AOL is giving those who are deaf and hard of hearing a new avenue for instant messaging which will let them watch text conversations unfold one letter at a time. This feature is currently available in the just released beta version 6.8 of AOL’s AIM software.

This new feature, developed in conjunction with Gallaudet University and the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lets users see “each letter that a buddy types rather than waiting for a friend to press the send button to view and read a message. This enables deaf users to respond and react to words as they are typed just as hearing people would do as words are spoken in a voice conversation.”

Some bad news turned up in the email inboxes of AOL employees today when the company’s Chief Executive Randy Falco said that 20% of its global workforce (in other words 2,000 employees from AOL’s 10K) will begin to be laid off starting tomorrow. According to the email Falco told the suddenly scared workers that AOL needs to continue to trim the overhead as the company shifts its revenue generating gears from an ISP to a company dependent on internet advertising sales.

Napster has been named the exclusive provider of subscriptions for AOL Music. Napster will be replacing AOL Music Now as the only music subscription service integrated into the popular music destination.

The AOL Music Now service currently has 350,000 subscribers. These customers will be notified that their accounts are being migrated to Napster and will be given the option to opt out of the service. The companies expect the migration to be completed within the next 60 days.

Napster, a pioneer of digital music, now offers an expanding portfolio of Web-based music listening and sharing applications, as well as various subscription services.

This …

AOL and Haier displayed a hard-drive based music and video player to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that seemed to have come out of nowhere.

The device, wittingly named the “Smartscreens Media Device”, plays music as well as WMV and MPEG4 videos and works with music stores supporting Windows Media, but the real kicker is that this player supports WiFi and Bluetooth connections. The WiFi enables it to directly download music from an open WiFi network through the Linux OS that it runs on, as well as streaming internet …