One of the main reasons I use Songbird over other media players was integrated Last.FM scrobbling + radio streaming. The latest Last.FM plug-in requires a paid subscription to stream radio. More 3rd party apps which stream Last.FM could soon follow. 
$3 isn't much, but with other free services available (not to mention my own digital library), do I really need Last.FM and yet another monthly charge?

I've been disappointed by several recent product betas & launches, which is making me wonder if I might be expecting a bit too much from technology these days. I'm willing to follow along, but this had better be leading somewhere. Some examples:

• iPhone 3GS: Welcome upgrades, but not enough there to get many people to break their existing 3G agreements.
• iPhone 3.0 OS: When you have to search the UI 15 mins. looking for the new stuff, chances are it's not an earth-shattering update.
• Apple Snow Leopard: See above. And Apple actually has the stones to mock Windows 7 as "Vista R2"?
• Firefox 3.5: I love you Firefox, but you're boring. I pretty much already had all this stuff in Chrome i.e. Speed, private browsing, HTML 5, etc.
• Wolfram Alpha: Google killer? Boy was that overhyped. A neat stats calculation engine that most of us have little use for.
• Opera Unite: If you're going to claim to reinvent the web, you had better have something amazing up your sleeve.

Did I miss any?

Now I know that each of these upgrades introduce much-needed and welcome improvements, especially under the hood. Except Opera. I can't explain that one. But "under-the-hood" rarely shifts units, so I'll wait with much anticipation at what these companies do with these new product capabilites.