Alright, so Microsoft has officially backed off from bidding on Yahoo, after a roller coaster of ups and downs, that started with an official offer to buy the company for $44.6 Billion, price that reflected $31 per share, back in February. The generous bid has never made any impression on Yahoo’s management, as the company’s directors has officially decided to turn off Microsoft’s hostile acquisition, claiming the bid is substantially lower than its real value, and whoever wants to buy them should hit $40 per share, meaning extra $9 to Steve Ballmer’s offer. Still, Microsoft clutched to its original bid (desperately trying to stay a major internet player in the growing online advertisement and searching markets) and considered an hostile takeover, by pursuing Yahoo share holders, but at the end of the day, after taking off their threatening suit, the Redmond’s were willing to raise the bid to $33, which was rejected by Yahoo as well and lead to today’s proposal withdraw announcement.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

Again, that wasn’t much of a squall to Sunnyvale, as Yahoo’s CEO, Jerry Yang, has apathetically responded:

…”With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users.”

End of story? I’m not so sure, Temporary cease-fire? definitely yes.

[via Microsoft]

Everybody wants to take part and have a roll in the GTA IV madness, as I hear that Liberty City locals will enjoy the ability to navigate their way through the massive number of “points of interest”, interspersed across the town, with Google Maps. The service provides online social game mapping, allowing players to share their discovery points (like restaurants, clubs, bars, bowling, ATM, gun shops or Internet Cafe) with their friends, by simply adding markers on the map and pointing the exact location of the place. I wonder if someone has time to read this thing, as I find many of my friends busy all day, playing the game, burning the roads.

[grandtheftauto.ign via kotaku]

Sling Media, the company that turns any Internet-connected PC, Mac, or smartphone into a home television, wants a foothold in the iPhone application festival. The company has downloaded the SDK package (along with other 100,000 people) and started developing a designated Sling app. (hypothetically) which means, by the time Apple officially releases the new firmware version 2.0, around June, and launches the App store, you could watch TV virtually anywhere in the world through the iPhone, and although EDGE streaming is pretty lousy, it can really work great via WiFi connection. Stay tuned !

[via slashgear]

    is a new web service, allowing you to search the internet visually. The company has developed a nice and intuitive search engine that will change the internet navigation and our searching behavior. Like any other search engines, you start by typing the word or inquiry you look for and searchme will offer related categories. Choose any category and the engine will pop up pictures of web pages that answer your search. Just flip between the visual pages and click through. If you need more info, read the short brief at the bottom of the visual results and pick your likable page. Unfortunately, Searchme is a closed beta, but i do hope it will go live ASAP and change the way we search the web. I was lucky to get an invitation and test Searchme, it is new, refreshing and very fast to use. Still, there are many things to improve, like adding more web pages to the engine’s data, increase the size of search results and make them more accurate. Check out the video:

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

Finally, after 18 weeks of closed beta, Hulu.com opens its doors to everyone in the U.S who looks for free video streaming service. The site offers over 100 full-length movies, full-length episodes, and other content line-up from libraries of giants like FOX, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony and Warner Bros. Among the videos, You can find hit shows like The Simpsons, The Office, classics like The incredible Hulk, Miami Vice and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Arrested Development, Firefly and Friday night lights. Among the full movies you can find The Usual Suspects, The Big Lebowski, Myself & Irene, Three Amigos and many more. As for the sports, it seems the guys from Hulu have teamed up with the NBA management to bring you the best moves and clips, and we expect more events to be added soon. Mind you, the TV episodes will be available for only 5 weeks after broadcasting date. Meanwhile, you can enjoy hours of fun clips, videos or movies, read users reviews and share them with others in your web site – COOL !!

[via Hulu]

Sony wants to turn the games purchase into an easy and approachable experience. The company has officially announced they are developing a wireless store for the PSP consoles, during the GDC conference. The store is expected to be similar to the wireless iTunes, located on iPhone and iPod Touch. Unfortunately, Sony has dropped the availability details, so i guess we all have to wait impatiently for any future announcements.

[via slashgear]

This mysterious teaser snappily appeared on PS3 official site for a very short time, alluding messaging capabilities support for the game console. If this info is real, and we assume it is, PS3 users finally get voice and video chat services, allowing them to connect with their friends whenever they pop up online or during a game. The sneaky image reads “Talk to others during game play, say hello anytime you’re online, or have a video chat with an Eye camera; USB Camera or headset.” Hopefully, Sony is going to embed the messaging services in the next firmware update, so here’s a very good reason to anticipate the next version.

[via slashgear]

BenQ has decided to make it official, introduces its new 4.8″ 3G HSDPA Mobile Internet Device (MID) at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The new Mid features the Menlow platform from Intel with a shaking technology to minimize open windows, changeable desktop icons and more. Available in Q2 2008.

Specifications:

• Display: 4.8? WVGA TouchScreen (1024 x 600).
• Processor: Silverthorne 45nm, Intel Menlow platform.
• Features: HSDPA, WiFi, sliding icons, 0.3MP camera
• Price: unknown.

[BenQ via jkkmobile]

Another picture after the break.

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Yahoo’s board of directors officially decided to turn off Microsoft’s hostile acquisition offer for 44.6$ Billion, price that presented $31 per share, a week ago. The rejection adds 2% to Yahoo’s share, 0.2% to Google’s share and -2% reduction on Microsoft’s share. In a press release, Yahoo says the bid is substantially lower than its real value and refuses to consider any offer under 40$ per share.

…”Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!’s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.”

“After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments.”

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Rumors come true, Microsoft submitted an official offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion, price that presents $31 per share, 62% over Yahoo’s closing price, 19.18$. Microsoft is making tremendous efforts to carry out this deal, in order to stay a major internet player and to be able to compete Google in the growing online advertisement and searching markets. Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer said: “We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.” The bid was submitted after Yahoo announced the cutting of 1,000 jobs and reported 8 consistent quarters of dropping shares value. With the anticipation for a difficult year, Yahoo’s board of directors might accept the offer, though we hear the company is not in a rush. Yahoo shares responded with increasing of 47.9%.

Update: Google is reluctant with current developments. Senior VP for Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, has just posted a preliminary comment in Google’s official blog, attacking Microsoft for the hostile bid to acquire Yahoo and raises troubling questions:

“Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.”

And more:

…”Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions — and consumers deserve satisfying answers.”

To those of you who haven’t heard about Slacker, we are talking about an internet radio service that hosts hundreds of radio stations. Slacker announced the release of a portable internet radio player, back in January 2008 at the CES show and now it goes live and getting shipped to retailers. The new Slacker player comes with three 4-inch screen models:

• 2GB – stores 15 stations and free 500MB for your personal media – 200$.
• 4GB – stores 25 stations and free 1.5GB for your personal media – 250$.
• 8GB – stores 40 stations and free 4GB for your personal media – 300$.

The stations are loaded to the player through your USB-PC sync or through wireless hotspots, via the WiFi connection. Each station is presumably loading 100 songs to the player and it seems they are doing a good job in learning your music taste, Pandora style. A satellite car dock is expected to be released in the near future.

[via slashgear]

Check the video after the break.

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As mentioned earlier, Sony announced the availability of Skype on PSP and despite a small delay, it is here, included in the latest firmware update 3.90 . For the time being, it is only available through network update for PSP-2000 models, but the new firmware expands the Playstation Network support to all models – Rock on.

Update: The M33 team has released a custom version of the 3.90 firmware update, available through Network Update.

[via gizmodo]

Sony has started distributing its new portable surfing device, the Mylo 2. As we mentioned couple weeks ago, this cool mini PMP device is a portable wireless player with a neat QWERTY sliding keyboard that features WiFi internet surfing, Flash Lite 3 support (for youtube) and instant messaging communication. Price is set for $299.99.

[via gizmodo]

iRiver was a major showing player at the CES this year. Just before recapping, the company introduced a new media center prototype, the iRiver Unit II. This model is a futuristic combination of audio, video, TV tuner, FM tuner, internet WiFi, SD expansion and a 7″ portable control display, loaded with some cool widgets. The Unit II is packed with some advanced features, such as mini handy keyboard, speaker dock, VOIP connectivity and various connections, including component, RCA, RGB, optical, HDMI and more. The device is expected to be released in 2009 for 700$. check out the video:

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[via engadget]

More pictures after the break.

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SanDisk announced on a new 4GB Cruzer Titanium Plus USB flash drive, coming out at the CES 2008. This new Cruzer, is not just another flash drive, it is a drive that backs you up automatically online, in a secure location. This revolutionary application, becomes possible, after SanDisk signed on a free  online backup deal with BeInSync. This 30$ value back up service, is included with the purchase of the Cruzer Titanium Plus, for the first 6 months, as well as two years of BoomerangIt lost and found service.  The drive will be available in March for $60.

[via engadget]

Recent speculations about Skype, coming to the PSP console, have just confirmed with this 1 frame shot, revealed in an easter egg PSP promo video that Sony released for the CES show, next week. In the picture frame, we spot 2 boys, holding their PSP devices and communicating with each other. In the middle, a sneaky image reads “Make calls with Skype”.

This news, coming out as a teaser from Sony, are going to catch a lot of attention at the CES. After all, it is a cool thing to have wireless communication in your portable game console.

[via engadget]

Dizzler free downloadable application allows users to search online and play free music, videos, games, and radio stations on their desktop or mobile device. Dizzler even allows people to embed their player in various social networks such as Myspace, Facebook or any weblog, by simply adding a code line.

With Dizzler, all you need is an internet connection to access millions of songs, videos and games, free and legally. The player is fully adaptable, and Dizzler offers tons of skins in its website.

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