Is it the duty of a CEO to make sure his company's shareholders can make a big short-term gain, even if it means the loss of the company in the long term? A Delaware court will decide that question when it hears Yahoo shareholders' case.

A class-action suit against Yahoo filed last February 21 in Delaware, originally on behalf of shareholders of retirement funds for Detroit city workers and law enforcement personnel, could pick up added class members as a result of last weekend's Yahoo and Microsoft merger talk failure. Attorneys on behalf of the shareholders are confirming today that they're pressing ahead with plans to hold Yahoo's chief executives and board of directors liable for failing to enter into a deal that would likely have maximized their share value.

Continue reading →

For the first time since Apple's launch of the iPhone last year, two mobile carriers will offer the device to subscribers in a single country.

Both Vodafone and Telecom Italia will offer the iPhone in Italy, which seems to lend some validity to recent reports that Apple may be shifting its strategy to become more open before the 3G release of the iPhone.

Continue reading →

Like Fiat and Ford automobiles, South Korean Hyundai and Kia vehicles will receive their own version of Microsoft's hands-free media player and mobile phone interface by November, the companies said.

Late Yesterday, South Korea's Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, and Microsoft announced a partnership that will outfit the manufacturer's Hyundai and Kia vehicles with hands-free cell phone and media player controls beginning in November. Voice response-equipped automobiles are expected to hit the market in 2010.

Continue reading →

In a world already populated by the Green Grid Alliance and other industry groups oriented to energy efficiency, IBM has just rolled out a data center alliance with some similar interests.

In an interview with BetaNews, Rich Lechner, VP of IBM's Enterprise Systems, said that that his company's new alliance program for enterprise data centers will work hand-in-hand with other industry groups, including Green Grid, DMTF (Desktop Management Task Force), and SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Alliance).

Continue reading →

There's a saying here in Indianapolis when someone starts falling behind: We say he's "lost the lead lap." Last weekend, Microsoft may have faced a critical moment in its race for online leadership. Does it realize how far behind it is?

With AOL's Platform-A now commanding the largest reach of any online advertising platform worldwide, there's respectable analysis that says Microsoft could now be considered the number four player in the online advertising space.

Continue reading →

To help add a social networking feel for Microsoft Outlook e-mail users, San Francisco startup Xobni has launched a beta service aimed at helping organize their e-mail inboxes by business and personal relationships.

As Outlook remains the most common program used for e-mail in corporate America, Xobni (available for download here) aims to make it easier for users to find e-mail addresses and phone numbers faster than simply relying on Outlook alone.

Continue reading →

OpenSolaris -- Sun's open source version of the Solaris kernel first announced in 2005 -- has been made available on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) distributed computing service.

Today at the CommunityOne Developer Conference in San Francisco, California, Sun Microsystems debuted its new OpenSolaris distribution which includes a small core operating system, a network package repository, application packages, and the Sun-developed Image Packaging System (IPS). The root file system of OpenSolaris is ZFS, which promises continual checksum capability and instant rollbacks to chosen states.

Continue reading →

Plans to bring wireless Internet to Boulder, Colorado and the surrounding metropolitan areas are being put on hold over funding issues.

The consortium called Colorado Wireless Communities was tasked with getting the funding to build out the networks in 10 cities from Lakewood to Boulder, a roughly 150 square mile area. The group is now unsure whether it can raise enough money.

Continue reading →

The embattled former CEO David Dobson will now hand over the reins of the Canadian-based software company to veteran IT executive Kris Hagerman, who joins Corel as interim chief from Symantec.

After running up a stock buyout bid from Corel's major shareholder, Vector Capital, Dobson quit his job at Corel late last month to take a position at an unidentified corportation. Dobson had been widely expected to stay on with Corel through June.

Continue reading →

T-Mobile USA's UMTS/HSDPA network rollout last week in New York will now be followed by buildouts in 20 more markets, according to plan. Spokespersons say this upgrade will cover both voice and data traffic, contrary to prior reports.

The number four carrier in the US has reportedly spent nearly $5 billion on the 3G network, and has done little to hype up the upgrade. Device support is currently lacking, however the company has plans to add to the lineup of handsets within the next week to include the carrier's first HSDPA device, and several "all-in-one" handsets.

Continue reading →

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer sued the state of New York, claiming its new law requiring out of state retailers to collect New York sales tax was unconstitutional.

Amazon filed the complaint with the New York state Supreme Court on April 25, claiming the law was vague and overly broad. It also told the court that it believes the law unfairly singles the company out.

Continue reading →

Wi-Fi provider Boingo will offer Apple iPhone and iPod Touch owners the opportunity to enjoy 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi service at 28 airports located in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

What's the catch? Users interested in the service will have to watch 15 seconds of video advertisements before having access to the Internet uninterrupted for 15 minutes.

Continue reading →

To put a lid on bloggers' speculation about police getting "backdoors" to Windows security, Microsoft is starting to hush up on the subject. In an e-mail to BetaNews on Friday, a spokesperson described COFEE as a "customizable framework."

Despite releasing a few more facts on Friday about a controversial new tool for police officers, Microsoft has now vowed to stay mum on the "exact methods" used by COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor), as well as about what kinds of passwords -- OS or network, for example -- COFEE might be able to crack.

Continue reading →

NBC News' educational arm NBC Learn has launched iCue: part social network, part news source for students age 13 and up, built upon NBC's vast video news archive.

iCue's learning environment is based on a concept called CueCards, which are video clips and related news stories fashioned into virtual trading cards. The content of these will focus on US history, government, and politics, as well as English language study and composition. CueCards can be collected, annotated, traded, indexed, and even integrated into games.

Continue reading →

Sources have told the Wall Street Journal that Deutsche Telekom is looking into either a merger or buyout of the third-largest US wireless provider.

With the addition of Sprint's customer base, T-Mobile would become the largest cellular provider in the US, serving nearly 83 million customers. The news appears to be a repackaging of earlier rumors that first surfaced in March.

Continue reading →