RealNetworks is set to launch a web-based version of its Rhapsody subscription music service, becoming the latest company hoping to capitalize on growing consumer interest in software and services that can be accessed anywhere via the internet.
The web-based Rhapsody service will let users listen to the songs from its catalog over the internet without downloading the desktop application that is currently required.
That will open RealNetworks' service up to people using Apple Computer or Linux-based systems.
The web-based Rhapsody will only allow listeners to stream the music. Anyone wishing to download and buy a song will still need to have the Rhapsody application on a personal computer.
Rhapsody lets people listen to up to 25 songs per month for free, or an unlimited number if they buy one of its paid programs.
Along with its new web offering, RealNetworks also unveiled the first step toward longer term plans to get other companies to use the Rhapsody service on their sites. For example, a website devoted to the songwriter Elliott Smith might eventually be able to offer users the chance to listen to Smith's songs on their site, via Rhapsody.
Net access at the lodge: Telecom Italia has signed a deal with Samsung Electronics to run trials of new Wireless Broadband, or WiBro, mobile technology at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Telecom Italia, racing to claim a bigger slice of the mobile market, said on Monday it would be the first in Europe to offer WiBro, the South Korean version of the wireless broadband service WiMax.
WiBro is designed to provide broadband on the go, offering access at speeds of up to 30 Mbps.
South Korea, a pioneer in broadband internet services, launched a trial WiBro service in locations -- including buses -- last month, as Samsung unveiled its new phone designed for WiBro.
Like a virgin: U.K. cable TV company NTL has offered to pay 817 million pounds for Virgin Mobile, aiming to create a TV, internet, fixed-line and mobile-phone powerhouse under the Virgin brand.
The approach, announced by NTL (NTLI), boosted shares of Virgin Mobile by as much as 14 percent on hopes of a counterbid from a rival mobile carrier or a sweetened offer from NTL.
Acquiring Virgin Mobile would allow NTL to add mobile services to its existing "triple-play" lineup of TV, internet and telephone services, giving it a potential advantage over rivals such as BT Group and satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
It would create a group with around 9 million customers and provide a powerful new brand for NTL, which agreed to buy its smaller rival Telewest earlier this year to create a single U.K. cable company.
Gateway to the East: When Bill Gates begins a four-day visit to India, he'll see a country moving increasingly toward open-source operating systems -- the chief rival to his company's Windows software.
Microsoft (MSFT) has long viewed India, a country of 1 billion people with a fast growing economy, as a potentially huge market, and this will be Gates' fourth visit. He'll meet with senior Indian officials, business leaders and programmers and detail Microsoft's long-announced plans to invest $400 million in India in the coming years.
But Microsoft has found itself contending with the fact that many Indian companies are increasingly turning toward open-source operating systems, particularly Linux, as a low-cost alternative to Windows.
"Gates' visit comes at a time when Microsoft's domination is very much being eroded," said Javed Tapia, head of Linux vendor Red Hat's India operations. "This time, we have a lot of success stories to show him."
India has 200,000 open-source software programmers, and "companies are switching over to open source, layer by layer by layer," said Atul Chitnis, a software consultant in Bangalore, the country's technology hub.
Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
