October 09, 2006, 5:27 PM PDT
LaLa.com revives WOXY
Posted by: Jasmine France

At 10:10 a.m. tomorrow, CD trading service LaLa.com will begin rebroadcasting popular Internet radio station WOXY.com in conjunction with a plan to allow members of LaLa.com to create their own radio stations for free public streaming. I had a chance to sit down with a LaLa rep and talk about the new relationship, as well as the changes that are taking place now that the service is out of beta and gaining steam.

A record store experience
If you take a moment to cruise around LaLa (if you don't want to register, just click on the album art to enter the site proper), you'll notice how nicely visual--lots of album art and a member image scroll across the top--the site is. But something is missing: music. Can you imagine entering a record store and hearing nothing but other shoppers flipping through albums? Depressing, isn't it? LaLa founder Bill Ngyuen, who, incidentally, has had some great ideas in the past and thus some disposable income to burn, started thinking about how to remedy this. In the process, he found out about a well-received alternative radio station called WOXY.

WOXY: A history
Ohio-based WOXY launched in September 1983, with the aim to be an independent alternative and modern rock station; it was quite successful. It received more than its fair share of praise from the music press and its listeners. (Fun trivia: Dustin Hoffman repeated WOXY's tagline--"97X--Bam! The Future of Rock & Roll"--more than 70 times in the movie Rainman.) In 1998, WOXY launched an Internet stream of the broadcast station and gained listeners from around the world. But despite this success and retention, the station owners announced in 2004 that they were selling the broadcast license and related properties and closing up shop. The day after the last broadcast, as the staff wandered into the parking lot prepared to say good-bye for good, two angel investors approached the group and proposed to keep the Internet broadcast on the air. Unfortunately, the funds dried up, and WOXY quietly stopped streaming last month.

LaLa.com + WOXY.com = BFF
Or "WOXY, the station that wouldn't die." Not so long after the off-the-air message popped up on WOXY.com, Bill posted a message on the boards entitled White Knight, expressing his interest in saving WOXY and creating a partnership with LaLa.com. The post has had more than 75,000 views and 71 pages of replies. The first pages are filled with skeptical yet hopeful messages, while the end pages are full of excitement for the upcoming relaunch of the station, which will have its own streaming link on LaLa.com as well.

But the WOXY DJs aren't the only ones who'll get to entertain the members at LaLa.com. The service is also launching its own station creator, which will allow members to create massive playlists that will act as radio stations that all other members--and eventually the general public--can stream from the site. An alpha group of DJs (a selection of established members) has already been given access to the tool, and those stations will be available tomorrow. Currently, the radio feature has a long way to go--the interface is imperfect, and there are only about 150,000 tracks from which to choose. Eventually, the radio interface will have a dial for tuning into your favorite members' stations, and many more songs will be available for adding to your station.

Trouble from the RIAA?
Actually, no. LaLa has been very careful about following the letter of the law, which includes obtaining the proper licenses and imposing certain rules on the DJs. The stations must be at least three hours long, you can only use two songs per artist, and you cannot listen to your own station (bummer). But, hey, it is free, so I'm not gonna complain too much.

LaLa.com has more cool music plans for the future. Stay tuned for a full review of the service.

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October 09, 2006, 4:46 PM PDT
Mitsubishi to charge into the States with an all-electric compact
Posted by: Kevin Massy

It looks like Mitsubishi is planning to bring an all-electric compact car to the United States. According to Automotive News, Mitsubishi president Osamu Masuko made the announcement last week in Las Vegas, saying that the lithium-ion battery-powered, zero-emissions car would be launched first in Japan and then shipped eastward to the U.S. market. We got an insight into Mitsubishi's vision of an all-electric sporty hatchback at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show, where it showed off its MIEV concept, which is driven by hub-mounted electric motors--a propulsion system that we also saw recently in GM's Sequel Fuel Cell vehicle.

There is no word from Mitsubishi on whether its production version will resemble the MIEV (which stands for Mitsubishi In-wheel motor Electric Vehicle), but Automotive News says that more details are expected shortly. The Mitsubishi news is the latest in a recent resurgence of activity surrounding the electric car. This summer, California-based Tesla Motors said it would begin sales of a production version of its all-electric Tesla Roadster in late 2007, while last month, Zap, another electric car manufacturer, commenced delivery of its three-wheeled electric Xebra sedans to dealerships across the country.

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October 09, 2006, 4:02 PM PDT
Skip business school--Work.com puts best practices online
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

A new small-business advice site, Work.com, launched today. It's a collection of how-to and advice articles, nicely organized and easily searchable. Anybody running their own business will probably find useful tips in it.

Users can also become writers, putting down their experience for others to use. The way the team built the authoring tool is very smart. Recognizing that most entrepreneurs know an awful lot but don't know how to say it, the system walks authors down a path of creating an introduction, then a series of "action steps" with specifics (subtitled, "I recommend..."), and finally a list of resources and related online sources. This structure keeps the articles focused and consistent.

Why contribute? The usual reason: exposure. If I'm a caterer and I write a story about feeding people at business events, I might be able to get some good business from the article.

Users can rate articles, and the highest-rated stories bubble up to the top. The threat of bad user ratings acts as a check against Work.com authors shamelessly pitching their own services.

Work.com is a strong and focused community publishing platform, but while it's pitched as a Web 2.0 service, its use of new online capabilities is not revolutionary. It's not a wiki, for example; users can comment on stories but cannot edit them.

It's worth looking at if you run a small business and have questions about how to do it better. (If you don't have questions, what are you doing running a business in the first place?)

See also the small-business resource, AllBusiness.com, and CNET's own collection of small-business best practices.

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October 09, 2006, 3:54 PM PDT
Exposed: Crossbow, next-gen Windows Mobile OS
Posted by: Bonnie Cha

Want a glimpse at what the next crop of Windows Mobile devices might look like (well, the operating system, anyway)? Then peep these leaked screenshots of the next-generation Windows Mobile OS (code-named Crossbow) from MSMobile.com. The images appear to be screen grabs of the Pocket PC Phone home screen (remember, Windows Mobile offers three variants of the OS--Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone, and Smartphone) and features a more polished look and hints of Windows Vista. It will also have "strong links with Office 2007 and Exchange 12" for push e-mail and instant-messaging capabilities. Crossbow is expected to be released to manufacturers in Q4 2006 and for mass consumption in the first half of 2007. However, even before Crossbow's release, Microsoft's already teasing us with its successor, Photon, which is due some time in Q1/Q2 2008.

Other sources: Engadget Mobile, Gizmodo

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October 09, 2006, 1:08 PM PDT
T-Mobile begins to roll out 3G network
Posted by: Nicole Lee

Long left in the dust by Cingular, T-Mobile has only just announced that it plans to implement its new UMTS-based 3G service soon, with most of the work done in 2007 or 2008. As it's the fourth nationwide carrier to get on the 3G bandwagon, we're sure T-Mobile is feeling the heat to get the 3G ball rolling, especially since Cingular has already implemented HSDPA-level speeds, and there's already talk of a potential 4G network in the works. Here's hoping that the carrier also begins to bring more 3G-enabled devices into its lineup.

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October 09, 2006, 11:10 AM PDT
One fewer pedal for Chrysler
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

According to Automotive News (subscription required), Chrysler intends to advance its transmission technology by equipping its cars with dual-clutch transmissions for the 2010 model year. Dual-clutch transmissions, such as Volkswagen's Direct Shift Gearbox, let the driver shift without pushing a clutch pedal. Instead, two computer-controlled clutches, one for odd gears and one for even, engage and disengage as needed. The clutches let shifts occur faster than in a traditional manual gearbox. Gear changes feel more precise, and the car uses less gas than with an automatic transmission. Chrysler would most likely use the new transmissions in its 2010 Dodge Avenger and in its line of minivans.

Source: Automotive News

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October 09, 2006, 11:10 AM PDT
Zoho single sign-on: it's nice, but what we really need is...
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

The online application company Zoho announced on Friday that has launched a single sign-on (SSO) feature. Now you can integrate all of the Zoho applications that you've signed up for separately into one account. For example, if you signed up for the word processor Zoho Write using your corporate e-mail as your ID and the presentation app Zoho Show on Gmail, you'll now be able to merge all the accounts together and you'll stay signed on as you move from app to app.

This is getting some play in the Web 2.0 blogs. But for the end user, it's not that big a deal, mostly because Zoho doesn't yet collect in one place all the files you create in its separate apps. If you start a file in the spreadsheet app, for instance, it won't show up in the word processor.

File-based organization, as opposed to Zoho's current app-based organization, is coming soon, Zoho architect Raju Vegesna told me. That's good, because that's what users really need. It's what we already have on our PCs and Macs--files separate from applications. The online suite ThinkFree gets it right: your account page shows you everything you've created using the company's suite of applications. Google, though, does not. Writely can't see data created in Google Spreadsheets, and vice versa.

This is one of the issues that I'll be discussing at a panel I'm moderating at the Office 2.0 Conference this week (CNET is sponsoring the event). It promises to be a very interesting conference, and I'll be blogging from there.

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October 09, 2006, 11:08 AM PDT
Alert Merriam-Webster: Unlimited does not mean unlimited
Posted by: Molly Wood

Those hipsters over at Helio have just launched a new hybrid wireless service for laptop users that'll let you seamlessly transition between Wi-Fi and Sprint's high-speed data network--with one fairly hilarious catch. I don't know how many of you are aware of the disturbing trend cropping up regarding the use of "unlimited" wireless data plans--namely, that if you use too much data, you get the boot, despite those plans being labeled "unlimited." Well, the new Helio Hybrid service is no different--except that the cap on data usage is not "invisible," as it is with some other networks, such as Verizon. It's clearly spelled out in its terms of service section, which brazenly and awesomely attempts to lecture you on the fact that the word unlimited does not, in fact, mean unlimited. I quote: "Chapter 10: Unlimited does not mean unreasonable." To which I say, yes, Helio! That's right! Unlimited does not mean unreasonable. Unlimited, in fact, means unlimited. You know, as in, "without any qualification or exception."

So here's my open letter to wireless service providers: Maybe your customers wouldn't find it so obnoxious that you keep capping their unlimited data plans if you just stopped calling them unlimited.

Love, Molly

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October 09, 2006, 9:08 AM PDT
CNET UK reviews Palm Treo 750v; U.S. announcement on October 12?
Posted by: Bonnie Cha

If you're patiently waiting for the U.S. release of the Palm Treo 750v, here's a little something to read to pass the time. Our own CNET UK has a full review of the new Treo, and it looks like the Windows Mobile smart phone is a winner, earning an 8 out of 10 rating. Despite the lack of Wi-Fi and a small screen, they praise it for its usability. So when do we expect it to hit U.S. shores? Well, it could as early as this week. If you recall, we told you Palm is set to hold a press conference on Thursday, October 12, and the latest invite we got says there will a new product announcement. Of course, we'll be there to cover the event, so check back on Thursday at 10 a.m. PT for full blow-by-blow coverage.

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