, digital music player and video recorder that takes input from TVs and DVD players. Video is MPEG-4 with 30 frames per second at a 640×480 resolution. For gaming, the device has a flip screen and 20 built-in, full-color games. Not particularly exciting for a real gamer, but for someone like me who just likes to have something handy to do while waiting in line, it sounds great.

So why the second thoughts?

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Wondering what kind of foundation is beneath your favorite gadgets and gizmos? Look no farther than the start of earnings season. Among this week’s contenders in the great earnings game are Yahoo, Motorola (my employer), and Google. Followed by Apple, Comcast and Microsoft next week, and Verizon and Time Warner the following.

Recent news that may impact these financial events includes:

• Google’s announced intention to acquire DoubleClick
• Microsoft’s introduction of the Xbox 360 Elite
• Apple’s announcement of Final Cut Studio 2