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In a move aimed at simplifying usage of digital music, Apple's iTunes store on Wednesday began selling hundreds of thousands of songs from recording giant EMI Group that can be copied freely.

Apple and EMI hope to boost legal downloads by making it easier for people to store music they have purchased and wish to play on different electronic devices. The recordings are sold without the copy-protection software known as digital rights management, or DRM.

The music -- for sale in what Apple calls iTunes Plus -- includes tracks and albums by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Norah Jones, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. (Tunes by the Beatles are not available for legal downloading at any music site.)

At $1.29 a track, the DRM-free tunes cost 30 cents more than standard iTunes songs. But Apple said the more expensive tunes also provide significantly improved sound quality.

They do, however, take up roughly twice as much space on a computer or iPod.

DRM was originally developed to prevent users from making numerous copies of downloaded music. But ****yst Phil Leigh said DRM also discourages the mainstream user from buying legal downloads because it makes it too complicated to transfer music to other computers and playback devices.

"It's kind of common sense," said Leigh, of Inside Digital Media in Tampa, Fla. "Once you enter the mass market, people aren't going to pay you to complicate their lives."

Leigh predicted that other major record companies will abandon DRM to boost legal downloads and steer users away from pirated music available through peer-to-peer services such as LimeWire.

Also Wednesday, Apple launched iTunes U, a section of its iTunes store that offers free course lectures, language lessons, campus tours and sports highlights from top universities including Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The content can be played on a computer or iPod.

2Wire moving, expanding

Electronics maker 2Wire Inc. is expanding its research and development operations in Nevada County, moving from a small office in Grass Valley to a larger one in neighboring Nevada City.

As part of its expansion, the San Jose-based company plans to add 10 to 20 workers to augment its current staff of 29, said Steve Maher, the company's vice president of engineering. Specialties will include chip design as well as hardware and software development for 2Wire's core business of making DSL modems and wireless Internet access points for the consumer market.

Cell-phone sales soar

Americans continue to snap up cellular phones at a record pace, buying 39 million of the devices in the first quarter of 2007, up 12 percent from a year earlier, according to NPD Group.

The Long Island research group said the retail value of the phones totaled nearly $3 billion.

NPD ****yst Ross Rubin said consumers are attracted by the razzle-dazzle features of the newest phones, including Bluetooth, removable memory and music playback.

Motorola continued to lead the sales with 35 percent of the market, followed by Samsung at 17 percent, LG (15 percent), Nokia (10 percent) and Sanyo (4 percent).

Tolerance for spam grows

As use of the Internet grows, so does the volume of spam, but users say they are less annoyed by it than in previous years.

According to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 37 percent of those polled say they are getting more spam in their personal e-mail account, and 29 percent report more at work.

Despite the increase, users say they are less irritated by the influx of junk for several reasons. First, they aren't exposed to ****ographic spam as often as in the past. Indeed, only 52 percent of respondents report getting ****ographic spam, down from 71 percent three years ago.

Users also said spam is less annoying because they are becoming more adept at blocking it via filters and other technology.