From today's Wall Street Journal: "Sprint Nextel Corp. is expected to announce as early as today it is choosing a nascent technology known as WiMax to build a new wireless Internet network in the coming years, people familiar with the matter say.

"The move would mark a significant win for backers of the new technology, such as Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc.,...[read previous RAIN coverage here]

"Sprint is making a huge bet that consumer demand for wireless Internet access and services such as cellphone downloads of music and video will continue to grow in the coming years...

"Sprint has previously said it planned to build a new wireless network, but did not decide on a new technology until recently. The company said in the past that such a network would be designed to accommodate heavy data-usage activities like video streaming on cellphones and laptops...

"In an interview last week, Atish Gude, Sprint's senior vice president of corporate strategy and development, said the company wants to tap into  an entirely new market by eventually connecting consumer electronics devices such as videocameras and MP3 players to the Internet for the first time."

Subscribers can read the entire article at the Wall Street Journal online.

From Mediapost Publications: "Though it's garnered a massive wave of attention, the phenomenon of podcasting has remained a minuscule force, accounting for less than one-half of 1 percent of online ad spending this year, according to eMarketer. Pod2mobile [has] introduced a set of solutions designed to address this disparity.

"Building on the company's proprietary software, which enables podcasts to be delivered to  mobile devices, Pod2mobile's automated serving for pod ads allows publishers, agencies and advertisers to insert 20-second audio ads before podcasts. In addition, users of the product can track who heard each ad, as well as where and when it aired...

"Concurrently, as part of its acknowledged plan to become the 'AdWords' of podcasting, Pod2mobile is developing a network of podcasters through which advertisers can sell month-long sponsorships of particular podcasts."

From the Washington Post: "You just can't leave the game at home, even when you've come to hear the 90-piece National Symphony Orchestra, backed by the Master Chorale of Washington, play the music of 'Final Fantasy,' 'Super Mario Bros.,' 'Halo,' 'World of Warcraft,' 'The Legend of Zelda'...

"'I swear, I'll turn it off when the concert starts,' Ben Finckel said to his mom and dad. In typical 12-year-old fashion, he was multitasking: snacking on Goldfish crackers, chatting with a friend and playing 'Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop' on his Nintendo DS...

"'Play! A Video Game Symphony' was a two-hour ode to the varied and still-obscure genre, drawing an unusually mixed crowd for the NSO. Kids dragged their parents, who were more than happy to oblige but came prepared with novels and flashlights. Parents brought their kids, who came with their Nintendos...

"Remember the 'Mozart effect,' the idea that classical music made you smarter? This is the video game music effect...

"The concert was an affirmation that games are evolving as an art form.

"The brainchild of 29-year-old Jason Michael Paul, who says that he was the first kid on his block to own a Sega Genesis, 'Play!' debuted in May, making stops in Chicago, Stockholm, Detroit and, most recently, Philadelphia... Paul and the show's  conductor, Arnie Roth, have come up with a program that runs the gamut of game music, from "Sonic the Hedgehog" to "Metal Gear Solid,'...

"The history of game music dates back to the arcade days of the 1980s, with that nagging wocka-wocka-wocka of 'Pac-Man.' As in everything with games, technology led the way, and the monophonic, claustrophobic, altogether  simple bloops of yesteryear's Atari games have transformed into the enveloping, more symphony-like sound of games for today's PlayStations."

Read the entire article at the Washington Post.