We are celebrating two significant musical anniversaries this month.

In October of 1982 — 26 years ago — the first compact disc recordings were released, heralding the end of vinyl discs and cassette tapes and the start of the digital generation.

And seven years ago this week, Apple unveiled the first generation of the iPod, making it easier to take your collection of tunes with you.

But now you don't even need a portable music player to listen to your personal digital music collection. All you need is a connection to the Internet.

At a glance, the Lala.com Web site works like iTunes or Amazon.com, with lots of online music to sample and to buy.

But by installing the free Lala Music Mover software, you can duplicate your personal collection of tunes online so you can listen to them anywhere.

Lala attempts to confirm which songs you have; then it gives you permission to play a copy online from its own six-million song collection.

It will upload any songs it doesn't recognize (as long as they're not copy-protected).

I've got just shy of 1,100 songs in my collection; it took about eight hours for Lala to synchronize all of my oddball music.

Now, whatever computer I'm using — at home or at work — I can listen to all my songs that matched up in Lala.

Like other music players, you can create your own playlists in Lala. The music streams from a player at the top of the browser window.

Lala also has social functions; you can set up your own profile so others can revel in your good musical taste. You can also get song suggestions in your favorite genres from "influencers" who are sharing their playlists.

When you're ready to hear something new, you can listen to most songs on Lala one time for free. If you like what you hear, you have two choices:

• Pay 10 cents a song for unlimited online listens.

• Pay 79 cents more to download the song as an MP3 track you can keep on your computer or trasfer to a portable player.

If you like music, Lala is well worth a look.

Almost everyone who has an iPhone loves it. But almost everyone who has an iPhone also wishes it would do even more.

If you fall into that category, you'll want to check out PleaseFixTheiPhone.com.

It has an online "wish list" that tabulates the top iPhone shortcomings as judged by users. Most requested? "Copy and paste" functions.

You can cast a vote in favor of any of the existing gripes, or add your own to the growing list.

There's another list (a much shorter one) documenting iPod wish list items that have already been addressed.

Watch Computer Corner every week on News 8 Midday at noon Wednesdays or online any time.

E-mail askwalt@wfaa.com