iLounge

“The iPod is a very powerful identity technology,” says Sherry Turkle, director of the Initiative on Technology and the Self at MIT. “The iPod is just one more technology that uses the computer as the second self—a reflection of who we are as people, a way of seeing ourselves in the mirror of the machine.”

AppleInsider reports: “Five of the top companies in the online music industry are being sued by an individual who claims that the digital rights management software used by the Internet’s most popular music download services violates a seven-year-old technology patent.”

BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows says he has a “more secure sense of ownership” with music from RealNetworks’ Rhapsody service and hopes that Apple will soon offer an iTunes subscription service.

On the ZDNet blog, Dana Gardner says that “we may need to soon drop the ‘pod’ part of podcasting in favor of ‘mobile’ or ‘cell’-casting” because “the ultimate device for listening to podcasts will soon be cell phones.” [via MDN]