LC Angell at iLounge posted that Apple has sent out an e-mail to its roster of iTunes video bloggers recommending that they increase the resolution of their video blogs. We're not talking Washington Post-level High Def videos here. Instead, Apple recommends that those podcasters still using 320x240 videos upgrade up to 640x480 or 640x360. Welcome to the age of Apple TV.

It would seem that It is no longer cool to format your video blogs for iPod-only viewing.

As of late I have totally gotten into Video blogging, both consuming and creating them. I have a nice camcorder, a copy of Final Cut HD Express, and lots to say. However, despite my general know how in regards to computers video encoding is something of a black art to me. I usually just export my videos using the 'iPod' setting that QuickTime provides, but I know that isn't the best way to do it.

Ryanne Hodson, video blogger extraordinaire, has created a screencast at Freevlog that explains how to squeeze the best video for your iPod out of QuickTime. There is no way that I could have figured this out, so if you are into video but don't know your codecs from your filters check out this screencast for some pointers.

A bunch of video bloggers got together over the weekend for the Vloggies, the first annual Video Blogging awards (think the Academy Awards only with more people filming themselves). The iTunes Store is featuring the winner vlogs in their very own section. Now, you won't find TUAW's podcast amongst the winners, but you will find lots of great video blogs. I am a fan of Josh Leo and Geek Entertainment TV myself (one day I'll be geeky enough to be featured).

Apple today unveiled iLife 06, a major update to their award-winning suite of multimedia applications. The largest updates came to iPhoto, which can now handle 250,000 photos and features better, full-screen editing options. A major new feature is called Photocasting, which will allow an iPhoto user to publish their photos to the web using RSS technology, allowing anyone to subscribe to a feed of their images and the ability to be notified of updates. You can also subscribe through your own copy of iPhoto 06, which will allow you to actually download the images and use them as if they were your own, enabling editing as well as ordering prints, cards and now calendars.

GarageBand 3 now features a "Podcast Recording Studio," along with professional podcast sounds, a Podcast Radio Engineer, iChat Interview Recording and iMovie Scoring.

iMovie HD 6 adds Apple-designed iMovie themes, real-time effects, cinematic real-time titling, enhanced audio tools and effects, multiple open projects and video podcast/blogging abilities.

iDVD 6 brings Magic DVD, widescreen DVD abilities, an enhanced map view and the much-requested compatibility with 3rd-party DVD burners to the table.

A new addition to the iLife family is iWeb, a much rumored new app that does what everyone had assumed: it will allow .Mac members to easily publish content from other iLife apps such as podcasts, imovies, photos, blogs and more to their .Mac space. It features Apple-designed templates, easy flexible site creation, and iLife media browser and one-click .Mac publishing. I guess there was a reason behind that 1 TB bandwidth upgrade back in Dec.

Even with all these great new features, iLife 06 still sells a single license for only $79, with a 5-license pack for $99, and is available today at the online store. I'm sure local stores will have it in soon, as well.