Microsoft had tried to buy over Yahoo! last year, without any success. Both companies put out a statement that it just wasn’t the right time. So now with Yahoo! stock being a little low, and lots of shifts and changes, will this be the right moment? Google is the leader, but if Microsoft and Yahoo! do team up, they have the potential to overpower, or at least stay side by side with the internet giant. (who’s stock has also recently dropped with lower than expected 4th quarter results) As far as users are concerned, there is much grumbling that MS would most likely “wreck” their beloved Yahoo! apps. ie Flickr.

The deal would consist of cash, and Microsoft stock.

Microsoft’s letter to Yahoo! board.

Microsoft has scheduled a press conference this AM.

Notes from the press conference.

Terry Semel steps down from Board of Directors.

More on the bid as it comes in…

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All the talk last week about Google and IBM among others joining OpenID has ended with Yahoo! launching their OpenID implementation.

Yahoo!’s OpenID will open to over 250 Million Yahoo! users for January 30th in beta. Compare that with only about 120 Million current OpenID’s and the floodgates might have just opened. Yahoo!’s OpenId’s will allow for access to over 9000 compliant websites.

With OpenID, users only need to create one login account and password for a all involved websites. This means no remembering multiple login details or creating new accounts ever. If you sign up for an OpenID through Yahoo!, you will automatically utilize your Yahoo! ID as your OpenID account. Total online account zen.

Norwegian Air, a budget airline shuttle, will be launching the in-flight communication later this year, and is joining a list of other flights that allow air access (Lufthansa, JetBlue, SkyWay, American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines). The service will consist of travel information, broadband telephone, and mobile banking. No news as to the costs involved with using the service, or whether certain sites and services are restricted, but those on other flights are usually offered anywhere from $10.00 to $30.00 per flight.

If you use iGoogle as your start page, as opposed to PageFlakes or Netvibes, you will be happy to know things are about to get a lot prettier.

Google has announced an iGoogle themes developer API. This handy little API allows developers to create custom themes for personalized start pages. And users that just cant wait for more beautiful themes can check out the Google iGoogle themes gallery.

Google has been pounding the iPhone specific code out since Steve announced the killer touch screen device that has all the kids going googoogaagaa. Now they have released a newer, faster, juicier user experience especially for iPhone-a-holics. And as you can see from the screen shots above, it looks pretty hott!

So whats new this time? Besides faster running applications, customized tabs, there is a new and improved version of Gmail and Calendar, two main productivity tools that Google offers. Gmail for the iPhone now has the ability to auto refresh, and gives a little help at auto completing your TO: addresses. As for Calendar, things get a little faster with a new month view. Of course all of this will work on your iPod Touch running Safari on Wifi as well.

So why has Google been concentrating on developing this for the iPhone? Because of the fresh touchscreen, and the capabilities that CSS and Ajax hold. Maybe todays MacWorld will being some additional reasons to invest in an iPhone if you are on the edge of purchasing.

There are many great applications built for Blackberry’s. What if you are a new Blackberry user, or even new to downloading applications for your Blackberry? Where do you begin? In this post we are typically hitting up the most common, free productivity tools that newbie Blackberry users can easily download, install and run without any issues on most Blackberry devices. The brunt of the list does tend to be version of Google’s popular services, this is because of their ease of use, and familiarity for most people. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on other mobile applications, and have fun filling up your Blackberry with useful , enjoyable applications.

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