The digital music player market is expected to double in size by the end of the decade, research firm In-Stat said in a report released Monday. Shipments of players will jump from 140 million units last year to 286 million units by 2010.

Spearheading the rapid growth will be falling price points, growth in both the pay-per-download and subscription online music stores, enhanced functionality, and increasing flash memory capacities.

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Rhode Island is in the process of setting up a wireless network that would provide statewide coverage. The $20 million project is expected to be completed by 2007, and would focus on commercial, emergency, and government uses.

The move is an effort to lure businesses away from the Boston metropolitan area, some 50 minutes away from Rhode Island's capital of Providence. Office rents in the Massachusetts city are some of the highest in the country, and a Wi-Fi network may be enough to lure many away.

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Microsoft on Monday announced the latest release of its MapPoint software-based mapping solution, with an optional GPS hardware kit. With consumers turning to new online mapping services, MapPoint 2006 is being targeted at businesses and focuses on mobile information workers.

New features in the release include GPS support that provides real-time driving directions, Wi-Fi positioning and better offline geographic data. MapPoint 2006 is priced at $299 USD for the software only, and $349 USD with a GPS locater.

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RCA has begun a project that will soon allow the company to add thousands of tracks to online services in a genre that has been generally underserved since the days of disco: dance music.

First launched in March through online store iTunes, the initial release included remixes of Kelly Clarkson's hit "Walk Away," as well as other current dance tracks. Also included are promo-only tracks, such as a 12-minute extended mix of Eurythmics' "Right By Your Side," and Odyssey's 1977 hit "Native New Yorker," which has been re-released for the first time.

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In an effort to attract more subscribers to its digital music service, Napster on Monday launched an ad-supported offering that allows users to listen to over two million tracks free of charge. But there is a catch: the songs are streamed in low-quality audio and can only be heard five times each.

Unlike its traditional subscription product, by making the free service Web based via Napster.com, the company can support Mac OS X, Linux and Windows users. When a user selects a track to hear, the site pops up a Flash player, which displays album art from the currently playing song and an advertisement.

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Netgear said Monday that it would begin accepting pre-orders for its Skype Wi-Fi phone. At a price of $249.99 USD, the candy bar-shaped phone would allow for free Skype calling, as well as calls to landline and mobile phones, over both secured and open Wi-Fi networks.

The phone is the first mobile unit to receive Skype certification, Netgear said in a statement. The device will come preloaded with Skype software and a color display. Calls to landline and mobile phone numbers would require a plan and additional fee. Those interested can pre-order the phone through Netgear's partners and the Skype online store itself.

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Online retailer Amazon.com has dropped Google as its search result provider and selected Microsoft's new Windows Live Search instead. The change affects both Amazon's A9.com search engine and the company's Alexa toolbar and Web site.

The move is the first public show of support for Microsoft new search technology, which will eventually replace MSN Search after it leaves beta. Although neither Amazon nor Microsoft announced the switch, it follows rumors that eBay was also talking to the Redmond company in response to competition from Google Base. Amazon, like eBay, allows its users to sell their goods through the online store.

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As expected, ABC on Monday placed the first four episodes of its primetime shows online for viewing. The offering is part of a two-month trial announced by the broadcaster last month. New episodes will appear the day after they air, and are encoded in Flash 8, meaning both Mac and PC users are able to use the service.

Initial shows include a "Desperate Housewives" episode from April 30; new episodes from "Lost" and "Alias" from April 26; and a "Commander in Chief" episode from April 27. The standard viewing size would be 500x282 pixels, however a higher bandwidth version would be available at 700x394 pixels. Despite the free offering, ABC will continue to sell its shows without ads through the iTunes Music Store for $1.99 USD, the company has said.

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The New York Times has joined up with Microsoft to build a new standalone application for reading the newspaper's content on a PC. The tool, called Times Reader, was unveiled Friday in prototype form and takes advantage of the Windows Presentation Foundation that will ship in Vista.

Specifically, Vista's WPF display technologies will enable Times content to be automatically adjusted for any screen size, with users able to customize font size and content relevance. The application will utilize the same font styles as the print edition of the New York Times.

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Microsoft told the European Court of First Instance Friday that the 497 million euro fine it had been ordered to pay by the European Commission should either be reduced or thrown out. Lawyers for the Redmond company called it "excessive" as they argued Microsoft did not knowingly engage in monopolistic practices.

Ian Forrester, a Microsoft attorney, said the fine was imposed more out of creating media interest, saying "the largest fine in history would make for large headlines." The Commission denied that charge. A ruling is not expected for several months, but if the court rules in the EU's favor it would fundamentally change the way Microsoft operates in Europe, as well as endorse the Commission's regulatory power.

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Microsoft on Friday debuted Windows Live Shopping, intended to complement its MSN Shopping portal. For the time being however, MSN Shopping would remain the company's main shopping site, a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews. Like other Live services, the focus with Windows Live Shopping remains "customization."

Additional features include the capability to create "shopping lists," user-created shopping guides, "tagging" of products, improved ratings and reviews, and Microsoft Gadget capability. Windows Live Shopping would also sport the same minimalist design that has become prevalent across most of the Windows Live sites. At this time, the service only supports Internet Explorer, but Microsoft said it was working toward providing a Firefox-compatible version as well.

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While Microsoft has become a favorite target of critics who say the company has dramatically scaled back expectations for Windows Vista, Mozilla's Firefox Web browser is about to join that crowd.

Mozilla has decided to strip out a major new feature from Firefox 2.0 in order to ensure that the update meets a Q3 2006 release target, a post in the browser's developer forum indicated earlier this week. "Places," a complete rewrite of the browser's bookmarking system, will no longer be included in the release.

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Sony Music could be the target of a class action lawsuit from its artists, if a suit filed in a New York Federal Court is successful. Musicians The Allman Brothers and Cheap Trick say the company is not giving its artists a fair share, which under contract was half of the licensing revenue.

"Sony Music is presently engaged in a widespread attempt to underpay its recording artists; with the technological advancements in the music industry, it is essential that artists receive the royalty income to which they are entitled," Attorney Brian Caplan said in a statement.

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Skype said Friday that it had hit 100 million registered users worldwide in its first two and a half years, which it claims is the fastest growth of any Internet program ever. According to the company, the 100 millionth name came at 1:12PM GMT Thursday. This compares with some 54 million in September 2005, when Skype was acquired by auction site eBay for $2.6 billion.

With 100 million users, Skype said a phonebook containing all the names would be some 57,000 pages long. However, the number of people using Skype on a regular basis may be far less than that 100 million number. A check by BetaNews Friday afternoon indicated 5.5 million individuals were logged into the Skype network.

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The Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have sent letters to the presidents of 40 universities in 25 states, alerting them that students are engaged in illegal file swapping over their internal networks.

According to the groups' claims, students are opting to swap through internal college LANs in order to avoid sharing over the Internet, which carries a greater threat of being caught. Programs such as DC++, along with several other applications, make the seemingly covert file sharing possible.

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