Windows Live Search will be brought out of beta this summer, Microsoft has said. The change would put the site as the company's flagship search engine, replacing MSN Search, marking the official beginning of a transition to the Windows Live branding. That effort is expected to continue throughout the rest of this year.

Additionally, Microsoft on Friday launched yet another Live service, Windows Live Product Search. The offering is intended to help users search for products for sale online. According to the Web site, the service indexes items from over 100,000 sellers. Users would be able to refine searches by related terms, brands or sellers, as well as change the level of detail of the results.

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AOL has plans to offer a new service for users of its instant messaging client that would allow them to receive incoming telephone calls. Called Phoneline, the feature provides a telephone number to subscribers free of charge. A pay version would also be offered, which would allow unlimited calls to U.S. and 30 countries worldwide for $14.95 a month, AOL said Thursday.

Phoneline is intended to compete directly with VoIP provider Skype, which offers similar services through its desktop client. However, Skype users must pay an additional fee to receive a phone number for their account. AOL also plans to take on MySpace and MSN Spaces with the launch of AIM Pages, a social networking service that would alert the user's buddies through the AIM client when profiles are updated.

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Nielsen//NetRatings said Thursday that it had filed suit against adware companies WhenU.com and 180solutions, saying they had infringed on patents related to the collection, analysis and reporting of computer usage and activity. The announcement came as part of the company's first quarter results. Details on exactly what patents the two companies are accused of infringing upon were not given.

NetRatings' patent enforcement process began early last year. Its efforts have resulted in licensing agreements with Visual Sciences LLC, SageMetrics Corp., and Omniture, and it has filed complaints against Coremetrics, Sane Solutions LLC, and WebSideStory. Neither 180solutions nor WhenU could be reached for comment.

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Microsoft will issue three patches as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday next week, of which at least two have been rated "critical," the company said. It is likely that these patches would fix various code execution flaws.

Two of the patches will be for Windows issues, and the third will be for a flaw in Microsoft's Exchange product. It is believed that one of the Windows fixes could be yet another cumulative security patch for Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

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Nokia and ATI said Thursday that they had formed a strategic relationship that aims to enhance the multimedia experience on Nokia cellular phones. The two would work together on music and video playback, as well as 3D gaming and mobile TV.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although ATI expected to see "opportunities" in late 2007. The company was confident that it would be "very, very significant financially," ATI executives said in a conference call.

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Microsoft and Qualcomm said Thursday that they had reached a deal to port the Windows Mobile operating system to Qualcomm's chipsets. Both companies said the development would help shorten the development times of new smartphones.

Qualcomm says supporting Windows Mobile on its chips would also lead to smaller and lighter smartphones as well. Additionally, the integration would bring much better battery life.

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Open source database company MySQL issued a security update to address flaws in its product that could open up users to attack. Rated a "moderate risk" vulnerability by FrSIRT, one of the flaws involves a buffer overflow that could allow for code execution, while the other two involve a validation error, and could expose information within system memory.

The issue affects MySQL versions 4.0.26, 4.1.18. 5.0.20 and 5.1.9, as well as prior versions of those major releases. The most recent version, MySQL 5.0, was released last fall and has seen quick adoption among users of the open source database software.

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Microsoft on Thursday announced its second acquisition related to the company's new Virtual Earth business unit, buying imaging and remote sensor specialist Vexcel Corp. Vexcel's employees will join the Redmond company and help build out its 2D and 3D mapping capabilities.

Microsoft says that Vexcel's technology will allow it to more quickly expand aerial, bird’s-eye and street-side imagery in its consumer and business applications. "Aligning Vexcel’s talent, expertise, products and services with our vision, resources and offerings will enable us to deliver on our vision better than ever before," said Virtual Earth general manager Stephen Lawler. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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Microsoft said Thursday that it has rolled out its self-serve advertising program adCenter across all its U.S. search queries, a year after the program was first announced. The company hopes that the switch would help to increase advertising revenue, as well as compete more directly with Google in the race for advertising dollars.

The program is still being deployed internationally, with the service already serving ads in France and Singapore. Testing in the U.K. is slated to begin in June.

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Sun shot back at Azul Systems Wednesday, filing a countersuit against the hardware maker in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. In the suit, the computer maker alleged that Azul infringed on six patents and violated trade secrets.

Azul filed for declaratory relief in mid-March, crying foul over what it called "exorbitant" fees and royalties, as well as Sun demanding part ownership in the company. The company alleged that Sun was threatening Azul with legal action for non-compliance.

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Intel asked a federal court Wednesday to dismiss a civil antitrust suit brought against it by AMD, saying the company is attempting to use domestic courts to fight Intel's foreign business strategies. Intel argues that AMD must show that the court has jurisdiction over such matters. The motion was filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

"AMD must meet the burden of establishing that this court has subject matter jurisdiction over AMD's foreign commerce claims," Intel wrote in its brief. AMD responded to Intel's claims, calling it an attempt by the larger chipmaker "to escape responsibility" and continue its unfair practices in the processor industry. Both parties have asked the court to hold a trial in 2008.

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EarthLink is close to receiving final approval from Philadelphia's City Council to mount its equipment from light poles, company representatives said on Wednesday. Some council members expressed concern over parts of the deal, delaying construction.

The joint committee for education and technology wanted EarthLink to ensure it would comply with city ordinances that require contractors to ensure diversity in their workforces. Additionally, council wanted more oversight of Wireless Philadelphia, the non-profit group that is overseeing the project.

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Supporters of HD DVD have another reason to be happy Thursday as Sony announced that it would delay the release of the first Blu-ray discs until June 20. However, according to company executives, the delay is not due to any issues with the discs.

The initial Blu-ray movies are still expected to be completed and ready to ship by the previous May 23 deadline. But retail and hardware partners asked for a one-month delay so that the releases would coincide with the first commercially available players.

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Soon Wal-Mart customers will be able to build their own computers through the expansion of a pilot program in 1,200 of its 3,200 stores in the United States. 200 more would join the program by the end of the year, and possibly more during 2007, the company said.

The new program is a departure from Wal-Mart's current strategy of selling pre-packaged systems. Consumers would be able to choose various components to build their own PC, including processor, monitor and other computer specs.

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Two days after being sued by wireless e-mail patent holder Visto, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion filed a lawsuit of its own, asking a court to determine that Visto's patents are invalid. RIM was accused of infringing on four patents, one of which is already under review by the USPTO.

RIM is now seeking to preemptively invalidate the other three, which are related to remote synchronization of data. The suit from Visto comes just two months after RIM paid a $612.5 million settlement to NTP over similar patent infringement claims. Visto is currently in patent litigation with Microsoft and Good Technology as well.

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