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Two notable paid subscription streaming music services have announced partnerships and programs aimed at expanding their offerings beyond the desktop and mobile platforms where they currently reside. MOG, an on-demand service providing around 10 million songs for $10/month, has launched its MOG Fusion program, a manufacturer-focused toolkit for integrating MOG into consumer electronics and automobiles.

Rdio, a similarly priced service, but one that's more social-networking focused, has partnered with Sonos, makers of music systems for the home, to bring Rdio to the living room and elsewhere around the house.

Google unveiled its long-awaited Chrome OS, notebook and Web store today and already we're itching to see what life lived entirely in the cloud is like - not that we're far off as it is. While we don't have our hands on a Chrome OS notebook quite yet, if we did, MOG would be one of the first apps we would install.

MOG has announced a beta release of its music player for the Chrome Web store and we have to admit, we're excited to see one of our favorite cloud-based music players hit the shelves.

Apparently, the dam has finally burst and the camel's back has broke - Netflix has begun offering a streaming-only option to its U.S. users. The plan, which will match Hulu's recently-introduced $7.99 streaming video price point, will offer unlimited streaming of TV episodes and movies via any Netflix-enabled device, without the envelopes and mailboxes.

Previously, the cheapest Netflix plan was $8.99 for unlimited streaming with one DVD out at a time. This is no longer available and instead, users can sign up for the new $7.99 streaming-only plan, or for $2 more can get one DVD sent to them at a time.

This week's cartoon is inspired by working at a lot of cafés this week – cafés with very... slow... Wi-Fi.

I'm finding that decent broadband is common enough these days to make slower connections feel extra frustrating. I'm used to being able to download hundred-megabyte software upgrades in the time it takes the barista to pull shots for my Americano. And I've grown accustomed to genuinely streaming video; I'll grind my molars to powder if that TED talk on the Western world's addiction to speed has to pause for a few seconds midway through to buffer.

Hulu Plus, the premium version of online video hub Hulu, has now opened its doors to all interested users, according to a post this morning on the company's corporate blog.

Says Rob Wong, Director of Product for Hulu, users no longer need an invitation to sign up for Hulu Plus. Also, the service will roll out next week to Sony PS3 owners with a PlayStation network account.

Next week (October 28 and 29) Microsoft will host its Professional Developer Conference (PDC) on its sprawling Redmond, WA campus. Typically, PDC - which the company only organizes when it wants to talk about major platform developments - is held at a larger venue, but Microsoft decided to hold it on its own campus this year. While this makes for a more intimate setting, it also means that fewer developers will be able to attend in person. To make up for this, Microsoft is putting the technology it developed for streaming live video from live events like the Vancouver Olympics and NBC Sunday Night Football to use in covering its own developer conference.

Mobile video optimization firm Bytemobile has just released its most recent "Mobile Minute Metrics" report, a look at wireless users' video consumption trends and behavior based on metrics from a cross-section of nearly 2 billion Bytemobile customers in 58 countries around the world.

According to the new report, which focuses on Q3 2010 mobile traffic, mobile operators are seeing "unprecedented" levels of mobile data traffic, an increase heavily impacted by increased demand for video. Some interesting stats were revealed, too - like whether it's Android or iPhone users who watch more video, what sites get the most views and more.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will arrive in Toronto on Wednesday to launch the company's first foreign expansion: the Canadian market. For now, Canada's version of the movie-by-mail service won't actually include the "by mail" option - it will only offer online streaming, according to a recent Reuters report.

YouTube has announced that it will begin testing of a new platform this morning will that will allow broadcast partners to begin live streaming content.

The test began at 8 a.m. PT this morning and will feature live-streaming content from four partners: Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom and Young Hollywood.

Today at 3 PM PST (6 EST), Facebook will unveil its new official live video streaming channel, Facebook Live. To kick off the launch, actress America Ferrera will stop by Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, California and use Facebook Live to announce details of her new movie, "The Dry Land," a Sundance Film Festival entry.

Facebook says that, in addition to special celebrity-oriented videos like today's, the live video channel will also be used for official Facebook announcements, press events, live chats with Facebook engineers and live streaming of its developer conference, f8.