It's Super Bowl weekend, a time when many Americans gather in front of the TV, with snacks laid out before them. While we'll all be watching the Denver Broncos collide with the Seattle Seahawks, that’s not all the big game is about. Many people watch as much for the commercials as for the gridiron battle.

YouTube is readying its Ad Blitz service, which already contains a number of previews of the upcoming commercials that you'll get a full look at this Sunday.

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Beats Music has been on a wild ride since its launch. Registration was closed within days of the big event, as the service claimed system problems. It then reopened, adding extra time to the free trial period in an effort to say "sorry" for the problems. Most recently, the release of the Windows Phone app was pushed back.

Well, that mobile app, which was originally slated for release last Friday, has finally seen the light of day. The service quietly made it live today, with not so much as an announcement on the company blog.

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Despite that we have had all sorts of news in recent weeks regarding music streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and Pandora, one we rarely seem to mention is Last.fm. That changes today, as the company enters into an agreement with Spotify that it hopes will be mutually beneficial.

Beginning today Last.fm customers will have access to the full catalog of Spotify Music. "Last.fm's users, spanning over 50 countries, will now be able to listen to the entire Spotify music catalog on-demand, including individual tracks, full albums, playlists and Spotify recommendations. It’s never been easier to get access to both the music that you know and love, and all of the music we know you’ll love", says Spotify's Candice Katz.

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Yamaha is one of the leading names in the home theater industry, bringing devices to your living room such as its line of A/V receivers. As you know, many of these devices are now "connected", meaning they come with Ethernet and even WiFi.

Now Spotify announces a partnership with Yamaha that will bring its streaming music to your living room. The hardware maker is bringing access to select versions of its receivers.

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Twitter is rarely out of the headlines, but this week two legal cases surrounding the social network slash micro-blogging service brought it to attention for slightly different reasons than normal. On one side of the Atlantic a couple fell foul of the law for using Twitter to make threats to a feminist campaigner, while on the other a celebrity managed to avoid prosecution for libel after managing to plead ignorance about the falsity of a claim made online.

For a court case victory, it was announced in a very restrained, quiet way... particularly when you consider that the victor was none other than Courtney Love. The celebratory tweet reads simply "I can't thank you enough Dongell Lawrence Finney LLP, the most incredible law firm on the planet. We won this epic battle. #justiceprevails", and the decision to use Twitter was slightly ironic considering the fact that the court case stemmed from a previous tweet made by Ms. Love.

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It’s been a busy week for Beats Music, with a big launch, followed closely by a subsequent closure of registration due to problems with the network. Regardless if the problems were real or a publicity stunt, the streaming service is back now.

Today the company’s CEO Ian Rogers issues a thank you to those who have stuck with it, and to show his gratitude he made a special offer. "To thank you for being early we are extending the 7 day trial to 14 days for all customers who sign up before Saturday evening".

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"All we know is, he’s called The Stig". And that is, quite literally, all we are supposed to know. The identity of the driver clad in the white racing suit is a closely guarded secret, though some leaks have taken place over the run of the popular British series.

Recently, the Top Gear test track even appeared on Google Street View, and as further proof the little Google car was really there, the show itself has posted a video shot during the mapping.

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In trial run by BT (British Telecom) and Alcatel-Lucent in London, UK, a data transfer rate of 1.4Tb/s has been achieved. This certainly sounds fast, and Alcatel-Lucent is claiming that it is the highest data transfer speed ever achieved using commercial-grade hardware.

What could you do with an internet connection of this speed? If you felt so inclined you would be able to download no less than 44 HD quality movies in a single second. One. Single. Second.

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Just yesterday Beats Music sprung into life, with a plan to compete with the established giants already in the market, such as Google, Apple, Spotify and others. The launch was greeted with much fanfare, and all sorts of artists are involved in the project.

But 24 hours into the life of the new service, not everything is milk and honey. Apparently issues have arisen with service for those who already signed up, and now the Dr. Dre-sponsored music app is pulling back to address problems.

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When it comes to TV, it feels like there is nothing ever on. An easy remedy for this is to buy a media box like a Roku or Apple TV. This allows you to add streaming services to your traditional "dumb" television.

Sadly, choosing such a box can be quite the ordeal -- there are too many options and prices. Ideally, you want to get the most functionality for the lowest price. A good option is to choose one that utilizes Android, as this empowers the user with access to a great deal of software such as XBMC. Today, Satechi announces an elegant Android-based solution, called the Smart TV Box.

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What's that? Another music streaming service? Another one?! You could be forgiven for having this reaction to the news that Dr Dre's Beats Music is now available for iOS and Android; this is a market that is already rather saturated, and music lovers are not exactly short of options when it comes to picking a service to satiate their audio needs. So any new service vying for attention has to have something rather unique to offer if it is going to stand out from the competition.

Beats Music does have a unique selling point. It is a service that is about more than just streaming music, it aims to deliver the right music according to the time of day, what you are doing and where you are. Is this sort of stream tailoring enough to win over music fans? Only time will tell, but Beats Music certainly has a fight on its hands if it is to wrestle users away from the existing services that have been established for some time.

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The famous, or perhaps infamous, Kim Dotcom once ran MegaUpload before a massive shutdown effort carried out by the government. He later launched Mega, flaunting it to the very people who set out to ruin him. But the flamboyant entrepreneur has always seemed most interested in music, and today he launches his very own streaming service.

Baboom launches, promising a combination of both Spotify and iTunes. Dotcom is soliciting artists to come in and set up their own pages, which will include a bio, images and videos. It is free for them to setup their presence on the new site.

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The streaming music industry has entered an increasingly fast race to grab users and find new ways to monetize the business, while offering "free" streaming. Last week both Spotify and Rdio announced free versions of their services, but now Spotify wants to go a step further, giving back to the people who make the music.

The company plans to allow artists to hawk their merchandise on the website. Spotify is partnering with Topspin to make this new revenue stream possible.

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When you hear the word pirate associated with a TV show there is likely one immediate thought that springs to your mind, and it isn’t a skull and crossbones or eye patch. But today that is changing, as a brand new program debuts in a unique way.

A new show from Starz network titled Black Sails is set to debut next weekend, but the network has a surprise in store for viewers. You can actually watch the very first episode right now. The premier show is available through the Starz website, in conjunction with YouTube.

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Streaming the music you want continues to become easier, with more choice of services and increasingly better pricing. But prices can’t get any better than free, and that seems to be where this market is now headed.

Today Rdio joins Spotify in announcing it will now host free streaming on the web. "That means you can listen to 20 million songs plus all the albums, playlists, and stations you love anywhere there’s a computer. Absolutely free", the service announces.

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