YouTube's deals with the traditional media companies continued to unravel, with The Wall Street Journal saying Wednesday that CBS is the latest casualty. At issue were disagreements on the language of the deal. Sources told the paper that Google and CBS would work on smaller partnerships instead, leaving the door open to restarting talks in the future.

The loss of CBS' content follows Viacom, which abruptly pulled its videos off YouTube earlier this month. Companies including Viacom have also considered developing a YouTube competitor on their own, however talks there have not gone anywhere. Neither CBS nor YouTube had any comment.

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MarketWatch this morning cites a Bear Stearns analyst's report as providing statistics showing usage share of global online searches actually grew a tenth of a point, to 10.6% from 10.5%. If the analyst's figures are confirmed, this would mark the end of a twelve-month slump for MSN and Live Search.

Microsoft runs the world's #3 search engine behind Google and Yahoo, but it's a distant third place. Recent reports from all three major statisticians -- HitWise, Nielsen/NetRatings, and comScore Networks -- throughout last year showed the gulf between Yahoo and MSN widening. Early indications from the analyst's report appear to signal a turnaround not only for Microsoft, but also for AOL and Ask.com.

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Cell BE processor co-manufacturer IBM may be eager to find new channels for exploiting the CPU that currently resides at the heart of Sony's PlayStation 3 - but few other places. This morning, IBM, in conjunction with Vivendi game developer High Moon Studios and Canadian high-performance developer RapidMind, launched a coast-to-coast event for the remainder of this week, taking place simultaneously in Armonk, NY, and Carlsbad, CA. Their intention is to interest developers into building a new gaming platform around the Cell.

High Moon produces a first-person shooter for PS2 and Xbox, set in a hybrid vampire/Western theme, called Darkwatch. Meanwhile, RapidMind has already been managing a series of what it calls "hack-a-thons," in conjunction with the Colorado-based producer of Yellow Dog Linux, Terra Soft Solutions.

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History will show the resurgence of Hewlett-Packard continued during its first fiscal quarter of 2007, which ended January 31. But if Michael Dell, the newly reappointed CEO of Dell Computer, has been practicing his "last laugh" just in case he should need it, that practice may yet have reason to pay off. While last year's scandals didn't sink HP, they did hit the company in its weak spot: US revenues.

The big news reported on the wire services this afternoon is HP's 26% year-over-year net revenues gain to $1.54 billion on just over $25 billion in revenue, which remains impressive, even though fiscal 2006 marked the beginning of HP's comeback. But it's also a 9% revenue drop over the previous quarter, at a time when the holiday season normally boosts sales, and when Windows Vista should have provided some extra uplift.

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Perhaps the most oft-asked question by consumers with regard to whether they should adopt Windows Vista is whether their six-month-old or older hardware is too obsolete for Vista to make good use of it. Users have already been told to expect to say, "Wow!" but is this necessarily a good kind of "Wow?" This morning, Microsoft released for free download the XP version of its Vista Hardware assessment tool, whose aim is to tell consumers what they may need to upgrade in order to put the best polish on those heavily anticipated exclamations.

As a "bonus," the Windows Hardware Assessment tool installs SQL Server 2005 Express, which is its database tool built on the .NET Framework. It isn't SQL Server 2005; if you've already installed that, Express will still need to be installed separately.

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An analyst with Merrill Lynch says that Adobe will likely introduce Creative Suite 3 around March 27, with a ship date that would follow shortly afterwards. Most important to this refresh would be native support for Intel processors on the Macintosh platform. Up until now, users must use CS2 in emulation mode, which results in slower performance. Adobe has long said that native Intel support on the platform was a priority.

Jay Vleeschhouwer, the analyst who wrote the report disclosing the release date, says he expects about six different CS3 product suites, and 14 individual products overall. Core CS3 products would include Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

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Software company Serence on Tuesday released an update to its KlipFolio widget application, offering users new functionality such as a mini-sidebar, and new organization and sharing features.

KlipFolio is one of the original "widget" applications, which first debuted in late 2001. This pre-dates Mac OS X's Dashboard feature, and even Konfabulator (now Yahoo Widgets), which came out in early 2003.

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Vonage is set this week to appear in court to face charges that it has infringed on patents owned by telecommunications giant Verizon. Altogether, the nation's largest VoIP provider is accused of violating seven patents covering telephone features and the use of Wi-Fi to place telephone calls. If Vonage loses the case, it could put in jeopardy what has become one of the fastest growing Internet services, and force a lot of smaller providers out of business.

While Vonage disputes Verizon's claims, judges have so far seemed to side with the Baby Bell, saying there was enough evidence to allow all of the company's claims to go to trial. Verizon is seeking unspecified damages, and would likely seek and injunction as well to prevent Vonage from using the services.

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Not long after it demanded that YouTube remove its content from the popular social networking site, Viacom said Tuesday that it had signed a deal with Joost, the Internet TV startup run by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

Programming from Viacom's MTV Networks, BET Networks, and Paramount Pictures divisions would be made available on the service. Joost will offer broadcast-quality video across the Web using what it calls a "secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform." Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Nikon added several new digital cameras to its lineup on Tuesday, including a new entry-level line, two new style-influenced models, and a new top-of-the-line 10-megapixel camera aimed at photography enthusiasts.

The new entry-level cameras fall under the L or "Life" branding, aimed at bringing a standard set of digital camera features to the occasional users. All three cameras would have a 3x optical zoom, LCD screen, and a small form factor.

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The introduction this morning by AMD of new dual-core desktop processors, including the Athlon 64 X2 6000+, and the company's subsequent lowering of prices of existing processors, may have nearly or completely equalized the price/performance balance between AMD and Intel processors, according to an updated performance model using newly published data balanced against this morning's average street prices for CPUs.

Last July's introduction by Intel of Core 2 Duo processors enabled that company to effectively wrest the price/performance crown from AMD, which it had previously held for several years. In the intervening months, AMD has held a slim lead in the value segment - meaning that for about the same $100, you'd be likely to get a slightly better performing AMD-brand processor than an Intel. But Intel's mid-range Core 2 Duo E6600 proved a better value than comparable AMD products by as much as $200.

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Microsoft is touting its free accounting application, which it debuted last October for small businesses, as a success, announcing that it has been downloaded by 1 million people in just 3 months. Office Accounting Express 2007 is Microsoft's first shot across Intuit's bow.

The program is largely a basic accounting suite aimed at those who currently use pen and paper or a spreadsheet to manage their finances. Startups and eBay sellers are among the intended audience, Microsoft says. Accounting Express features and Outlook-like interface and Office integration.

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Microsoft on Monday released Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2005, a major upgrade that adds support for Windows Vista and Office 2007. In addition, Microsoft is now allowing unlimited virtual instances of SQL Server on severs licensed for the Enterprise Edition of the database software.

SP2 for SQL Server 2005 is available for immediate download. Separately, Microsoft released a new Community Technology Preview of Windows Server "Longhorn," the successor to Windows Server 2003. Although Microsoft planned Beta 3 for early 2007, the February CTP is not quite there yet, and the company asks all beta testers to download and install the interim release.

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The abundant mix of both upward and downward slopes that have characterized Microsoft Windows Vista sales projections since last September, and the strangely dichotomous co-existence of expectations exceeded and fears realized, has led many experts to start asking serious questions about the role the operating system plays not only in the markets but in our lives: Has Windows evolved out of its shell as a consumer product, into the homogeneous commodity that Microsoft simultaneously hoped and feared it might become?

In other words, does Vista really matter?

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Satellite radio providers XM and Sirius confirmed the rumors Monday, announcing a surprise $13 billion merger of equals, which would keep Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin and XM Chairman Gary Parsons in their respective roles.

XM CEO Hugh Panero will not have a role in the new company, which as of yet has not been named. XM and Sirius expect the merger to be completed by the end of 2007, but the companies have major regulatory hurdles to clear first, including permission from antitrust watchdogs and the FCC.

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