Google's apparent promise to place a very high bid for a portion of the current UHF TV spectrum, if the US Federal Communications Commission follows through with a plan catalyzed by former Netscape chairman Jim Barksdale, has completely changed the game for wireless incumbents who weren't expecting stiff competition from a search engine company.

Google's apparent promise to bid as high as $4.6 billion for 60 MHz of the spectrum to be ceded by analog television in February 2009, has sparked a new round of speculation, perhaps fueled simply by the company's size. But a review of the history of this little summer sleeper of a story reveals that even if it does intend to divide and conquer, Google's strategy isn't that much of a secret.

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Microsoft said last week that it had met its previously stated goal of selling one million Zunes by the end of the company's fiscal year, which occurred on June 30. "We actually went above and beyond our goal: we sold 1.2 million units," Microsoft's Cesar Menendez said in the Zune Insider web log. Other reports also indicate that the company has surpassed an 11 percent market share in hard-drive based players, although its overall share remains around 3 percent of the market.

Even as Microsoft celebrates its success with the Zune, the iPod still outsells it by a wide margin. During the same period, Apple has likely sold more than 20 million iPods according to estimates.

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Sirius and XM committed to offer a la carte programming options, hoping to curry favor with regulators as its proposed $13 billion merger comes under increasing scrutiny. Plans in the merged company will range from $6.99 to $16.99, with two a la carte options. The first includes 50 channels for $6.99, while the second allows 100 channels for $14.99, although it allows users to select channels from either service.

A plan, which includes all channels from both services, will be available for $16.99 per month. More details of the plans will be made public when the two companies filed their joint comments with the FCC on Tuesday. In total, eight programming options will be made available within the first year following the completion of the deal.

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Facing increasing pressure from its competitor, Netflix said Sunday that it will lower the price of several of its rental plans by $1 in order to match the current pricing scheme used by Blockbuster. Its three movie out plan will now be $16.99, and its one movie out plan $8.99, with price cuts becoming effective on Tuesday. The move will likely cost Netflix millions in lost revenue.

The online rental industry is expected to grow by 43 percent this year, and the two companies have been jockeying to attract customers to their plans. Blockbuster has the added benefit of a retail store chain, which it has increasing turned to in order to differentiate itself from Netflix.

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Forget another five-year wait for the next version of Windows. Microsoft has shared a few details of its next-generation operating system, tentatively named "Windows 7," due in 2010. The next version will come in both 32 and 64-bit versions, and include both business and consumer versions. Microsoft is also looking into the concept of subscription service as a way to extend the functionality of the operating system.

More importantly, the company is now focusing on Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which some news sources are saying may be available by the end of the year. "As part of our ongoing outreach to enterprise customers and partners, Microsoft has begun sharing plans for how they will continue to deliver value to businesses in the future, including Software Assurance customers in particular," Microsoft said in a statement.

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Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Amp'd Mobile told customers Sunday night that it could potentially shut off service at 12:01am Tuesday. No reasoning was given, although the company did say that it was in the process of discussing a potential buyout with "several parties." All ports and credits will be honored, although no customer service will be available after the potential shut off date.

Amp'd has set up a FAQ page to answer commonly asked questions about the suspension of service. Interestingly enough, the carrier's website showed little, if any evidence of an impending shutdown. Amp'd filed for bankruptcy back in June, however it said that it planned to continue operating at that time.

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More and more, Google these days behaves like a standard corporation. Its growth model is less organic, and more driven by mergers and acquisitions - especially its recent effort to acquire online display advertising provider DoubleClick. And rather than growing by disproportionate amounts, Google's growth rate is falling more in line with reality...which is disappointing investors who had preferred the virtual fantasies of instant capital that it had once been known for.

Which is why a company with 57.6% greater quarterly revenue than for the prior year's second quarter, and 28.2% greater profit on that revenue - after accounting for the costs of acquisitions - managed to disappoint Wall Street today, closing down 5.2% on the NASDAQ exchange to $520.12 per share.

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The Copyright Board of Canada has given the go ahead for a tax to be placed on iPods and removable memory storage cards for private copying.

The tax was opposed by both the Canadian Storage Media Alliance and the Retail Council of Canada, who claimed that previous court decisions had already struck down any kind of fine. The board disagreed.

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&otThe old saying, essentially, is, "From here, things can only get better." From where AMD was last April, that's indeed what happened - and perhaps that's no surprise. Yesterday, the company reported rising chip shipments that led to increased revenues and recovering profit margins, though still not yet near the point of being considered "healthy."

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LG is reportedly releasing its second-generation hybrid optical disc drives for PCs. The devices are able to read discs in all currently available formats, including CDs, DVDs, HD DVD, and Blu-ray. Two drives will be made available, one that is able to write to CD, DVD, and BD, while reading HD DVDs, and the other can write to CD and DVD while reading both high-definition disc formats.

The drives will cost $499 and $399, respectively. In any case, the new burners will likely help Blu-ray the most, since earlier drives retailed for as much as $1,000. In comparison, HD DVD drives were about a quarter of that price.

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Sony's CEO Howard Stringer had a few choice words for Apple CEO Steve Jobs last Thursday, calling Jobs "greedy" because he wants a world where only he makes money, the New York Post reports. Stringer was part of a panel that included Barry Diller of IAC, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sergey Brin of Google.

Stringer made the comment in response to Jobs' own comments on record industry executives being greedy over the price of music downloads. Moderator Anderson Cooper tried to change the subject, but Diller interjected, repeating the Sony CEO's comments. When Cooper went back to Stringer to elaborate, he reportedly played down his earlier comments.

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Just two days after the House version of a sweeping patent reform bill passed the US House of Representatives by a voice vote - meaning the supporters were obviously louder than the opponents - the bill as reported to the Senate swept through the Judiciary Committee, most likely with very few amendments.

One of the bill's chief provisions changes US Code to increase the burden on those raising challenges to previously issued patents who wish to argue willful infringement.

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Ask.com will soon give its users the option to decide whether or not their search history is retained by the site.

Called AskEraser, the feature can be turned off and on, and its status is indicated on all search results pages. The move comes in response to increasing consumer concern over how search engines retain user data.

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Google has said that it will commit to spending at least $4.6 billion in the upcoming 700MHz wireless auction if the FCC commits to greater competition and consumer choice as a requirement for using the spectrum.

Television broadcasters will vacate the frequencies in early 2009 when the switch from analog to digital television takes place. It is considered highly valuable spectrum as the characteristics of the frequencies allow signals to travel at long distances.

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Microsoft said Thursday that it had surpassed $50 billion in annual revenue, while saying quarterly profits were up seven percent on brisk Vista sales.

For the quarter ending June 30, 2007, the company posted a net income of $3.06 billion, up from $2.83 billion a year ago. Profits would have been much higher, but its $1.06 billion charge-off for Xbox warranties cut into the company's profits.

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