As a news junkie, I work in my office with CNN on mute, I constantly refresh news.yahoo.com and I frequently check washingtonpost.com and nytimes.com. And other sites, like the BBC and NPR and other acronymic news agencies.

But CNN has taken it up a notch, offering "Pipeline" a new downloadable service thats lets you watch one of up to four live news feeds and other archived news video from CNN. It's not free. But for a small fee -- even for a poor college student -- you can access the full service. And if you're not sure about the idea, you can try it for a couple of weeks at no cost. Just offer up your credit card number and get ready to cancel the service after the free trial if you're not happy.

So far, I have mixed reviews. Overnight, the main feed offered is CNN International, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing I see on the U.S. CNN when it breaks into CNN International coverage. I'm not sure if that's because they do special coverage when the US breaks in or if I'm just watching at different times. But the coverage is just fine. Right now, they're updating the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Feed number two is shooting blanks -- it's nothing. Feed number three is showing what appers to be a news channel broadcasting in Arabic with no translation. It's certainly interesting, but I have no idea what they're talking about or where the feed comes from. The fourth feed is weather -- it has been for the past two nights. Today the focus is on a certain tropical storm that might become a greater threat to the Eastern U.S.

During the day, I did not have time to actually "enjoy" CNN Pipeline, but I did notice a range of feeds available. In addition to a feed simply updating the current news, another showed the vote on the stem cell issue, yet another showed a hearing on homeland security, and the fourth feed showed something else ... I don't remember because I only looked for a brief moment before getting back to work.

But I would reccomend trying Pipeline for the two week trial. If you find that you don't use it very often, just forget it. I'm not sure yet. I think there might be enough archived news video available to make it worth it. My plan has a monthly fee of less than $3. Big deal.

Cheeper than other addicitons.