In its response November 20 to a subpoena it received in October from Google, seeking information Google claims is relevant to its defense against two lawsuits concerning the legality of its plans for developing an electronic library of literary works, attorneys for Yahoo argue that their client is not actually developing a competing project.

Instead, the legal brief claims Yahoo is merely financially backing a project in which plaintiffs in the case against Google are involved, and does not exercise any authority over that project. Though the brief does not state so explicitly, language scattered throughout also implies that Yahoo is not necessarily the online host of this project.

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Parallels has released to beta testers a glimpse of the next version of its Mac OS virtualization software. Among the changes are a redesigned user interface, and tighter integration with Boot Camp.

For the first time, Parallels would be able to use a Boot Camp partition with a copy of Windows XP installed as a virtual hard disk drive. This would negate the need for the user to restart his or her computer to access the Windows partition.

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Microsoft has quietly released Windows Live Search for Mobile that runs on cell phones, and a Web-based version of Windows Live Messenger aimed at mobile browsers.

No official announcement was made for either product, and sources tell BetaNews the search client was only distributed internally. However, employees were permitted to offer the application freely, and by Thursday it had made its way to several enthusiast Web logs and onto the Windows Live Ideas front page.

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Yahoo said it has reached an agreement with ABC News, the BBC's broadband and wireless content representative in the U.S., to bring BBC News video to its news site. Starting Friday, 30 video clips each day would be uploaded to the site on a variety of topics, including U.S. and world news, sports, business, politics, technology, health and entertainment. The videos would be provided at no cost, and would be ad-supported.

"We are pleased to bring the renowned journalism of the BBC to Yahoo! News, a leading online news service that reaches millions across the world," BBC Global News division director Richard Sambrook said. "The demand for BBC content in the United States is growing all the time and we believe our expansion on new digital platforms is critically important to helping us meet that demand."

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Sales of the PlayStation 3 in Japan fell by almost half in the first full week of availability, and low shipments are being blamed for the lackluster sales, say gaming company Enterbrain. The site had estimated that 88,400 consoles sold in the first two days of launch, but from November 13 to 18 only 43,378 sold. Sony will not comment on the report, but said it was continuously shipping new consoles.

Data for the US is not yet available, although it is likely that sales will follow a similar pattern. At issue is the Blu-ray disc drive within the console. Sony hasn't been able to procure the blue laser diodes needed, among a host of other manufacturing difficulties. The problems are also affecting game sales; PS3's highest-ranking title in Japan was Ridge Racer 7, coming in at #29.

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A member of the technology press community and his family have been missing since November 25, and they need your help in locating them and seeing them home safe.

James Kim is a CNET senior editor, and contributor to the Crave technology blog. For the Thanksgiving holiday, they left their home in Noe Valley, San Francisco on November 17, traveling by station wagon to Seattle. They were expected to return home on November 27, and were last seen in Portland, Oregon, on the early afternoon of November 25, where they had brunch with a family friend. Kim and his family were last seen driving a silver Saab station wagon with personalized California plates: DOESF

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Word on the official name of AMD's '4x4' double-dual-core platform, now 'Quad FX,' leaked out yesterday a day ahead of schedule. But even the first reviews of the new processor leave open some key questions.

Since last July, processor enthusiasts have been waiting for AMD to make its move, the response to Intel's Conroe (Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme) that the company had promised. AMD's fans are looking for the Quad FX series - its new dual-socket computer platform - to even the score with Intel, and help the company recapture the price/performance crown it appeared to lose for the first time in several years.

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has rejected a request by the operator of the .travel top-level domain name to redirect all mis-typed and non-existent Web addresses to a search service, much like VeriSign's controversial "Site Finder."

Tralliance, which was appointed by ICANN -- the non-profit group that governs the Internet DNS system -- to managed .travel registrations, wanted to direct users to a page that contained travel-related search results for the term they had typed in, along with offering to register the name if they were eligible. The .travel domains are restricted to companies in the travel industry.

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AOL said Thursday that it would offer 30 movies to users of its AOL Video portal at no cost as a holiday gift. The titles, which would include recent releases like Spiderman 2 and holiday favorites like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation normally sell for $9.99 to $19.99 USD. Users would be limited to one movie download, and would have 24 hours beginning at 6:00am ET on December 2 to download it.

The movies would be delivered in Windows Media format, and require a Windows XP computer running Internet Explorer and Windows Media 10 in order to view them. Once downloaded, the user would be able to view the file offline, as well as on one other PC and two Windows Media-compatible portable devices.

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Google will not be receiving any help from Yahoo in the case brought against it by the Author's Guild, the Associated Press reports.

Calling the company's subpoena an attempt to force it to divulge trade secrets, Yahoo said Thursday that it has refused to testify. A 17-page rejection letter was sent to Google last week, and Yahoo's reasoning sounds a lot like that of Amazon, which rejected a subpoena in October.

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Adobe on Thursday acknowledged in a security advisory that critical security vulnerabilities have been found in its Acrobat and Adobe Reader programs. The issue affects versions 7.0.0 through 7.0.8, and the company says it is working on a fix.

Acrobat and Reader 8.0, which will be available soon, are not impacted by the issue. According to Adobe, the problem lies in an ActiveX control used by Internet Explorer. Other browsers are not affected, although Adobe recommends manually removing the AcroPDF.dll plug-in file as a workaround until an update is available for download.

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VeriSign's proposed deal with ICANN for oversight of the .com domain has received final approval from the US Commerce Department, removing the last hurdle to extending the agreement until 2012.

The agreement was approved by ICANN back in March in a split 9-to-5 vote, and the negotiations were highlighted by opposition by some of the Web's largest registrars. Under the deal, VeriSign could raise rates without justification by up to seven percent in four of the next six years.

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For Sprint and Nextel cellular phone customers, a basic cellular e-mail client software package is now being added to the regular tier of service at no additional charge, for select phones capable of sending text.

The move comes as competitors Verizon Wireless and Cingular continue to work toward providing similar software to consumers, but for a monthly fee.

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The maker of the popular Slingbox device has hired two executives from MTV's digital business to head a new interactive programming division, although it's not quite clear yet what exactly they would be doing.