Napster sees subscriber figures rise 50 per cent

Paid subscribers to Napster rose by 50 per cent in the last quarter of 2004, the online music service announced today. The Windows-only offering now has 270,000 subscribers entitled to stream as much music as they wish. However users must pay extra if they wish to download tracks in order to burn them to CD or copy to a compatible portable device. ...more

Google revs Dashboard widgets for Tiger

The Blogger widget enables quick and easy posting to your blog. The Gmail widget, as you might expect, checks your Gmail inbox; and the Search History Widget, well the name says it all. All three can be downloaded from Mac Dashboard Widgets. ...more

For sale notice goes up at p2pnet

The Web's predominant anti-DRM and pro-p2p file sharing voice has been put up for sale, after running out of money. p2pnet, which has been run by Canadian Jon Newton since 2002, has seen the site's income fall by 80 per cent since the music industry - or Big 4 Organized Music as Newton prefers to refer to the major record companies and their RIAA mouthpiece - began taking legal action against p2p software developers, his main source of advertising revenues. Having started p2pnet in his spare time, Newton soon gave up work as a journalist to run the site full-time. ...more

Tiscali denies UK Net business for sale

Tiscali has firmly denied reports that it has put its UK Internet access business up for sale. Several newspapers and websites repeated the claim in yesterday's Independent on Sunday that the Italian company was asking for ?600 million for its 1.4 million broadband subscribers plus the 50,000 pay-TV customers that it acquired with the purchase of Video Networks in August. ...more

Apple brokers deal to make three quarters of US cars iPod-ready

Apple has announced it has teamed up with Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Mazda to deliver iPod integration with the stereo systems in the majority of their car models. As a result, more than 70 per cent of 2007-model cars in the US will now have iPod integration options. Ford and General Motors will feature iPod integration in the majority of their 2007 models in the US beginning later this year, while Mazda's entire global 2007 lineup of cars and SUVs will offer iPod connectivity. ...more