In a blog posting this morning, Microsoft general manager for virtualization strategy Mike Neil revealed his company will be pushing back some milestone dates for some of its key virtualization products. The first Windows Server virtualization product, code-named "Viridian" - specifically, the software that would enable a virtual Windows Server to run across up to 64 processors - will see its first public beta slip back to the second half of 2007; and service pack 1 of Virtual Server 2005 R2 (designed to run a virtual Windows Server on any Windows machine) will see its release date slip as much as three months, to Q2 2007.

Neil gave some hints that the reasons for the delay had to do with developing more new options for cross-processor scalability. "In an IT environment of ever-growing multi-core processor systems, Windows Server virtualization is being designed to scale across a much broader range of systems than the competition," Neil wrote. "We're designing Windows Server virtualization to scale up to 64 processors, which I'm proud to say is something no other vendor's product supports. We are also providing a much more dynamic VM environment with hot-add of processors, memory, disk and networking as well a greater scalability with more [symmetric multi-processor] support and memory."

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As Vonage faces increasing uncertainty over its future, it now must look elsewhere for a new chief executive as Michael Snyder abruptly announced his resignation from the company.

No reasoning was given, and the company will immediately begin the search for his successor. In the meantime, Chairman Jeffrey Citron will serve as interim CEO until a replacement could be named.

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The performance rights organization that the US Copyright Royalty Board designated as the collector of royalties from streaming Internet music services such as AOL Radio and Pandora, is urging independent music artists to write their congressperson, urging that she or he support a significant increase in royalty rates over the next three years.

SoundExchange, which collects royalties on behalf of performers whose music is distributed digitally (as opposed to over the airwaves), is the beneficiary of a CRB decision last month that would officially increase its per-performance streaming royalty rates by 238% by 2010. Last month, BetaNews projections - circulated throughout the industry by streaming audio industry representatives and executives - forecast that in 2010, the Web's top four streaming providers alone could find themselves owing $363 million in royalties, at the same time that the collective performance royalties charged to all 14,000 US radio stations combined would be capped at $550 million.

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Yesterday, attorneys for AMD suggested a timetable under which Intel could turn over information to the court in their ongoing antitrust trial, explaining who was delegated to preserve which documents, and perhaps shedding light on how several were - even if temporarily - lost.

In a suggested ruling for Judge Joseph A. Farnan, AMD suggested that Intel have until April 27 - just over two weeks from now - to provide the court with 46 specifically listed items falling under 31 categories. Included in this list is a request for an explanation of a citation in a Bloomberg News report last month, where Intel general counsel D. Bruce Sewell told a gathering of attorneys at the Argyle Executive Forum in New York that one Intel IT manager may have been solely responsible for the misplacement of e-mails from 151 Intel employees, including its most senior executives.

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Toshiba said Wednesday that shipments of its HD-A20 HD DVD player had begun. The player is the first of the high-definition players, either Blu-ray or HD DVD, to offer 1080p resolution at a sub-$500 price point. The player will include an HDMI interface which Toshiba says could upconvert standard DVDs to near-HD quality, as well as standard interactivity and networking capabilities.

Over 900,000 HD DVD discs have been sold to date, Toshiba says, and 70 new titles are scheduled to be released between now and July. In an effort to continue the momentum, the company has announced a promotion that offers five free discs from a selection of 15 via a mail in-offer. Available titles include The Chronicles of Riddick, Constantine, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and U-571.

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Comcast said Wednesday it will acquire movie site Fandango, as well as launch a new entertainment site aimed and helping manage its entertainment experience across different devices and channels.

The Fandango acquisition will play a large part in the new site, called Fancast.com. The site will also continue operating as it had before the acquisition, as well as continuing its exclusive relationships with several major theater chains.

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Yesterday during a meeting of analysts in New York City, Palm CEO Ed Colligan revealed that among the platforms his company's Treo handheld would support going forward, which includes Windows Mobile and Garnet (the former Palm OS, now produced independently), Linux would join the mix.

But rather than acquire a license to use Access Linux, the mobile operating system currently developed by the company that purchased the Palm OS producer in September 2005, Colligan said he intends for his company to develop its own Linux flavor in-house. The revelation raises all kinds of new questions, as well as the striking irony of Palm's re-entry into the operating system business.

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Verizon Wireless said Wednesday it has begun offering a service which allows businesses to use its high-speed data network as a backup to standard Internet connections or when more bandwidth is needed.

The company has announced the BroadbandAccess Wireless Router Service, as well as announcing an interface cart select Cisco service routers that will allow networks to connect to the service.

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Even if today's most prominent malicious software writers aren't particularly clever - waiting until security engineers discover another Windows problem then going after it with a "zero-day exploit" - engineers at McAfee's Avert Labs believe they may actually be learning about how to use timing to maximize their impact on the public.

The team is saying they believe malicious writers now tend to release their code on Microsoft's regular Patch Tuesday, in order to maximize its window of opportunity to exploit systems before the next month's Patch Tuesday rolls around.

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Google is attempting to draw more attention to a tragedy some claim is ignored by both politicians and the media -- the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has joined with the search giant to offer an online mapping project to further the case for action. The maps are said to provide evidence of crimes against humanity throughout Darfur.

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Although it is not CableCARD-like support, SnapStream Media said Tuesday that its latest update to Beyond TV will allow users to record select digital television channels through the software. Making this possible is support for what is called "unencrypted QAM." This will allow the viewing of channels compatible with the format, and record them as well through Beyond TV.

"Getting this working does require some specific hardware and to get everything setup, but if this survey is any indication, this won't deter many of you," SnapStream president and CEO Rakesh Agrawal said. Instructions on how to use the feature -- which the company says 'isn't for the faint of heart' -- are available from the company's message board. The update is free to current Beyond TV 4 users.

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Google may be close to snagging a second distributor for ads sold through its recently-announced television advertising program, with blog VentureBeat reporting that it may be about to sign a deal with satellite provider DirecTV.

Such a deal would give the Mountain View, Calif. a decent base from which to build on. Along with DISH Network, which it signed a deal with last week, Google would be able to offer its customers a potential reach of nearly 29 million television viewers.

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