NOISE GATE: Napster 4.6 – the return of Napster?

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Ahhhh, Napster. Back in 1999, I sat there for days, on a 56kbps connection, downloading music. As a result of that, and Audiogalaxy, I became an enormous music fan and I’ve spent thousands of pounds on music over the years that I’m very convinced that I wouldn’t have spent if it hadn’t been so easy to ‘try before you buy’.

Today the news broke that Napster’s relaunching in the UK. Of course, it’s not the real Napster – it’s what was formerly Roxio – a DRM-based subscription service. The company has just released version 4.6 of its player, which purports to allow subscribers to access and play their music on any internet-connected computer, without downloading any software.

Battle of the Burners – Roxio vs Nero

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Nero and Roxio have both just launched new versions of their burning software. In the red corner, we’ve got Nero 9, which features Gracenote integration and improved playback and editing features, and in the… er… orange corner we’ve got Roxio Creator 2009, which has high-definition support and new backup software…