It shouldn't come as a surprise to readers that the folks over at Google might not be totally stoked on the potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo!. If you weren't sure where the company stood on the issue, you can now get clued in thanks to a post on the official Google Blog earlier today. David Drummond, senior VP of corporate development (and the company's chief legal officer) says that he worries the acquisition of the internet portal by a company that has "frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies" could "extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the internet." His concern centers around the possibility that the combination of the two monoliths could "unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services." Sure, Google has more than a little stake in seeing fair play on the net (gotta keep those ad revenues up), but this is serious food for thought nonetheless.

Update: It looks like the war of words is really starting to heat up. Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, has issued his own little statement here, telling us that Google holds far more marketshare when it comes to internet searching than a combined Microsoft and Yahoo! possibly could, and then going on to explain that the Redmond giant is "committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy." Uh, whatever you say Brad.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The title pretty much says it all on this one, folks. We suppose the thought of countering TomTom's recently raised $4.22 billion offer for mapmaker Tele Atlas weighed too heavy on Garmin's soul (or just seemed too expensive), but whatever the case, its $3.3 billion offer has officially been rescinded. Also of note, the AP claims that the outfit has struck a deal with NAVTEQ (or is that Nokia?), which guarantees it access to those maps through 2015. Currently, there's been no word on whether TomTom will move forward with its apparent plans to snap up Tele Atlas, but it's safe to say the biggest obstacle has been (voluntarily) removed.

Man, it must feel mighty fantastic to be Tele Atlas right about now. Not even a month after TomTom finalized a whopping $2.5 billion offer to take the map maker over, Garmin -- which currently relies on NAVTEQ maps -- has come out swinging with a staggering $3.3 billion bid of its own. As expected, Tele Atlas is now taking a good hard look at both offers and examining its options, and some analysts are even suggesting that a bidding war could take the figure even higher. 'Course, such a conjecture is easy to make when TomTom has already proclaimed that it would reply in some way "in the near future." Bust out the blank checks -- this one could get ugly (or very pretty, if you're a Tele Atlas shareholder).

We know, the 700MHz soap opera is wearing a bit on us too, but just in case you were worried that the latest FCC shakeups would deter Google from coughing up $4.6+ billion when the time was right, fret not. Reportedly, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt "told a conference of regulatory and industry leaders in Aspen that his company would 'probably' move ahead with plans to bid for wireless spectrum freed up once broadcast television networks switch to digital from analog in 2009." When asked by T-Mobile USA's government relations chief Thomas Sugrue "whether Google planned to take part in the auctions for wireless broadband networks," the exec simply stated that placing a bid or two would likely be "the way to answer that." So, there you have it -- until next episode...

We have to admit, we've seen some pretty zany stuff in the Nintendo realm this month, but this one probably takes top honors. For the fanboys and girls, the words "PowerFest '94" and "Nintendo World Championships II" immediately incite fits of giddiness, and for those sulking in the uninformed camp, here's the skinny: just 32 of these brutally ugly and oversized cartridges were ever manufactured, and after the round of tournaments played with them in 1994, all but one was reportedly "given back to Nintendo and reused for parts." The cart itself housed Level 1-1 of Super Mario Lost Levels, five laps around the first track on Super Mario Kart, and a home run derby from Ken Griffey Jr. Winning Run, all of which were set to a timer and channeled out to other systems to monitor the scores of everyone involved. Needless to say, owning this prized possession could indeed fetch a pretty penny, and if you've ever wondered just how much a one of a kind SNES cart would run you, we'll give you 25,000 or so guesses. Click on through for a few more snapshots.

[Thanks, Casey]