Napster Sort Of Kind Of But Not Really Free Again

Napster Sort Of Kind Of But Not Really Free Again: "

Napster announced yet another iteration today, allowing users to stream over two million tracks on their ad-supported website and to share links to artists, albums and even specific songs through email or on other websites. Sounds good, but in practice it's not so wonderful.

Catch #1: you can only play each track a maximum of five times before you have to buy it for $0.99. You can pay Napster $9.95 a month to listen to unlimited music both offline and off, except that you can't listen to the music you download after you stop paying, or join Napster To Go for $14.95, which lets you transfer your music to compatible mp3 players. How does this suck?

Letting you play a track all the way through (albeit not in the greatest sound quality) five times + the 99 cent price is a nice touch as it makes you more likely to get addicted to a song they have on offer than the short clips the iTunes store provides.

Google Accuses Microsoft on IE7 Search

Google Accuses Microsoft on IE7 Search: "Google has made informal complaints to competition authorities in Europe and the US about default settings in Microsoft's IE7. The latest Microsoft browser includes a small window so users can search without opening up a specific page. The default setting sends users to MSN for searches - just as equivalent features in Opera and Firefox send browsers to Google. A spokesman for the search giant told the New York Times it was concerned Microsoft was limiting choice. My take: ..."

Google Accuses Microsoft on IE7 Search

Google Accuses Microsoft on IE7 Search: "Google has made informal complaints to competition authorities in Europe and the US about default settings in Microsoft's IE7. The latest Microsoft browser includes a small window so users can search without opening up a specific page. The default setting sends users to MSN for searches - just as equivalent features in Opera and Firefox send browsers to Google. A spokesman for the search giant told the New York Times it was concerned Microsoft was limiting choice. My take: ..."

RIM Hit by More Corporate Extortionists

RIM Hit by More Corporate Extortionists: Just weeks after Research in Motion settled a long-running patent lawsuit with NTP, the company is facing yet another patent infringement claim. This time the lawsuit was filed in Texas by Visto, a California mobile communications company founded in 1996, and it accuses RIM of violating four separate Visto patents that relate to mobile e-mail.