Tokyo - Adding to a flurry of recent announcements from various international carriers, Japan's Softbank Mobile announced on Wednesday a deal with Apple (NASD: AAPL) to launch the iPhone in Japan later this year. Apple is expected to launch its next-generation iPhone, as well as its App Store for third-party applications, at an event on Monday.

San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube on Wednesday announced the beta launch of a new feature called Video Annotations, which allows account holders to add interactive commentary to their videos. The company said the feature will let users add background information on their videos, create stories with multiple possibilities, and link to related videos, channels and search results. YouTube will eventually expand Video Annotations to languages besides English, as well as enable annotated videos to appear embedded in other websites.

New York - Yahoo announced on Wednesday that 94 more newspapers have joined its Newspaper Consortium, which places Yahoo paid search technology and HotJobs listings on their websites, and offers Yahoo ad inventory to their local clients. The new additions, which bring the total participants to 779, include the Sun-Times News Group, Stephens Media Group, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Black Press.

San Jose, Calif. - Qtrax, the developer of a free, ad-supported music download service, has announced a new licensing agreement with EMI Music, which joins Universal Music Group and the major music publishers in authorizing its tracks for distribution on the service. Qtrax fumbled when it announced in January that it has secured licenses from all the major labels before deals were signed, but has since announced deals with two of them.

New York - CBS's (NYSE: CBS) Last.fm social music discovery service on Wednesday introduced "Last.fm in a Box," a service that lets partners access its ad-supported personalized streaming radio services directly from their own websites. Initial partners include Bebo, eMusic, iGoogle, Meebo, Billboard.com, LiveNation, Ning, Six Apart and WordPress.com.

Oakland, Calif. - Pandora, a provider of personalized streaming radio, on Wednesday introduced a beta release of its new downloadable desktop application, which allows users to access its ad-supported service directly from their desktops. The application was built on Adobe's AIR platform, and will utilize graphic rather than audio ads.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Sonico, an online social network in Latin America that counts almost 17 million registered users, announced on Wednesday that it has secured $4.3 million in its first funding round, led by DN Capital.

New York - CBS (NYSE: CBS) announced on Wednesday that Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) has joined its CBS Audience Network, a group of over 300 website partners that distributes full TV episodes and other programming from CBS for free, supported by advertising. With the addition of Yahoo, CBS claims its network's unduplicated total reach is now 92% of the U.S.-based Web audience.

New York - IGA Worldwide, a provider of in-game advertising services, has announced a partnership with Sony (NYSE: SNE) to provide in-game advertising on the PlayStation 3 in the U.S. and Europe, and also with publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) to serve in-game ads on EA titles for the PlayStation 3.

Los Angeles - Microsoft's (NASD: MSFT) MSN has signed a deal with production company BermanBraun to create an entertainment news-focused destination site within MSN, set to launch in early 2009.

Philadelphia - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV company and a provider of broadband service to 14 million subscribers, has begun testing what it says is a "protocol agnostic" tool to manage its subscribers' bandwidth usage during peak traffic periods. The company recently came under fire after it was discovered to have been throttling the BitTorrent traffic of some of its users, which led to fallout including an FCC investigation and several public hearings.

Redwood City, Calif. - Video game developer and publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) announced on Wednesday that it has acquired ThreeSF, a social network for gamers founded by original Napster creator Shawn Fanning.

Los Angeles - Disney is in the process of acquiring fan fiction online community Fanlib, as well as online video start-up DigiSynd, PaidContent reported.

San Mateo, Calif. - Yield Software, a provider of Internet marketing software, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $6 million in its second round of venture capital financing, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson with participation from ad giant WPP (NASD: WPPGY) and seed investor WashingtonVC.

Westwood, Mass. - Multiplayer online game developer Turbine announced on Wednesday that it has raised $40 million in a new financing round co-led by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and GGV Capital.

Yahoo! has signed on as a partner in CBS Interactive's CBS Audience Network for online video distribution. The deal will make CBS' video catalog available on Yahoo TV along with content from Fox and NBC as well as about a dozen cable networks, according to CNET.

"As the #1 online TV site, Yahoo! TV is committed to offering our users the most comprehensive television experience on the Internet," said Karin Gilford, Vice President of Entertainment and Lifestyles, Yahoo!, in a statement.

Beet.tv did an interesting interview with Gilford last month (embedded above) in which she (towards the end) compares the evolution of television with what happened to the music biz.