Business

Google has given 10,000 developers free access to its servers to test and run new applications. The Google App Engine is a service by which developers can write their own applications; in effect, online programs. It's the same system Google uses for ... its own online services, including a calendar and a photo gallery. It's considered a challenge to similar services from Amazon, which rents out server space. Servers are the computers that physically store and run online programs and web pages. Many individuals and small firms find it cheaper to rent server space rather than buy and maintain their ... (view more)

On April 5, Microsoft sent Yahoo an ultimatum to enter buyout negotiations or suffer a prolonged proxy contest for control. Less than 48 hours later, Microsoft received a response: sweeten the offer. Refuting Microsoft's claims that Yahoo was ... avoiding a takeover offer and that shareholders were interested in an agreement with Microsoft, CEO Jerry Yang wrote, "Contrary to statements in your letter, stockholders representing a significant portion of our outstanding shares have indicated to us that your proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo." (Source: shareholder.com ) However, Yang is not ... (view more)

Microsoft's CEO Steven Ballmer sent a strongly worded letter to Yahoo's Board of Directors on Saturday declaring his frustration over the lack of progress on his company's offer to acquire the Internet portal. On Jan. 31, Microsoft made an offer to ... purchase Yahoo with a mix of cash and stocks worth $44.6 billion, 62 percent above Yahoo's market value. Since that time, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has been busy considering alternatives to save the company including partnerships with Google, News Corp, and AOL. (Source: businessweek.com ) However, no substantive agreements have resulted and Microsoft's ... (view more)

Think Microsoft is unfazed by the criticism of the now one-year-old Windows Vista? Doesn't look like it, given recent rumblings that the company is speedily working towards the release of a completely new operating system (OS), tentatively titled ... 'Windows 7' perhaps as early as next year. Those rumblings are coming straight from the the lips of company chairman Bill Gates, who recently hinted to Reuters that Windows 7 might ship as soon as 2009. That's a huge jump forward for an OS originally dated for the year following. In response to Gates' alleged quote to Reuters starting all the rumors ... (view more)

A security researcher won $10,000 for hacking a MacBook Air in just two minutes. Rubbing salt in the wound, he said Apple's operating system was the easiest of targets. The competition, held at Vancouver security conference CanSecWest, challenged ... entrants to break into one of three laptops: a MacBook Air running the latest version of Macintosh's Operating System, a Fujitsu running the latest edition of Windows Vista, and a Sony Vaio running Ubuntu, an operating system based on the open-source Linux system. All three machines were protected with the latest security patches offered by the ... (view more)

MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Friendster, Twitter and of course Facebook have changed the Internet. By leading the Web 2.0 charge, social networks have had a big influence on how we interact online. Last week, Google announced that it would join with Yahoo ... and MySpace to form the Open Social Foundation. The new group will work together to promote the application programming interface (API) OpenSocial. APIs are the source codes that programmers use to develop applications for use on social networking sites such as Facebook's SuperWall and Scrabulous. (Source: news.com ) The idea is to promote a ... (view more)

Computer World reports that Leopard recently dumped Vista in a corporate satisfaction survey. Mac business users were more than 5x more likely to say they're 'very satisfied' than Windows Vista users. A poll of 2,200 U.S. corporate computer users ... was conducted by ChangeWave Research in February. 53% of those using Mac OS X 10.5 reported that they were very satisfied. 40% of those using Windows XP and only 8% of those using Windows Vista said they were very satisfied. Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave Research says that Apple continues to set the standard for corporate customer ... (view more)

Google is the web's most powerful entity. That much is not in doubt. The search engine's popularity dwarfs competitors Yahoo or Ask.com, and no one knows it more than retailers. A number of companies are now a bit worried Google is inching up on ... their territory, offering a service that steers consumers away from official retail web sites for an alternate page established by the search titan itself. It works like this. A web user enters the typical, one-in-a-gazillion search on Google. Nothing new there. However, once the results are listed, a second box created by Google points those shoppers ... (view more)

Tech insiders have been speculating about the termination of Apple's Mac 'mini' product line for several months. However, the most recent round of speculation indicates Apple's desire to introduce a new set of comprehensive hardware updates, which ... will allow the product to have technical specifications comparable to other computers in its price range. (Source: appleinsider.com ) Mac minis are Apple's smallest line of desktop computers. They do not include a mouse, keyboard or a monitor. Erroneous speculation of the Mac mini's demise originated from the absence of a significant reengineering ... (view more)

Apple is using its iTunes software to persuade Microsoft Windows users to ditch Internet Explorer and switch to its Safari web browser. The iPod-maker is taking advantage of an update service in iTunes that tells users when a new version of the ... software, or the accompanying QuickTime program (used for iTunes videos) is available. Around 100 million people use iTunes to manage their iPod players, many of them on a Windows PC. The update service is now suggesting to users that they download the new edition (3.1) of the Safari browser. That's a little cheeky; the message is seen by everyone, ... (view more)