Bob Caswell

First, I work for Microsoft. But I tend to purchase/use Microsoft products only when they are the best option for me personally (and they often are). In this case, I did actually look at Windows Mobile as my first choice. I’m on T-Mobile and not willing to switch carriers (most of my extended family is on T-Mobile, so I use hardly any minutes and like it that way, plus T-Mobile is the cheapest of all carriers and has been good to me the past few years).

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The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) just broke the story that Yahoo’s board plans to reject Microsoft $44.6 billion offer, citing our favorite source: “a person familiar with the situation.” Apparently, $31 per share “massively undervalues” Yahoo, according to the same source. The logic is that the offer doesn’t take into account risks Yahoo would go through (that is, if regulators overturned the deal) by entering into an agreement with Microsoft.

Accordingly, Yahoo’s board will send a letter to Microsoft on Monday explaining the situation. This article comes just hours after another WSJ article quotes several investment bankers who basically say that “investors have lost confidence in Yahoo management’s ability to reverse the company’s fortunes on its own.” Nevertheless, here’s Yahoo’s reasoning for rejecting the offer:

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Given the rumor that today is the day for Yahoo to speak on the pending Microsoft take over, I thought I’d revisit the question I originally asked a year ago. Of the big three, what services do you use from each?

But first, I feel compelled to point out that at this same time last year, Google was being cited as Yahoo’s major obstacle. Now, of course, a partnership with Google is Yahoo’s theoretical last chance at avoiding Microsoft as its new owner.

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I have a sister who, over the weekend, pointed out a major shortcoming of search engines. It’s so obvious that I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it first. And keep in mind that this is my sister, which arguably boosts the creditability of this anecdotal story. That is, this isn’t some nerd’s dream come true; rather, she’s fairly representative of “regular” people trying to utilize the Internet practically. So here it is:

Why can’t you organize your results by date? And why don’t the search results themselves include the date each entry was published/updated?

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The Wall Street Journal has the scoop on the latest Google news. Google is hoping to offer consumers a new way to store and access files online. The search giant is working on a service that would let you store essentially all of your files online (documents, music, photos, videos, etc.).

I already do this with Mozy for free. But Mozy works more as a backup that I generally access only when I need to restore files. Google wants to simplify the process of transferring and opening files such that you would actually be using your online files actively.

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The Wall Street Journal has the latest on Google’s cellphone plans via its usual mix of industry analysts and “people familiar with the matter.” Apparently, Google has already erected transmission towers all over its headquarters and is operating an advanced high-speed cellphone network under a test license from the FCC. Prototype cellphones with Android software (Google’s previously announced mobile platform) are currently running on it.

The idea is that Google is actually considering building and operating a wireless network that would provide consumers an option that is faster and cheaper than the AT&T’s and Verizon’s. But, of course, this news comes with all the standard disclaimers revolving around the fact that it’s too early to tell what the search giant will really do.

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So Google today announced its plans to be the latest force in the cellphone industry. The gist of the press release is that Google has partnered with 34 companies to develop and release an “open source” operating system, user interface, and applications. What this means in terms of the highly anticipated Gphone is best explained in the words of the Google engineer in charge of the project, Andy Rubin: “We are not building a GPhone; we are enabling 1,000 people to build a GPhone.”

This is really only news if you’re a developer. As for what this means for technology consumers specifically, see below for a compilation of the most relevant and interesting quotes surrounding the latest news of the pseudo-Gphone:

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Quoting our favorite source of “people familiar with the situation,” the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) claims that executives at Microsoft and Yahoo are in early-stage discussions about merging the two companies to take on Google. Investors seem to be taking this seriously, as Yahoo shares surged in overseas trading because of this news. The company’s market value is now close to $38 billion up from $32 billion earlier this week. So if you want to quantify this rumor, there you have it: the world thinks its worth $6 billion dollars.

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