When things go wrong in your home, and they seem to do so at an alarming rate sometimes, then you can hire a repairman and suffer the charges for labor, or you can learn to fix it yourself for the cost of parts and your own sweat.

The question is, how do you learn these things? Well, the obvious answer is the internet, but that isn't always as hands-on as you may need. It helps to really see things being done, as opposed to following what amounts to a user manual.

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You may well have heard the popular radio show This American Life. It's broadcast out of Chicago, but syndicated around the US, and perhaps has an even greater footprint thanks to its podcast. Host Ira Glass has taken his idea for a little show and turned it into a force in media.

Despite the name, the shows are very much international, though they usually involve Americans, even in foreign locations. Glass also covers all sorts of incidents from the financial crisis to crimes. Now the long-running show is coming to Pandora, a platform known for its music streaming system.

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Back in the 90's, buying CDs was a passion of mine. Not only would I be knowledgeable about all of the release dates for my favorite artists, but I would go to midnight store-openings to buy them. Then, alone in my bedroom, I would listen to all of the discs and drift away.

Nowadays? Not so much. While I still adore music -- especially hip-hop tunes -- physical media is not part of the equation. Streaming media services are my gateway to music, and it is largely very satisfying. Apparently, I am far from alone in my love for streaming. Today, Pandora -- a very popular streaming service -- announces it has generated more than $2 billion in royalties for artists and songwriters. Yes folks, streaming is legit.

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It may not be big in the United States, but cricket equates to baseball in other parts of the world -- a sport with huge crowds and a somewhat similar method of play. The sport is very big in India and the Premier League is what the people want to watch.

Now Roku can bring all of the action to you with ESPN Cricket Pass. The set-top box maker brags that it is the only connected device offering this option for the 2016 season.

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April 1st marks my first-year anniversary subscribing to Tidal, which relaunched the same day last year, under new ownership of Jay Z. I love and loathe the music streaming service, which I cancelled at least five times and always renewed—typically before the billing cycle ticked over. But checking archived emails, I see that my sub completely expired thrice but not since July.

Gotta ask: What fool starts a business on April Fools, and what does the day foreshadow; if anything? Apple did it, 40 years ago today. Many commentators have called Jay Z the fool for buying Tidal, which competes against established players like Spotify and newcomer Apple Music. The service claimed to have 540,000 subscribers when acquired last year. This week, Tidal revealed globally there are now 3 million subscribers. Someone correct my math—456 percent increase, right? If Jay Z's the fool, gimme some of that foolishness.

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Netflix last week revealed that it has throttled the video streams of customers who have been accessing its service from AT&T's and Verizon's networks, after the two carriers were believed to be at fault. The company says that this has been done to keep those users from exceeding their monthly data plans, but some believe the video streaming service has taken things too far, right into the net neutrality danger zone.

Despite offering what looks to be a good reason for the throttling, Netflix is still in the wrong. Customers were not informed of the company's decision before it went into effect more than five years ago. There is no way of turning the "feature" off, at least not until a data saver option is introduced in May. And the focus of the throttling has been rather limited, with this move not extending to other carriers in US, like Sprint and T-Mobile. So, obviously, affected customers have very good reasons to complain.

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Despite accusation to the contrary, AT&T and Verizon have not been throttling the connections of Netflix customers -- but Netflix has. The streaming video service has admitted that it has limited the video quality that can be accessed by AT&T and Verizon customers for over five years.

In an astonishing revelation to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix -- a long-standing and vocal supporter of net neutrality -- fessed up to limiting mobile streams for some users to just 600 kbps. The reason provided for this is that the throttling prevents users from exceeding their monthly data limits... but the same throttling is not applied to Sprint and T-Mobile.

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Despite the publicity that music service Tidal has received recently thanks to the exclusive release of the Kanye West album, it has continued to struggle. Rumors the past few weeks have swirled around a potential sale of the streaming service, with Samsung being front and center among the candidates as a possible buyer.

Samsung has already shuttered its video service and there's a chance its Milk Music service is on the chopping block. While Milk has seemingly gained some footing with the free version of the Pandora-like radio, it has little in the way of paid subscribers.

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Watch TV in the UK -- be it through an aerial, cable, or satellite -- and you have to pay for a TV license. The official line is that you need a TV license "if you watch or record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service" and this has long-meant that anyone time-shifting their viewing by watching shows on BBC iPlayer have been able to do so for free. This is set to change.

Having waxed lyrical about the threat of adblockers to the web, UK culture secretary John Whittingdale turned his attention to the BBC's streaming services. He plans to close a loophole that has permitted people without a TV license to watch non-live shows on iPlayer without paying a fee and -- more importantly -- without breaking the law. He says that this is 'wrong' and wants to bring the 'free ride' to an end.

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The History channel is one of those networks that many people either love or hate. While it provides good incite into many things, it can also go a bit off the rails at times. On the whole though, it's a solid viewing choice much of the time.

History Vault promises to provide hundreds of hours of "curated" content to viewers and to do so commercial-free. Content is divided up by categories including world leaders, inside the presidency, ancient discoveries and more.

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Training for that big marathon? You have a lot of work to do and plenty of long training runs in your future, but it can be done, it just takes some ambition and fortitude. But those long training runs? It's good to have some company to keep you going. Since a partner isn't always possible, music can be your next best option.

In running, the Runkeeper app comes in handy for tracking your workout and music can be supplied from a good streaming service such as Spotify. Now the two are teaming up to keep you moving out there.

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Swedish music streaming service Spotify has decided to transport its entire product onto Google’s cloud. The news was confirmed on the Spotify blog.

In the blog post, written by the company's vice-president of engineering and infrastructure, Nicholas Harteau, it was explained how Spotify decided for the move as it could no longer scale fast enough to meet the demand.

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You could always watch Hulu on your PC or Mac, or for that matter, on multiple other mobile devices. Now the streaming service wants to integrate much deeper, using Windows 10 as its launchpad.

This doesn't mean it will cease to be accessible in all of the previous ways, it just adds one more option for customers of the service.

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When Sling TV launched it already had a number of deals with major networks such as ESPN and CNN, bringing real-time TV viewing over an internet connection, and doing so for a reasonable price, especially compared to cable and satellite providers. There were also a number of add-on packages for such things as extra sports and news channels.

Last year, just in time for Game of Thrones, the service landed HBO, and now it has another prize in its lineup, one that may attract even more customers.

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Picking a streaming music service can be difficult as they are all largely the same -- listen to all you want for a small monthly fee. While Spotify is my current favorite service, Apple Music has been piquing my interest more and more. The problem? Lack of a web player makes Apple's offering unusable on Linux-based desktop operating systems, while iTunes on Windows and OS X is painfully slow and bloated. On iOS it is a dream, but Tim Cook and company have a lot of work to do elsewhere.

Today, however, Apple scores a major win with official Sonos support -- it is finally out of Beta. If you have invested in a Sonos wireless speaker system, starting tomorrow, you can begin using the Apple Music service with it in many ways.

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