RealNetworks just announced that it's going to restructure Rhapsody and spin the subscription music service off into a standalone company.

Real is the majority owner of Rhapsody, which is also partly owned by MTV.

"Separating Rhapsody into its own independent company is a significant first step in making RealNetworks a more focused and profitable company," said Robert Kimball, president and acting CEO for RealNetworks. "Rhapsody will be the largest pure play digital music service in the market. We have provided Rhapsody with the right team, and financial and intellectual property assets to succeed in the competitive market for digital music."

Google's turning Gmail into a social network with a new feature called "Buzz" that adds a handful of networking and sharing features to the company's free Web email service.

Co-founder Sergey Brin said Buzz blends social networking and productivity tools into a powerful new service.

"This is another very compelling evolution where I think you have the meeting of social communication and productivity that's closer together," he said. "I think a lot of the past services have focused simply on friends and entertainment, things like that.... I think the bridging of those worlds is very powerful."

Clicking a tab in Gmail will present a format with a series of live, streaming updates from user's email contacts, turning the user's inbox into Google's version of Facebook.

Frequent contacts are automatically converted to "followers" whose public updates, photos and other shared material appears in the stream.

Public updates will all be indexed by Google and searchable. I wonder what this will do to Gmail's utility as a Web email service; people who use Gmail for sensitive correspondence will need to be sure they're correctly using the public and private sharing options that Buzz adds.

There's also a Twitteresque mobile component, giving users the ability to post and share updates from mobile phones. It also uses Google's location-based service to add geotags to Buzz posts made from smartphones.

Also unveiled this morning was a new version of Google Mobile Maps with a layer displaying Buzz posts tagged to an area or venue.

The company also plans to launch an enterprise version of Buzz for companies to use for communicating and sharing information.

Google's presenting this update as a service to help people organize and manage the flood of online information. But that may not be enough to deflect grumbling about Google blatantly replicating the features of popular social networks.

"Organizing the world's social information has become a large scale problem, the kind Google loves to solve," Todd Jackson, Buzz product manager, said during Google's announcement this morning.

Buzz will be available at buzz.google.com and via a tab in Gmail. The company plans to make it available starting around 11 a.m. for invited users and broadly over the next few days. Here's the Google announcement with links.

Jackson wouldn't use the "F" word when asked how Buzz would integrate with Facebook and its Connect feature.

"We don't have anything to announce at this time but it's something to think about," he said.

Pressed on how Buzz emulates Facebook, Brin also declined to name the service but noted that many different social networking services have been developed, including a rudimentary one that he built in high school.

Brin characterized Buzz as the latest contribution to the evolution of social networking, saying that he hoped it's one of the "revolutionary" new technology products that have appeared every few years over the last decade.

"I think we look at this as part of a longer term evolution and trying to put together the best set of features and compelling elements to make this really successul both from a technical point of view as well as a social point of view," he said.

Here's Jackson's summary of the key features of Buzz:

1. Auto-following. See content from people you follow.
"There's always been a giant social network under Gmail."
2. Rich, fast sharing experience. "Buzz brings a social UI to Gmail."
3. Public and private sharing.
4. Inbox integration. (Add social updates to inbox)
5. "Recommended buzz" that adds suggested people's updates to your stream.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the story of the change on Feb. 8.

Google's Buzz introduction video:

Google's mobile Buzz video:

Microsoft may be the official U.S. search and Web portal at the Vancouver Olympics and a key partner in NBC's Web video coverage of the games.

But Google has a really cool snowmobile that it used to get Street View images for its special Olympics maps.

Google showed off the snowmobile in a video that's part of its comeback announcement today of a special Google Maps page for the Olympics:

Among the images gathered was this shot from the peak of Whistler:

If you're looking to geek out at the Hard Rock Cafe, the Las Vegas outpost is still your best bet.

Seattle's Hard Rock -- opening Wednesday in the gentrified former smut zone near Pike Place Market -- has a Microsoft Surface computer in the lobby and a 52-inch touchscreen "Rock Wall" display for exploring the chain's rock memorabilia collection.

While the Vegas store has seven Surface computers and an 18-foot-long Rock Wall, Seattle's does have Hard Rock's first interactive audio tour, a phone-based system the company is trying out here.

To find out about the rock artifacts in the cafe -- including guitars owned by Seattlelites Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder -- you can dial 206-204-4666 from your mobile phone and enter the number displayed next to each artifact. For instance, Nos. 19 and 20 describe the 1969 Fender Stratocaster and a leather satchel that belonged to Hendrix.

If the recorded message on the line seems long, you can just punch the number and go straight to a recorded explanation.

The cafe's best feature, though, is an open-air patio with gas fireplaces and a dedicated bar overlooking the red Pike Place Market sign and Elliott Bay.

A few pictures taken during a press tour today, including autographed drums from early Nirvana drummer Chad Channing, with the interactive audio tour number 47 at the lower left:

Still setting up servers in the second floor bar:

One of the cafe's best artifacts is a guitar formerly owned by Vedder, with crib notes for "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" from "Vs." taped to the side:

The Surface in the lobby:

The Nirvana section includes a Krist Novoselic bass and a Cobain guitar:

A jacket owned by The Who's Keith Moon, on which a drink was spilled during a 1976 Seattle concert, after which he sold it to soundman Bob Pridden, who spilled the drink:

Speaking of spilling drinks, I wonder if they'll need some sort of technology to keep enthusiastic users of the Hard Rock patio from spilling drinks off the ledge onto Pike Street. A spokeswoman said only plastic cups will be allowed up here:

Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky fired back with both barrels today at complaints that Windows 7 was to blame for degraded battery life on some laptops.

In a post on the Engineering Windows 7 blog today, Sinofsky said Microsoft did testing, analysis and review with PC manufacturers before concluding that the complaints arose because Windows 7 is showing more information about battery life than people are used to on their PC and some of those batteries are "in a degraded state."

He wrote:

"To the very best of the collective ecosystem knowledge, Windows 7 is correctly warning batteries that are in fact failing and Windows 7 is neither incorrectly reporting on battery status nor in any way whatsoever causing batteries to reach this state. In every case we have been able to identify the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement."

It sounds like the sort of thing that happens with new medical diagnostic equipment or environmental testing technology, when a new tool starts finding unpleasant things. More from Sinofsky's entry:

"The transparency provided in this new Windows 7 feature produced a notice that previously was not available to customers and did so shortly after upgrade. This is the root cause of the urgency with which we've seen postings, but does not change the reality of the condition of the battery. "

(Today's column looks at the online broadcast of the Vancouver Olympics and how it may preview cable TV business practices coming to the Web. This version also includes some images from my testing.)

You'd think the Vancouver Olympics would be a great time to shift from viewing the games on TV to viewing them online.

NBC is delaying broadcasts of major events until prime time, and Canadian TV coverage is largely unavailable here this year.

Networks instead are delivering live event coverage online, plus on-demand replays, in high-definition video using a special Web player built by Microsoft.

This comes as all sorts of new gadgets are making it easier to display Web video on a TV.

Some 52 million people watched 600 million minutes of the Beijing Olympics online in 2008, and Vancouver's Web video will be even better, streaming in 720p high-def with better controls to pause, fast-forward and rewind.

It sounds terrific, and some may find it's the best way to watch the Games.

But don't expect an online utopia, free from the shackles that networks, cable companies and the Olympics organizers put on event coverage.

Although the technology for streaming video is getting better, it's also enabling content owners to apply more restrictions and controls to online video.

In some ways, online broadcasts of the Vancouver Olympics preview what's coming from media companies, as they explore ways to charge for online content that used to be free.

This will be apparent when you try to watch a Vancouver event live online at NBCOlympics.com, the Games' official, exclusive broadcaster in the U.S.

For the first time, viewers will have to prove that they subscribe to premium-cable service to access "live and full-event replay video."

During previous Olympic Games, you only had to provide a Zip code to identify yourself as a cable customer.

This time, you've got to register for access through your cable or satellite company, which checks to see that you have a cable package that includes MSNBC and CNBC.

People without cable or those who subscribe only to limited basic cable can watch video highlights, commentary and feature stories at the site, but not live events or full replays. The delivery system has progressed from a ski jump to a bobsled course.

It's basically the cable model extending to the Web, where improved authentication systems enable broadcasters to limit the really good stuff to paying subscribers. If this is what NBC does now, I can't wait to see what it's like after Comcast finishes acquiring the network.

Maybe I'm being crotchety.

The vast majority of people still prefer to watch the Games on TV, and most online viewers watch only the highlights that are available to everyone, according to Perkins Miller, digital-media senior vice president at NBC Sports and Olympics.

NBC's research after the Beijing Olympics found that 93 to 95 percent of people would rather watch the Games on a TV than a PC.

"Given a choice that's what they want ... they've got the big screen, they've got the couch, they've got the fridge," Miller said.

Miller believes the online broadcast is complementary - something people do when they can't get to the TV - as opposed to competing with regular TV broadcasts.

But he's not stuck waiting until prime time to see events happening earlier in the day in Vancouver. For those who can't wait, or who want to see more than NBC chooses to broadcast, online video becomes must-see TV.

The exclusive Olympics broadcaster in Canada, CTV, appears to be a bit less strict about checking whether you have premium cable. But its live video and full-event replays are restricted to people whose computers have Canadian Internet protocol addresses.

If you're willing to fudge during the sign-in process and spoof your IP address, you may be able to connect through a proxy server in Canada, but you'll have to find one that's fast enough to handle the video.

The easiest part may be connecting your TV to the Web. Most new PCs have powerful enough graphics and outputs for connecting directly to a TV, and you can buy a tiny home-theater PC for under $400 nowadays.

One option is the new "WiDi" wireless display technology that Intel, Netgear and Best Buy announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

In preparation for the Olympics, I've been trying an $899 bundle from Best Buy that includes a Toshiba laptop with built-in WiDi and a hand-sized Netgear "Push2TV," which fits behind the TV.

The wireless system is a breeze and a nice feature to have on a new PC. After connecting the receiver with an HDMI cable, it connects by pushing a button on the laptop. Whatever is on the laptop screen then appears on the TV, with audio.

Watching videos streamed from NBCOlympics.com worked pretty well over my slow DSL broadband. There wasn't buffering but there were some jagged edges during fast action.

But the Olympics' "full-screen" playback isn't quite as promised.

I was hoping for a true full-screen display, as you would get from YouTube and Hulu.com. Olympics videos are shown inside a PC-like media player frame, with a banner ad permanently appearing on the upper right corner of the screen.

Here's a screen shot of what appeared on my TV when using the WiDi setup:

NBC is trying to strike a balance between entertaining users and making sure companies paying for the coverage get exposure, Miller said. He's hoping the quality of video is so good the "frame won't be a distraction."

You'll get a similar frame if you find a way into CTV's Olympics video stream.

I'm stubborn about not paying for premium cable so maybe I'll just keep the WiDi pointed at Hulu.com until it starts charging, and hope for the best from the London Games in 2012.

Google and book publisher and authors have improved their class-action settlement but not enough to avoid antitrust troubles, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a filing and news release this afternoon.

The key quote in the filing:

"Although the United States believes the parties have approached this effort in good faith and the amended settlement agreement is more circumscribed in its sweep than the original proposed settlement, the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation."

The Justice Department liked changes that removed Google's "most favored nation" status but said the settlement as revised would still give the search company an unfair advantage.

It said in the release that "the amended settlement agreement still confers significant and possibly anticompetitive advantages on Google as a single entity, thereby enabling the company to be the only competitor in the digital marketplace with the rights to distribute and otherwise exploit a vast array of works in multiple formats."

Today's filing sets the stage for a Feb. 18 hearing before a federal judge considering whether to approve the agreement, which was originally reached in 2005 after a fight over Google's efforts to digitize the world's books.

Other critics of the agreement have lined up in recent months, giving the judge plenty to consider.

Deutsche Telekom is considering an IPO for its U.S. subsidiary, Bellevue-based T-Mobile USA, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Other options being considered include spinning the U.S. unit off into a separate company or merging it with another U.S. carrier, although that's less likely, the report said.

T-Mobile USA would have an equity value of around $20 billion, the Journal said.

DT will spend the next few weeks discussing T-Mobile USA's fate internally and decide on a plan within two months, the report said.

An excerpt:

T-Mobile USA has languished under perceptions that its wireless network is inferior and lacks reach, a major shortcoming as customers turn to their cell phones to surf the Internet and stream video. In the third quarter, 77,000 users walked away from T-Mobile USA, while AT&T and Verizon Wireless added millions of customers.

Taking T-Mobile USA public would be a way to fund the build-out of new wireless technology that will keep its services current without relinquishing control of a business that had long been a corporate growth engine for Deutsche Telekom.

A spokesman in Bellevue declined to comment.