Even with poor sales, Microsoft isn't giving up on the Japanese market just yet.

Its low-cost Xbox 360 that went on sale for $279 in the US will debut in Japan for around $260 on March 6. Microsoft likely sees the cheaper price as a way to shore up its worldwide sales, which are lagging in the country.

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Today, the non-profit organization in charge of the Internet's fundamental naming structure finally began migrating its root servers to IP version 6.

ICANN today is finally beginning the long, and perhaps arduous, process of upgrading its root servers to incorporate IPv6 records. Though the updated protocol has been in the post-development phase for over ten years, it has seen very limited uptake outside of the enterprise sector.

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Time Warner's AOL has acquired Goowy, San Diego-based flash widget startup for an undisclosed sum. Widgetized versions of AOL properties could be the next step for the dinosaur ISP.

AOL as an ISP has been on the decline for years, but has been taking measures to establish itself as a stronger player in the advertising market.

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Spearheaded by Microsoft, Sun, and other high tech vendors, The Green Grid is generating support among industry groups, users, and government agencies for building standards for efficient data center energy management.

By 2015, the costs of energy for operating servers will surpass the costs of server hardware, according to a group known as Intelligent Energy Europe. But until now, most of the available information on data center efficiencies has been "departmentalized and proprietary," and there have been few standards efforts geared to measuring data center efficiency.

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The party is on for February 27th, as Microsoft confirms its star attraction, Windows Server 2008, will be released on time. Admins everywhere may now be breathing a sigh of relief.

There will be no delay from here on out in Microsoft's release of Windows Server 2008. As one of the company's "heroes" for its gala rollout party in Los Angeles in just over three weeks' time, WS2K8 will arrive neither early like its "hero" partner Visual Studio 2008, or late like SQL Server 2008, which will actually ship at least six months after it "launches."

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The search provider has decided to end its music service, opting instead to send its business to Real.

In a joint statement this morning, Rhapsody -- the joint venture from RealNetworks and MTV -- revealed that, over the coming months, Yahoo will transition its customers over to Rhapsody by offering tools to convert their library from one format to the other.

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While it doesn't have the cash on hand to match or exceed Microsoft's offer -- few companies on Earth would -- Google went out of its way over the weekend to defend its chief competitor as an innovator, and is doing nothing to quell rumors as to what more it might do.

It could be a public relations move, to stave off criticism that Google's dominance in the paid search and advertising fields are forcing its competitors to coalesce in order to survive. It could also be a serious move by Google to offer itself as a "white knight," giving Yahoo an alternative to being swallowed whole by Microsoft.

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Laptops from Lenovo will start shipping this year with HSDPA technology built in, which can theoretically support download speeds up to 14.4MBps..

Market projections say that by 2011, an annual 200 million notebooks will ship worldwide. Of those, Ericsson is betting that half will ship with built-in HSDPA. If that's the case, then the Swedish cell phone maker is jumping on board at the right time.

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With the economy on shaky ground right now, some investors are predicting that private funding for high-tech companies could soon tank. But others disagree vehemently, arguing that investors should not be so quickly scared off.

Stephen Brotman, founder of the $2 billion Greenhill SAVP venture capital firm, warned last week that if the economy hits a bad recession, the angel investors who often pitch in on first-round start-up funding might be forced to curtail their expenditures.

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It may be among one of the historical milestones in the history of technology, and it may never actually become a done deal. Why is Microsoft risking so much, what could it gain even by losing, and what does it really think it would gain by winning?

For an in-depth analysis of the strategy and motivations behind Microsoft's extraordinarily bold move, BetaNews on Friday spoke with four principal experts in the industry, both observers and insiders:

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If the massive deal does go through, Google will at last face a major threat to fend off. Technical integration between Microsoft and Yahoo could be a nightmare, according to some analysts. Yet customers might stand to gain.

Although Microsoft will edge up in market share closer to number one player Google, the deal will call for immense amounts of technical integration, analysts and users tend to agree. On the other hand, the potential effects of the mammoth buyout on customers and smaller ad and search competitors are still less clear.

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Chances are you've been hearing more than the usual news this week about Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. But a lot of other search technology is also going strong right now, all of it vying for more than fifteen minutes of fame.

Google's earnings were lower than expected this past quarter, yet Microsoft is now trying to play catch up by acquiring Yahoo. But with these three search giants drawing so much attention this week, it shouldn't be ignored that search technology from a variety of smaller specialists is also in use right now among real customers.

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A new copyright law in Italy making its way through Parliament seems to suggest that trading in MP3s would become legal so long as no profit is made from its distribution.

The law states that music or images that are at "degraded or low resolution" can be distributed on the Internet "for scientific or educational use, and only when such use is not for profit," according to a rough translation.

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The deal could be a sign that the satellite radio provider's legal woes surrounding the recording functionality of some of its receivers may be waning.

Pioneer's portable XM receiver was one of the devices targeted by the RIAA in its suit filed in May 2006. At the time, the recording industry representatives accused XM of committing "massive wholesale infringement."

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Day two of the Eastern hemisphere's widespread Internet outage has seen an incremental worsening of the situation as another submarine cable is severed.

Today, another Flag Telecom cable, known as FALCON, was reported to have snapped, this time some 35 miles (56 km) off the coast of Dubai. FALCON was the first privately-owned multi-terabit cable to reach the west coast of India, celebrating its completion in 2005.

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