Prime Cut

MarketWatch has a story on Real's Rhapsody services goes to the web. This article is interesting for a couple of reasons.

Rhapsody, Real's on demand music service, always required using a Windows application to listen. The web service breaks the necessity. This isn't too new. Yahoo's Launch can be listened to in a web browser, but requires Windows Media Player. Launch is also IE only. Rhapsody supports non-Windows OS's and can be played through Firefox. In fact, it has an automated install driven through Fx's extension system. Very nice.

I have only one complaint. I get free Rhapsody radio through Comcast internet cable service. I can skip songs using the Windows application, but the browser player says I can't skip unless I upgrade to Rhapsody unlimited. :-( Otherwise, the browser player is a better option because it's light weight and doesn't take so much desktop space.

The second interesting about the article is its use of AJAX. If you are reading the story during the day, the stock quotes are live and change while you are reading the article. Slick.