We're not sure who let Yahoo! into Intel's party in San Francisco, but the two sure are getting along great. Much to the chagrin of Mark Cuban, these two actually believe that there's a future in internet TV, particularly if you force it down people's throats. Intel spent the bulk of its time talking up the Media Processor CE 3100 (formerly known as Canmore), which would theoretically be installed within HDTVs and enable users to access internet-based content without the need for an additional set-top-box ('course, the STB is still optional). That's where Yahoo! comes in -- it's hoping that its Widget Channel will encourage users to utilize its services when watching re-runs or other lackluster material in order to get news, weather and other related information right on the living room set. Not that this is a totally new concept, but these two surely have the power to push it one step further. Lots more information and pictures in the links below.

Update: It's official... surprise!

Read - Intel / Yahoo preview plans for Widget Channel
Read - Images of the tech in action
Read - Gigabyte Intel box (first product to use the CE 3100)

If you woke up this morning worried about what Yahoo! is planning to do for its Music Store customers who are about to be left in the lurch with its DRM server shut-down, have no fear. Yahoo! has announced that it will offer customers coupons or refunds for those songs you bought. Basically, you'll get a coupon that you can use at RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody download service. Their songs, of course, are DRM-free. For those of you who have "serious problems with this arrangement" (their words, not ours), refunds will be available. The servers go down on September 30, so start combing your collections, kids.

[Thanks, JC]

Sure, it's all well and cute to think of "cloud computing" as being a magical data-fairy, but storing and processing all your fancy new CalDAV-enabled Google Calendar entries and MobileMe emails costs money, kid -- and that means it's hard for researchers to accurately simulate and build cloud research projects, since they don't have the resources to build large enough data centers. HP, Intel, and Yahoo are teaming up to alleviate that problem, though -- the three behemoths are going to build six cloud-computer research data centers around the world, stocked with anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 nodes each, with the goal of bringing them online later this year for pre-selected researchers to work on scaling, security, management, and new applications for the cloud. Three of the data centers will be hosted at HP, Intel, and Yahoo, and the other three will be at the University of Illinois, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, and the Steinbuch Centre for Computing in Germany.

Hey, both of you Yahoo! Music Store customers, listen up. Just hours after Yahoo! affirmed that it would be powering down its DRM servers, along comes a spokesperson to alleviate any worries that you two will get screwed in all of this. According to Carrie Davis, customers "will be compensated for whatever they paid for the music," and she continued on to state that Yahoo "had not yet decided what exactly it would do, but it would take care of its customers." Some of the possible options include getting cash back for the money spent on tracks or receiving MP3 versions of the jams sans DRM (we'd take the former, thanks). Depressingly, there doesn't seem to be a definitive time table laid out just yet for the restitution process.

Rhapsody, the digital love-child of Real Networks and MTV, is best known for its DRM'd subscription music service. As such, the globe's population of sheep-white-earbudded, sidewalk zombies have been completely off limits to its charms. Until today. While its DRM'd subscription deals remain in place, Rhapsody is now offering unprotected MP3 downloads via its Rhapsody MP3 store and via partners including Verizon's VCAST over-the-air service and Yahoo. We're talking 5 million DRM-free tracks (generally priced at $0.99 per song, $9.99 per album) from Indies and the four majors. Uniquely, all tracks can be previewed in full before downloading. Rhapsody VP, Neil Smith said, "We're no longer competing with the iPod, we're embracing it." Perhaps, but Rhapsody's planned $50 million marketing assault on iTunes with the help of MTV's TV networks doesn't exactly make them best of friends. We're not DRM-free across the industry yet (in fact, far from it), but things are certainly moving in that direction.

Update: Signup now with the Rhapsody MP3 store and get a $10 credit which can be applied to your first album.

[Via Reuters]

Alright, we're so over this, guys. Either somebody buys somebody or they don't, but we can't stand all the drama and the grandstanding and the hurt feelings. Microsoft won't pay $33 a share anymore, Yahoo's shares are down, Icahn is on a rampage -- when did this stop being fun?

In a Harris Interactive survey of 2,030 US adults of whom, 1,778 have actually flown in an airplane, a full three quarters say that cellphone usage on airplanes should be restricted to "non-talking features." In other words, email, texting, and surfing the Web. That's a pretty significant majority seeing as how the EC has cleared the way for calls within European airspace. 69% of consumers agreed that if voice calls are permitted, a special "talking zone" should be established so that other passengers are not interrupted. While the survey reflects our own opinions, take note that the results benefit sites like Yahoo! Mobile, the very company which commissioned the survey. It's also worth highlighting a comment made by a certain Miss Teen, South Carolina who said, "That some US Americans should be unable to do so, because, uh, some-a people out there in our nation don't have cellphones, and such as, maps." Good point.

Yes -- they're at it again. Please for the love of all that is sacred, let somebody buy something... quick. From the horse's mouth;

"In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!"

[Via Emiliano]

After the beating the company is taking in the stock market, and with several prominent investors stepping forward to express dissatisfaction with how things were handled, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang says he was willing to discuss things further if Microsoft hadn't turned its back on the offer. "We did not say it was a take-it-or-leave-it number in the sense that we would never negotiate any more," he said, referring to the $37 figure. "We were totally willing to do a transaction, and they walked away." Deep down we know he's just miffed to be missing out on sleeping bag to sleeping bag discussions with Ballmer about adding an exclamation mark to Microsoft. Dream on, Yang.

[Via Silicon Valley Insider]

Update: Microsoft claims "we've moved on."

Well, that's that! Microsoft has officially pulled its bid for Yahoo! -- inflated for good measure this weekend by another $5 billion -- after the company did "not move toward accepting [the] offer", asking again for even more, another $4 bil (totaling $9b more than the original offer). In a letter from Ballmer to Yang, he states that Microsoft also won't be looking at its option for a hostile takeover, stating that Yahoo! likely "would take steps that would make [it] undesirable as an acquisition"; Ballmer then goes on to make a few backhanded criticisms of Yahoo's possible new partnerships with Google (which is no surprise). Good night, Microhoo, the monstrous, hamstrung, lumbering mega-merger that might have been.

Update: Yahoo! makes its public response here. Yang sums it up: "With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus..." etc. Alright then.

Yahoo's done its best to fend off Microsoft's aggressive advances until now, but it suddenly looks like the struggling company might be getting some help -- both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that the Yahoo is "closing in" on a deal to merge with Time Warner's AOL division and partner up with Google on search advertising. Yeah, that's pretty major, and it would probably do something about those declining shares Microsoft's been making noise about. The idea is for Time Warner to sell AOL to Yahoo and make a large investment in the new company, which would probably be valued at around $10B. There's apparently a lot of work left to do on the deal, and it would still have to be approved by Yahoo and Time Warner shareholders, but it looks like Yahoo is no longer stuck taking Ballmer and Co. to the dance.

[Disclosure: Look up to the right. See that? Yeah, Engadget is owned by AOL -- but trust us, we have no idea what's going on.]

Read - WSJ article
Read - Reuters article

As expected, Yahoo has responded to Microsoft's 3 week ultimatum this morning. The bottom line is pretty clear in a letter signed by Jerry Yang (CEO) and Roy Bostock (chairman). In the "Dear Steve" response to Ballmer they state, "we will not allow you or anyone else to acquire the company for anything less than its full value." They go on to state that, "We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy contest to displace our independent Board members to be counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction." Make no mistake about it, this is corporate war and will likely end with Yahoo's best engineers working for Google.

No more Mr. Nice Microsoft. Apparently when Microsoft puts $44.6 billion on the line, it really means it, and the company just sent an open letter to Yahoo's board of directors stating in no uncertain terms that the 62% premium over Yahoo's closing price on January 31, 2008 was more than fair. The word is now that if Yahoo can't see that, Microsoft will be compelled to take its case "directly to [Yahoo's] shareholders." Microsoft is giving Yahoo three weeks, and then promises to try and start a proxy contest to elect an alternative set of directors to the board. This is about to get good.

We've heard a lot of talk from Hop-on, makers of all those cheap cellphones that never seem to go anywhere, but the company may have bitten off a little more than it can chew with its latest trademark registration filings for "YahooPhone" and "YPhone." Yep, that's right -- those names bring to mind any massive consumer-oriented companies that might not be happy? Oh, right. There's been some speculation that Hop-on is actually developing a phone for Yahoo!, since it has some deals in place with AT&T and Verizon, but it's pretty unlikely the company is also in charge of branding to the point where it's registering trademarks. No, our guess is that someone's hoping that the folks up in Sunnyvale are a little too distracted by the clumsy advances of one Mr. Ballmer to keep track of a little thing like potentially infringing trademark registrations -- yeah, we don't think that's going to work out so well for you, guys.

[Via Trademork]

Read - YahooPhone filing
Read - YPhone filing

After a torrid moment shared in the backseat of America's largest investment firms, Yahoo decided, at the behest of friends and family, that things just wouldn't work out with Microsoft. But it isn't over. In a very heartfelt public statement today set to the backdrop of In Your Eyes, Microsoft let it be known that it's still interested in "consummating" with Yahoo, and even got a little aggressive sounding in "reserving the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal." You old sweetheart, you're shaking!