Mobile Music Streaming Service

"A new service called StreamMan has commercially launched today with TeliaSonera in Finland and will be launched across Europe with major mobile operators in the near future.

Developped by End2End in partnership with Sony Network Services, StreamMan enables end-users to enjoy a large portfolio of songs from both major and independent record labels, as well as access dynamic news content, artist information, and community features such as messaging and music exchange. More in company press release" [ringtonia.com]

Come on already!

mNews

"mNews looks quite good but perhaps quite high at $19.95- 'Sports, weather, politics, business, science, health, technology... Latest world headlines were never so easy to access on your Treo as they are now with mNews! With mNews you can download and read latest news from numerous sources of your choice from around the world right on your Treo. mNews is the RSS news reader for PalmOne Treo 600 devices. RSS news feeds is an emerging channel for delivering the news, blogs and corporate communication to the end users. All major news and information providers support RSS format which mNews can download and display.' " [PDA 24/7]

A competitor to Hand/RSS, but I still think mobile Bloglines is the way to go so that your feeds are synchronized across multiple devices.

CNET News.com Extra Feedback

"Questions or comments regarding CNET News.com Extra? Please use this form to contact us." [CNET News.com]

Not only did CNET listen to users and restore the summaries to its RSS feed, but today the above message appears amongst their posts in my aggregator. This is the first time I've seen this type of post, and it actually makes a lot of sense because as a user, I appreciated the unobtrusive pointer (as opposed to an ad). After all, RSS bigots like myself visit the full web site far less often. Even in CNET's case, I tend to view single pages, so I don't necessarily see these types of help mechanisms.

I think this is something libraries need to do more often, especially those that provide online VR/chat services. A single post on the blog - which then appears in the RSS feed - that points to the "ask a librarian" service, the readers' advisory pages (especially if the intent of the post is to highlight a new title by a popular author) , authentication pages for remote access to databases, or even just a reminder of the library's phone number would help patrons find library services.

Remember that blogs are a great way to disseminate information and market your services!

One of the things I write about in my upcoming Product Pipeline column for Library Journal is the iPod and the number of products that have been released specifically for it. Now, the iPod community has stepped it up a notch.

Anarchy on the Freeway: iPod Pirate Radio Starter Kit

"These days FM transmitters are a popular way to connect MP3 players to car stereos. Typically these are low power devices with ranges of just a few tens of feet. However, except for the FCC, broadcast spectrum law and voided warranties, there's nothing stopping you from upping the range on your transmitter and starting your own travelling pirate radio station. If you own an iPod and a Griffin iTrip, start with Engadget's how-to. Next, prepare your marketing materials ([Via BoingBoing]). And finally, solder yourself an antenna amplifier (also [Via BoingBoing]) for the iTrip and you're ready to go." [Player Blog]

I'm fascinated by all of this, and I wish I'd been able to include it in the column (I especially love the idea of marketing your homegrown station on a bumper sticker!). However, all of this can also be done with any MP3 player and any wireless FM transmitter, which just goes to show how the iPod is leading the pack in helping users be more creative with music than they've ever been in the past.

Then remember that libraries can't circulate commercial digital music files to iPods.

More MT Licensing

"If you look through the new MT Licenses, you may end up on the bottom of the Education Pricing, where you will find:

'Are you a librarian seeking to run Movable Type at your branch? We can work with you to create a custom proposal for your local or regional library system based on your needs and budget. Simply contact us to let us know how you wish to use Movable Type within your library.'

I wrote up a description of what we are doing with the software to see what sort of pricing information is available. I have yet to go through all the open-source alternatives, but I haven’t found one yet that leaped out as me as exactly what I want to move to. MT offers some flexibility that I just haven’t found anywhere else. And if the offer is reasonable, I won’t hesitate to go to our Director and make a case.

But if it isn’t, I won’t hesitate to settle on an alternative. I will write later about what is ultimately decided." [LibraryPlanet.com]

When the dust settles around here (we're concentrating all our energies on our merger with the Chicago Multitype Library System on July 1), I think I'll write up SLS' current setup for member MT blogs just to see what Six Apart comes back with. However, I'm not hopeful since money is very tight at Illinois Library Systems these days, so even a fairly small fee most likely won't help us. I'll be interested to see what alternatives other libraries use.