Clearing off the (virtual) desk

After a week’s vacation, it’s time to get caught up and back into blogging mode. Here’s some nuggets of news from the past week:

• Realnetworks deals: Early last week Realnetworks and Sprint inked a deal to offer some of its RealOne channels to Sprint PCS users with Java-enabled phones. Sprint users can subscribe to the RealOne service for $4.95 per month. Real didn’t stop there. Today they announced that the Rolling Stones are making its music available for download on the company’s Rhapsody service. Best Buy has also been recruited to sell subscriptions to the music service in its brick-and-mortar stores.

• Subpoenas squashed: Two Boston-area universities have won court rulings that squash subpoenas issued by the RIAA that would have forced the schools to reveal the identity of students accused of illegal file trading.

• InterVideo adds Dolby: InterVideo announced last week that it has added Dolby’s Digital Consumer Encoder, a two-channel audio encoder, to its WinDVD Platinum 2 line. This gives home and small business users the ability to add richer sound to those homemade DVDs. Of course, to get the richer encoded sound you have to start with a good source, so ditch those mono microphones if you want to take advantage of the new codec support.