Video game company Electronic Arts' bid to acquire Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two Interactive has met its timely end, with increasing focus coming to EA for the widespread piracy of its long-awaited Will Wright title Spore.

Last night, Electronic Arts announced that it was terminating discussions with Take-Two that began more than half a year ago. After a series of bids and refusals, EA allowed its takeover bid to expire so Take-Two could present its case for needing a better offer. Considering the materials Take-Two presented, EA backed down.

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[M.E.'s NOTE: This story includes updated information that corrects a previous edition that was posted earlier this afternoon, with information that reflects a response that BetaNews received directly from Sirius XM Satellite Radio. This version corrects an earlier misinterpretation of CEO Mel Karmazin's remarks.]

Prior to the merger between XM and Sirius, investors and even the companies' executives wondered whether there could be enough revenue to offset the debt. This week, the merged entity's CEO presented his plan, and asked investors to have faith.

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A missive from the office of Joe Lieberman on Thursday credits the Connecticut Senator as the direct reason Google changed its Community Guidelines to disqualify terrorist training videos from being displayed.

In announcing the update earlier this week, the YouTube Blog says "We've updated the Community Guidelines to address some of the most common questions users ask us about inappropriate content. Included in the update are a few new things to steer clear of, like not directly inciting violence or encouraging other users to violate the Terms of Use. "

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In a unanimous decision, Virginia's Supreme Court has agreed with arguments made by lawyers of convicted spammer Jeremy Jaynes that Virginia's anti-spam law violates the Constitution's First Amendment free speech protections.

Jaynes was famously sentenced to 9 years in prison in what was believed to be the first case of felony spamming. He was found to have propagated 10 million unsolicited e-mails a day through an AOL server housed in Loudon County, Virginia.

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Anticipated for delivery in October, Samsung's first ever netbook is likely to offer five hours of battery life. It will be priced at the equivalent of $550 USD. If you'd like to buy one of these devices in the US, however, don't hold your breath.

While an official announcement still awaits, Samsung is expected to step into the netbook (or sub-laptop) fray during October in Korea, the United Kingdom and some other markets, although not initially in the United States.

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MP3 creators Fraunhofer IIS, in association with Dolby Labs, LSI Corp., and Phillips Applied Technologies have announced the licensing terms for MPEG Surround, which promises to bring surround sound to audio streams without much overhead.

Fraunhofer has been pushing hard In an attempt to encourage the adoption and growth of MPEG Surround, what is internationally known as MPEG-D. Last week at the IFA consumer electronics show in Munich, Germany, Fraunhofer IIS showed off its partnership with Rockantenne digital radio station, which now streams in 5.1 surround using the technology.

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Microsoft's introduction of a new platform will allow media center PC manufacturers to support premium channels, which the television industry mandates must be covered by copy protection.

Known as Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA), the technology builds on the company's work on Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA). BDA is the standard for digital video capture on Windows systems that Microsoft has used since Windows 98.

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The price of text messaging in the US has doubled over the past three years, and the chairman of the US Senate Antitrust Subcommittee is now asking the heads of the the nation's four biggest wireless phone companies why.

In a letter, US Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) has requested an explanation of the texting price hikes from the CEOs and presidents of Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, giving them a deadline of October 6, 2008 to answer his questions.

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3:20 pm EDT September 12, 2008 - Apple has released an updated version of iTunes 8 to correct the BSOD problems some users have been experiencing after installing the software. The issue relates to a driver that conflicts with Windows Vista.

In a support posting, Apple said: "After installing iTunes 8 for Windows, some users may see a blue screen error message when connecting iPhone or iPod to a Windows Vista computer. In some cases, the computer may immediately restart when connecting iPhone or iPod to the computer."

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Following up on the Yahoo Open Strategy announced in April, Yahoo this week opened up its annual "Hack Day" to outside developers, while also giving glimpses to journalists of the forthcoming new features on its home page and various other properties.

"[Yahoo Open Strategy] platforms will harness Yahoo!'s unique strengths -- our rich and relevant user experiences (we're #1 in 7 verticals), our massive audience (half a billion users/month), and our deep data repositories (content, content, content) -- and open them to the innovations of the developer community. Our aim: to fundamentally transform how people experience Yahoo," wrote Cody Simms of Yahoo Open Strategy's product management group, in a blog post introducing the strategy last spring.

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In a rare moment of clarity for a company known for secrecy, Apple has detailed the changes and security fixes that come with the iPhone's 2.1 software update, released Friday.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised during an iPod event Tuesday that the new iPhone firmware will fix some of the device's most egregious issues, including call drops and truncated battery life. In addition, security watchers note the update patches 8 security vulnerabilities, including a code execution risk for mobile Safari and the previously disclosed passcode flaw.

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Harkening back to the early days of the BlackBerry, a new mobile device known as the Peek -- slated for availability next week -- definitely escapes featuritis. If e-mail is your main interest when you are mobile, maybe the Peek is for you.

It might be hard to imagine now, but RIM's first Blackberry devices acted as dedicated e-mail pagers. Next week, Target stores will start to sell the Peek, which mimics that old e-mail pager, in both appearance and for the most part functionality.

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Microsoft has released its latest installment of the much-discussed advertisements featuring former CEO Bill Gates with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, revealing a tiny bit more of what the company is aiming to achieve with its abstruse ad campaign.

Last week, I recorded my immediate reactions to Microsoft's $300 million ad campaign with a mix of confusion and reproach. One week later, Microsoft has released the second installment in its ad series. While its intent remains on the vague side, Microsoft's serial ad campaign has engaged viewers with its esotericism.

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Continuing BetaNews' interview with the user experience chief of Mozilla Labs, we discuss whether it's possible, even with an estimated quarter-billion Firefox users, to build a semantic functionality network on the strength of volunteerism.

Of the billions of people linked together through the modern Internet, and the tens of thousands of services available to them -- a great many of which are operated by folks who believe they have the capability to serve the Web's principal application -- the number of institutions formed among them that we talk about on a daily basis, that command Web users' everyday attention, and that promise "solutions" to these users' needs, can be counted on two hands.

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After acquiring Helio only three weeks ago, Virgin Mobile USA has launched its first device from its new subsidiary: an EV-DO handset by Personal Communication Devices, LLC -- a spinoff of UTStarcom -- called the Shuttle.

Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Helio has passed hands several times in the last year. Earthlink and SK Telecom were joint founders of the service, but Earthlink later backed away from the project, placing the financial burden on SKT. Earlier this year, Virgin Mobile, a similarly youth-oriented MVNO that leases bandwidth from Sprint PCS, expressed interest in acquiring the brand.

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