Microsoft/Yahoo: No Deal Today!

Microsoft/Yahoo: No Deal Today, Markets Look For Announcement Early Monday

Talks between Microsoft and Yahoo continue as the market closes and the business week comes to an end. Every signal is that the two sides are close to finalizing a deal, somewhere between $33 and $37/share.

Microsoft has signaled that they’ll go as high as $33 this week. The alternate board members, who must be notified before any announcement of Microsoft going officially hostile, have not been contacted by Microsoft, sources say.

The market agrees, with Yahoo stock up as much as 11% today. Yahoo closed at $28.68, up about 7% for the day.

Analysts we spoke to today, emphasizing that they have no inside information, say they expect a deal to be wrapped up over the weekend and announced on Monday. Look for a cash/stock mix in the $35 range, announced before the market opens, possibly with a conference call pre-market as well.

The main reason Microsoft has changed strategies seems to be the overt willingness of Yahoo to do a search outsourcing deal with Google in the event Microsoft walks away or goes hostile. The threat is very real, and some experts say that regulatory approval of such a deal would not be as difficult as some have speculated.

See our interview with Citi Analyst Mark Mahaney from earlier this week.

(Via TechCrunch.)

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R2-D2 – Video Projector

R2-D2 – Ultimate Digital Audio and Video Projector (VIDEO)

This amazing remote control Artoo unit is a complete entertainment system featuring a projector, cd/dvd player, ipod/mp3 dock, stereo sound system, multimedia card reader, USB slots and more. He can even be remote controlled to maneuver around your home. Very cool.

(Via Green Head.)

Editor’s Choice, King of the all-in-ones! PC Magazine reviews Apple’s iMac

PC Magazine reviews Apple’s new 24-inch iMac: Editor’s Choice, King of the all-in-ones

The Apple iMac (24-inch Penryn) is the iconic all-in-one desktop that others try emulate. Its aluminum and glass face evoke the iPhone and iPod Touch, a look that works well,” Joel Santo Domingo reports for PC Magazine.

“This newest iteration of iMac is powered by the new Intel ‘Penryn’ (45nm) Core 2 Duo E8235 processor, which offers lower energy usage and greater computing power than the ‘Merom’ chips in older iMacs. The extra power helps the iMac keep maintain its place in the vanguard of all-in-one PCs,” Santo Domingo reports.

“Like all Macs, the iMac is bloatware free. Just about the only sales pitch iMac owners are subjected to is the offer to sign up for a .Mac subscription (which provides online services such as photo sharing and 10GB of online storage at rates starting at $99.95 per year) when you first set up the system. You don’t need to worry about 30-day subscriptions to antivirus (not needed on a Mac so far, although you’ll still need to watch out for spam, phishing and ID theft) software updates of OS X and the pre-loaded programs, including iLife ’08 are free; and if you use your own XP or Vista setup disc, your Boot Camp partition will be free of bloatware, too. This leaves you more space for music, photos, and videos,” Santo Domingo reports.

“Since the introduction of the first aluminum iMac model in August 2007 a bunch of competitors have cropped up… even though there are a slew of new competitors to the iMac, none of them have quite enough innovation or execution to dethrone the king of the all-in-one desktops,” Santo Domingo reports.

(Via MacDailyNews.)

Microsoft close to hostile bid for Yahoo

Report: Microsoft close to hostile bid for Yahoo“With the right circumstances it’ll happen. Without the right circumstances it won’t happen,” Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Thursday.

Microsoft’s board met Wednesday to discuss its next step for the deal, announced Feb. 1, which offered $44.6 billion for the Internet company. Yahoo rejected the offer, leaving Microsoft with the choices of walking away or attempting a hostile takeover. The report quoted people familiar with the matter in regards to the lean towards a takeover fight.

Ballmer also told Microsoft employees Thursday, “I will go to what I think it’s worth if that gets a deal done,” the report said.

Microsoft is also considering raising its bid, from over $29 per share, to $32 or $33 per share. Yahoo rejected that offer, stating that a fairer valuation is $35 to $37 per share. As Microsoft’s own share price has declined since the February offer, the company would have to adjust its offer in order to reach the original terms of the deal, a mixture of cash and Microsoft shares.

Yahoo took its own steps Thursday, moving closer to an agreement with Google to begin carrying its ads, a deal that would bring Yahoo up to $1 billion more per year in revenue and make a Microsoft takeover more difficult.

Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have not commented publicly on the above reports.

(Via Macworld.)

Next-Gen iPhone???

Next-gen iPhone spotted in the wild?

Well here’s an interesting one. French iPhone blog iPhon.fr got these pics from an anonymous and unverified source, and while there’s no way of telling if the shots are legit, they certainly have a truthy ring to them. They follow what we know so far about the shape, size and color of the upcoming 3G iPhone, and while there’s always the possibility of knockoff, a Photoshop job, or some other evil plot to mislead us, we’re certainly not going to discount these shots entirely in the runup to iPhone’s second coming.

(Via Engadget.)

Laptops may get more battery life from silver-zinc

Laptops may get more battery life from silver-zinc
ZPower will soon plug silver-zinc batteries into laptops

Laptop users may soon get longer battery life from their machines, with ZPower set to plug in its new silver-zinc batteries, which it claims last significantly longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

The batteries will be available in consumer and business laptops from major PC makers starting in August, according to Ross Dueber, the CEO of ZPower, although he declined to name any of the vendors on Thursday.

Silver-zinc batteries pack more energy than lithium-ion batteries, giving laptops 40 per cent more run time, according to Dueber. If a laptop runs for two hours with a lithium-ion battery, it should run for closer to three hours with a silver-zinc battery, he said.

The battery’s water-based chemistry also makes it nonflammable, compared to lithium-ion, which uses dimethyl carbonate, a flammable liquid. Cells can go off “like firecrackers” in lithium-ion batteries, Dueber said.

The silver-zinc batteries also won’t degrade in capacity during the first year, while lithium-ion batteries can lose up to 30 per cent of their capacity over that period, Dueber said. After a year, however, silver-zinc batteries start degrading at a rate similar to lithium-ion batteries.

(Via Macworld UK.)

Iron Man is the Best Reviewed Movie of 2008

Iron Man is the Best Reviewed Movie of 2008

Iron Man is not only a great comic book movie, but it’s a great film. Jon Favreau’s Marvel comic book adaptation is the best reviewed movie of the year (so far). The film currently has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 117 reviews. The only two 2008 releases which have garnered more critical acclaim have been smaller independent releases (Taxi to the Dark Side and Blindsight). The closest wide Hollywood release is the Judd Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall with 85% (138 reviews counted). And who says that movie critics are stuck up folk who don’t appreciate popcorn flicks?

Not only that, but Iron Man is also currently the best reviewed Superhero movie of all time. Let’s take a look at the eight best-reviewed superhero movies of all time (according to Rotten Tomatoes).

• Iron Man – 96% (117 reviews)
• Spider-Man 2 – 93% (228 reviews)
• Superman: The Movie – 93% (46 reviews)
• Spider-Man 90% (206 reviews)
• X2: X-Men United – 87% (214 reviews)
• Batman Begins – 84% (246 reviews)
• X-Men – 80% (141 reviews)
• Hellboy – 79% (182 reviews)

(Via /Film.)

Rising Mac Share in Businesses

BusinessWeek Cover Story on Rising Mac Share in Businesses

There’s also this preamble on their Byte of the Apple weblog, where Arik Hesseldahl writes:

A Yankee Group survey that is soon to be published, found that of some 250 companies surveyed, 87% of them have some Macs in their organizations, whereas this number was only 48% two years ago.

For a market that remained relatively stagnant for about 20 years, that’s a remarkable change for just two years.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Geek Gift! Alien Salt and Pepper Shakers

Alien Salt and Pepper Shakers

These aliens are just fine as salt and pepper shakers. They are not the typical aliens that you expect to take over the world. Not with them wearing clothing I would expect to see on my grandparents. They may just need a quick pat down to be sure those clothes are not cover for their weapons. Sometimes that innocent look is a dead giveaway for some nefarious plot of theirs and you know how dangerous alien laser weaponry can be.

Product Page ($48)

(Via Nerd Approved.)