On Thursday, NVidia introduced its newest graphics processing units and media and communications processors, and it's hard not to notice that the company is adopting a platform-based focus for its graphics product line...perhaps to counter ATI.

The Santa Clara-based company today re-announced GeForce 9800 GX2, joining forces with the GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9600 GT GPUs; along with the nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP chipset.

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It will now be up to a new working group, yet to be given an official name, to manage the process of making OXML play nice with ODF. It's out of Microsoft's hands.

We can't call it "Office Open XML" anymore, because it no longer belongs to Microsoft Office exclusively. As of yesterday, International Organization for Standardization committee SC 34 passed a resolution that effectively assumes stewardship of Open XML, the document format standard originally produced by Microsoft, and which is now officially under new management.

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Virtualization company Parallels has released a new beta of its server virtualization software for Intel-based Macs.

Parallel's application allows an enterprise IT department to virtualize server environments, thus saving money on hardware needs. By definition, the platform is a "bare-metal hypervisor."

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Intel today sold off more of its optical platform to Emcore, continuing on with a strategy of dumping unprofitable assets and activities that detract from its core business.

Today's sale includes the enterprise and storage assets of Intel's optical storage unit, as well as its Connects cables business, to Emcore, a fiber optics networking supplier in Alburquerque, New Mexico. Last December, Intel sold Emcore the telecom portion of its optical platform.

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A team of experts headed by security guru Ira Winkler was hired by an anonymous power company to test the security of a power grid's network. The door was practically held open for them.

In a matter of hours, the team infiltrated the grid's supervisory, control and data acquisition (SCADA) networks using simple phishing tools: social engineering and browser exploits.

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IBM today filled a hole in its storage product line-up by buying FilesX, a rising star in the category of continuous data protection (CDP) and data recovery software for Windows.

The Armonk company plans to use the enterprise-oriented FilesX technology as a complement to an existing product called IBM Tivoli Continous Data Protection for Files, IBM officials said in a statement. CDP for Files is geared to individual PC users and small and mid-sized business (SMBs).

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The online video provider from Fox Interactive Media is looking to take its Web-based shows to TV screens internationally with a newly announced deal with Shine.

Quarterlife, a short-form program featured prominently on MySpaceTV, made an attempt at breaking into the US broadcast television schedule last February on NBC. To say it was a catastrophic failure would be generous; the series not only ranked last among other shows in its 10 pm time slot, but received the lowest ratings NBC has seen in that slot for 17 years.

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According to information and photos obtained by Engadget, new iPhone features are found in the Enterprise version of the new firmware.

The new functionality came as part of an update to the 2.0 beta firmware, which was pushed to registered beta testers on Tuesday.

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The FCC has begun the process of establishing a nationwide emergency SMS alert system, laying down the foundations yesterday of technical standards that participating cell phone carriers must observe.

While participation is purely voluntary, AT&T, Verizon, Alltel, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile have reportedly all contributed favorably to discussions toward the formation of a system similar to the US' current Emergency Alert System for broadcasters, though which would relay national emergency warnings to cell phone users.

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The way the game of mergers and acquisitions is typically played involves the carefully measured use of speculation seeding -- the fine art of making the other side wonder what you're going to do, without having to actually amass the real tools to do it.

ANALYSIS Yesterday, Yahoo revealed it can play this game quite masterfully. In an almost effortless stroke of gamesmanship, the Web portal leader announced it would test giving Google an extra outlet for its AdSense for Search, and then in the same statement pronounced quite sternly that by no means should anyone take this to mean anything permanent is taking place...because after all, Yahoo maintains the right to explore all its alternatives.

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AOL will aggregate its tech-oriented sites through a single portal, attempting to cash in on an already broad user base accessing those blogs.

Switched will now become the hub for the company's efforts, and draw in content from various blogs already under AOL's tech umbrella. Additionally, the site will lose prominent AOL branding.

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Struggling consumer electronics giant Circuit City pulled a big surprise Wednesday by posting a profitable first quarter, which is amazing considering its sales margins are still sounding alarm bells with investors.

Circuit City's overall sales numbers were down for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year just ended, but it also opened or relocated 22 US superstores and enjoyed gains across Web sales, international sales, and revenues from LCD TVs, video gaming products, GPS, and PC Firedog and home theater services.

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The return of AMD to any kind of dominant position in the CPU market depends on its ability to be perceived by systems analysis personnel as the performance leader. Today, the company obtained some much-needed ammunition in that battle.

The question prospective customers have been asking recently about AMD is whether its reticence to produce a 3.0 GHz+ quad-core CPU will hurt it, not only in head-to-head matchups against Intel Xeon but with respect to its perception as a potential performance champion. Today, AMD claimed leading scores among turned in by three separate x86-based servers, all of them HP ProLiant models.

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Microsoft has released its first preview of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008, a re-named and re-designed version of its 2006 robotics studio software.

Microsoft Robotics Studio 06, according to the company, had over 200,000 copies downloaded and over 50 companies in the partner program. Today's update was unveiled at the Robobusiness Conference and Exposition in Pittsburgh, the same conference that hosted the premiere of the earlier version.

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In what appears to be a very carefully considered, strategically phrased statement this afternoon, Yahoo said it will actually test carrying Google's ads on its own pages, calling the test a "strategic alternative." Microsoft isn't happy and quickly responded.

For an upcoming two-week period, the date of which was not announced, Yahoo said that it will imbue up to three percent of readers' search queries with ads generated using Google's AdSense for Search service. That service was intentionally created to give other Web sites a mechanism for its users to search the Web using Google, with AdSense ads appearing next to the results, and with sites sharing in Google's revenue.

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