Australia is entering a golden age of all-you-can-eat streaming music.

Who needs pirate radio with a music library at your fingertips?

Twelve months ago things looked pretty grim on the subscription music front. Australians looked on with envy at impressive foreign services such as Rhapsody, which they could only access using trickery such as VPNs and US credit cards. Yet as we enter 2012 we’re awash with subscription music services, and there are more on the way.

If you’re keen for a taste of a local subscription music service, your options include Rdio, JB HiFi Now, Zune Pass, Songl (formerly Anubis.fm) and Music Unlimited (formerly Qriocity). Several more will be launched in the next few months.

Many work with the impressive Sonos Digital Music System, designed to stream music around your home. Some work with smartphones and tablets, plus you’ve got others targeted at specific mobile devices, from the likes of Samsung and BlackBerry. Along with all of these you’ve got Apple’s iTunes Match, although it only lets you listen to songs you already own.

Subscription music services put millions of songs in your pocket, but the trade-off is that you don’t “own” them. To be honest I doubt this will deter most people, nor will the MP3-esque sound quality. These days convenience and flexibility are what most people are chasing. I don’t think people will stop buying music immediately, at first they’ll use subscription services to flesh out their back catalogue and try new music before they buy.

Eventually the concept of “owning” content will seem irrelevant, but it might well take a generational change. As fixed and mobile broadband gets faster and cheaper, the music listeners of tomorrow will expect an entire music library at their fingertips.

Which gadgets do you take on holidays?

Most of Australia is taking a sickie today, turning Australia Day into a four-day long weekend. It's the perfect chance to get away for a few days before business picks up and school goes back.

Improving mobile broadband coverage means it's practical to take smartphones, tablets and notebooks away with you - even if it's just to update Facebook, play games and listen to music. But you probably don't want to take them all, so which is best?

If it's a working holiday then I'd probably favour a notebook. If the budget allows, I'd invest in an ultrabook or a MacBook Air. A good keyboard is important to me, which is why I'd be reluctant to rely on a tablet or smartphone.

But if you're determined not to work, a tablet is probably a good choice. But it can be a hassle if you're looking to transfer photos from your camera, or if you rely on services which require a desktop browser (in my case, Content Management Systems for blogs). One handy workaround is to use Logmein to access a computer you've left running at home. It can be a little cumbersome, but worth the hassle if it means you can leave your notebook at home.

What goes in your tech travel bag?

Turning a serious sporting award into a popularity contest was never a good use of social technology.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the Cricket Live Australia app, which lets Aussies follow the cricket scores and even voice their opinion on controversial umpiring decisions. What I didn’t touch on was that the app also let viewers vote for Man of the Match - an award previously bestowed by cricketing experts rather than the general public. As if this wasn’t foolish enough, voting was only open to Australians.

You didn’t need to be a social media expert to predict what would happen - Australians voted overwhelmingly for their man David Warner in the Second Test, who scored an unbeaten 123 in a side which was thumped by New Zealand. Bracewell's impressive 9-60 with the ball was naturally overlooked due to the fact the Kiwis couldn’t vote. Such a system makes a mockery of the Man of the Match award, particularly when there are prizes involved.

Just because new technology lets us turn every decision into a popularity contest doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Surely someone at Cricket Australia should have seen this coming. To Cricket Australia’s credit it didn’t try to fix the problem by extending voting rights across the Tasman, perhaps realising how badly this would backfire when Australia plays India - a team backed by more than a billion fans. Instead Cricket Australia decided to revert to the old system for awarding Man of the Match but retain the Viewers’ Verdict as a separate award. It’s a good lesson not only in how not to use social media, but also in how to respond when it’s clear you’ve screwed up.

On that note, it’s time for Hydrapinion to take a break until mid-January. See you in 2012.

How would you reinvent the idiot box?

I suffered the wrath of the Apple fanboys over at the Sydney Morning Herald last week after wondered aloud what Cupertino could possibly add to the rumoured Apple Television that would convince me to buy a whole new television.

I noticed a few trends in people’s responses. Some argued in favour of tight integration with the iTunes ecosystem, which is understandable but I think Apple could cover this using the Apple TV set-top box rather than expecting me to buy a new television.

Others argued that today’s televisions are too complicated and they're sick of struggling with multiple remotes. They want a television which “just works”. I see their point but I don’t think the television is to blame for the fact we’ve got so many devices connected to our televisions. The obvious answer is to buy yourself an intelligent universal remote such as a Logitech Harmony, which lets you jump between devices with a single button press.

The other alternative is for Apple to build the functionality of all those boxes into your television, but I couldn’t see Apple releasing a television with a built-in HD PVR, Blu-ray player and streaming media player. I couldn’t even see Apple releasing a set-top box with all these features. Apple tends to simplify things by stripping out features it believes you no longer need. As such, an Apple Television could be nothing more than a monitor with an Apple TV media player strapped to the back and super glue in all the HDMI ports.

Obviously the Apple Television would need to offer more than the Apple TV if people beyond the Cupertino cheersquad are going to buy a whole new television. What could Apple do to reinvent the idiot box?

The Viewers' Verdict is an interesting addition to this summer’s official app from Cricket Australia.

With the First Test against New Zealand underway at the Gabba, I set about my annual ritual of looking for a decent iPhone app to keep track of live scores and other stats. There’s no shortage of apps to choose from, but the Cricket Live Australia app caught my eye due to the new Viewers’ Verdict feature which lets you have your say regarding controversial decisions. While the umpires confer, just hit the big red or green button on your phone to declare whether or not you think it’s a wicket.

Cricket Live Australia is available for both iOS and Android devices, which is great to see and a sign of the times. A partnership between Vodafone and Channel Nine means we’ll also see the results of each Viewers’ Verdict on the television as we wait for the umpire’s decision. It’s even tied into Twitter and Facebook, so you can broadcast your decision to the world. Yes, I also winced at the thought of adding even more noise to the social media din, but sharing opinions is clearly one of the main drawcards of social media.

In this age of multi-tasking, many people tend to watch television with at least one gadget by their side. Sure, pushing a big button is one of those silly novelties, but I expect the Viewers’ Verdict will be popular with passionate cricket fans. It’ll also be popular with networks such as Nine which are looking for new interactivity options to keep viewers engaged. Live sport is one of the few remaining programs that people are actually prepared to watch live and suffer through the advertisements. It makes sense for Nine to go out of its way to keep armchair sports fans happy, lest they get their sporting hit elsewhere.