Utilizing the 700MHz spectrum block it acquired in March and the Sprint network, Cox Communications today announced plans to launch its own wireless service.

The company plans to enter the market in 2009 on Sprint's network, and then roll out its own 3G network, which it is currently building. Cox's plans also involve testing LTE for 4G connectivity.

The big news for day 1 at PDC 2008 was the introduction Windows Azure, Microsoft's "operating system for the cloud," and its associated Azure Services Platform. Microsoft also outlined future plans for its own online services. We've put together a quick FAQ to help you digest the news and what it means.

What is Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform? Windows Azure serves as the foundation for developing applications that run in the cloud. What this means is that it essentially turns servers across the Internet into a massive distributed operating system, running applications that both interact with PC-based software and run within a Web browser.

Anyone who thinks Microsoft isn't capable of responding to a serious challenge doesn't know Microsoft. It's the familiar puzzle, put together the same way: Let others blaze the trail, then wait for an opening and leverage resources.

Windows Azure, depending not upon whom you ask but instead upon when you ask the question, either is or is not an operating system. It is not a kernel designed to operate on a single processor and provide access to resources on the local machine, so in that regard, it is not Windows.

Still very much the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates is expected to try to convince an FCC commissioner to help quell an NAB proposal that would push back a vote on "freeing the white spaces" of the wireless spectrum.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and another high-ranking Microsoft official plan to call FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell later today to help sway the commission away from an demand by TV industry to delay its decision on the controversial "white spaces," BetaNews has learned.

As perhaps the most abundant example to date of the platform's HD streaming capability, Netflix announced today that its "instant view" streams will be made available to non-Windows users through Microsoft Silverlight.

With Netflix placing increased emphasis on its streaming and instantly viewable library, a large swath of users has still largely been neglected. Though queues could be assembled in any browser and then viewed with one of the connected set-top devices, those without Windows Media Player 11 could not stream Netflix content directly to their computers.

Airport full-body scanners which show people's private parts are a lot like a strip search, imposing "a serious impact on the fundamental rights of citizens," according to a resolution passed by European lawmakers late last week.

Although already in use at some airports in the US, the UK, and Netherlands, full-body scanning -- a security technology quite capable of showing people's unmentionables -- might now fade away as a specter facing Americans and other travelers in European airports, due to a lawmakers' vote.

Yahoo on Friday forged ahead with a deal to build both a customer care center and a data center in Nebraska, even after reporting a 64 percent drop in third-quarter profits on Monday of the same week.

Regardless of 10 percent layoff plans and a huge fall in profits announced earlier that same week, eternally optimistic Yahoo said on Friday that it will open a new data center in Nebraska in 2009 at a price tag of $100 million, which may not include new salaries.

On Election Day, November 4, Research In Motion is slated to finally release the BlackBerry Bold, the more traditionally designed of RIM's newest BlackBerrys. Market analysis firm iSuppli today has released a teardown of the device.

According to iSuppli's teardown, the costliest aspect of the Bold is Marvell's processor, at $34.34, or roughly 22% of the device's total cost. Recently, UK carrier Orange halted the Bold's sales, citing dubious software problems. Many wondered if the problems were really related to Marvell's PXA chipset, which is based on the Intel XScale microarchitecture. Almost all processing takes place on the chip, including applications processing, and digital/analog baseband.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave clear hints of a Windows-branded product that will be deployed in the cloud. At 8:55 am PDT Monday, Ozzie christened this service Windows Azure.

As expected, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie began his first day keynote speech at PDC 2008 (he'll be back for Day 2) by staking his company's new claim to software as services. "The Web has become a key demand generation mechanism," he said in his characteristic high-flying style, "becoming Web services' front door."

Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie is set to open the company's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles with his morning keynote address that is expected to cover Microsoft's efforts in the cloud with new online services.

Ozzie will be joined by Amitabh Srivastava (Internet services platform), Bob Muglia (Server and Tools) and David Thompson (business software). We will be live-blogging the keynote as it takes place. Refresh this page for updates.

Although some Apple developers are airing a lot of frustration lately, mDialog's Greg Philpott wants it known that he's basically happy about creating software for Apple platforms.

While iPhone software applications like Podster and Murderdrome have gotten nixed by Apple's App Store, thousands of others are indeed up there for download. A "social video" application from mDialog, available since the App Store's launch on July 10, is driving considerable new business for mDialog, said Greg Philpott, the company's founder and CEO. In an interview with BetaNews, Philpott also shared some tips for other developers interested in getting their software into the App Store.

Get ready for the first concrete news on the next version of Microsoft Windows, the next edition of Visual Studio, and what could very well be the first Windows product to serve applications "in the cloud." PDC is all this week.

LOS ANGELES (BetaNews) - It's apparent even from before the get-go that the theme of this year's Microsoft Professional Developers' Conference is winning back the marketing momentum, and bringing back developers' enthusiasm in Windows as a brand. Certainly many of them are already enthusiastic about the technologies they work with -- ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, C#, LINQ, the new dynamic languages like F#. But in the last round, that enthusiasm didn't translate into Vista, the consumer brand.

A new rule proposed by the Department of Homeland Security would, according to some industry groups, kneecap the tech-manufacturing industry's "just-in-time" cost-management strategies.

The SAFE (Security and Accountability For Every) Port Act of 2006 is best known to many tech folk as the bill that hamstrung most online-gambling sites. However, US hardware manufacturers may soon feel the hurt, as new efforts to address potential attacks via the nation's ports and borders lead to claims that the changes the US Dept. of Homeland Security wants will add costs without raising safety.

Where did everybody go? Recent Nielsen Online statistics reveal that the social-networking congregating online may not be hanging out where you think they are.

Nielsen's September numbers for thirteen sites with a significant social-networking aspect provide stirring testimony to the ability of many of us to do anything but work on our computers -- and, obliquely, a look at how the hype still outstrips reality in many cases.

She isn't accused of homicide, exactly, but a woman in Japan could spend five years in jail on charges related to "murdering" her virtual husband in revenge for a virtual divorce.

Police in Japan suspect that a 43-year-old woman grew enraged after her online husband "divorced" her in the interactive Maple Story game -- so much so that she virtually eliminated him.