Sony released the consumer version of its Instant Video Everywhere (IVE) product on Wednesday, hoping to gain a foothold in the fast-growing VoIP market by allowing its users to place unlimited free video and voice calls to other subscribers of the service.

IVE users can also place video and voice calls to traditional video or audio conferencing systems, as well as cell and landline phones for an extra charge.

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In the face of competition from Yahoo's Flickr, AOL on Thursday rebranded its You've Got Pictures service into AOL Pictures, adding an interactive AJAX-enabled interface and opening the doors to both AOL members and non-members alike.

The service will offer users unlimited digital photo storage that will host photos in their original resolution. Also included will be a photo album tool, as well as tools to create calendars and other personalized gifts from a user's photo collection.

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Scoring a major win against competitor Hewlett Packard, IBM on Thursday announced that it had struck a deal with the China State Tax Administration to replace its HP Itanium servers with IBM Power5-based UNIX systems. But HP is disputing the significance of the announcement.

According to IBM, the Chinese government was one of HP's largest customers for Intel's Itanium processor line.

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10,000 Microsoft beta testers received a long-awaited e-mail Wednesday evening: Welcome to Office 12. Beta 1 of the next-generation Office suite has been released and is now available for download -- assuming Beta Place doesn't buckle under the mad rush for bits.

In a statement heralding the beta's arrival, Microsoft vice president Chris Capossela called Office 12 "the most significant release in more than 10 years" that comes only after "many years of research and development." But the devil is in the details.

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Opera Software has released a beta software development kit designed to aid in the creation of rich Web-based applications for mobile devices using AJAX. The Opera Platform SDK supports advanced HTML, CSS and JavaScript along with XMLHttpRequest -- technologies employed by services like Google Maps and Amazon's A9 Search.

Some examples of applications that can be created with the SDK include an e-mail client, a game, or a stock ticker, Opera says. "We are now building the foundation for the next generation of mobile services by enabling the easy, fast and cost- effective creation of compelling Web based mobile applications," said Opera VP Timo Bruns.

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Effectively heading off any looming showdown with the international community, the United States government signed an agreement with other nations over future management of the Internet hours before a meeting in Tunisia.

While U.S. detractors did not gain United Nations control of the Internet, the agreement will create an body called the Internet Governance Forum that would convene in 2006 to discuss "public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance."

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Apple on Wednesday said both its iPod music player and iTunes Music Store have toppled Japan native Sony to become number one in the Japanese music market. Sony had led as recently as July, but Apple's fortunes turned a corner with the introduction of iTunes in the country.

Within four days of launch, iTunes Japan sold more than one million tracks, the fastest start of any of the company's twenty regionalized stores. Apple credited the iPod's success to that response, which analysts initially doubted would succeed due to the intricacies of the Japanese marketplace.

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Microsoft announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement that would make high-definition Media Center PCs a reality by around the time Windows Vista is slated to ship in the holiday 2006 timeframe.

Users of Windows Media Center Edition with a CableCARD module would be able to view digital cable and HD content without the need to connect an external set-top box as is necessary now. That content could then be streamed to devices throughout the home, including the Xbox 360, Microsoft said.

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Linux bashing is nothing new for Microsoft, which has set up a dedicated Web site to detail why customers should choose Windows Server over the open source operating system. This week at the IT Forum, Microsoft announced the results of a new study that shows Windows as more reliable and easier to manage than Linux.

The report by Security Innovation was funded by Microsoft and examined the long-term usage of both Windows and Linux environments. Windows Server 2003 and 2003 were pitted against Novell SUSE Enterprise versions 8 and 9 in an e-commerce environment for the duration of one year.

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Microsoft's new Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie, who formerly ran Groove and has been tapped to head up Redmond's Web services strategy, has started blogging. He promises not to simply plug Microsoft products, but instead "reply and converse with you in a manner that scales."

Ozzie admits that, "At times there will be controversies I just can't or won't engage in," but says, "I'm involved in many interesting and varied issues here that have potentially broad impact, so there's probably a lot more I'll want to converse about." What is Ozzies's blog software of choice? MSN Spaces, of course. "I figured that if it works so well for 25 million other bloggers, it might even work for me," he writes.

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For several months now, the record industry has become more and more vocal over the issue of pricing on the iTunes Music Store. On Wednesday, the first indications of a possible variable pricing structure coming to iTunes became apparent.

The Wall Street Journal reported that EMI Music CEO Alain Levy told attendees of a London press conference that he had held talks with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over the issue.

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Press reports indicate that Microsoft recently asked the U.S. government and other tech companies for assistance in its antitrust case with the European Union.

The request centers on the divulging of certain trade secrets, which has been a sticking point in the settlement negotiations between the EU and Microsoft. The company argues that the EU's decision could have a detrimental effect on other U.S. companies regarding how trade secrets are handled.

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Microsoft said on Tuesday that it was making available over 400 pieces of downloadable content through the Xbox Live Marketplace, including interactive demos of games, as well as free and premium add-ons for games, movie trailers and music videos.

To serve the younger gamer, credit cards will not be required to purchase goods. Premium content will be paid through a new stored-value system called Microsoft Points. These points are available for purchase at retail locations and online through the Xbox Live Dashboard.

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AIM users may have been surprised when they logged in Wednesday and found two new buddies automatically added to their list. But AOL wasn't trying to boost its users' self esteem, instead introducing what it calls IM Robots that can answer questions and instantly deliver news or information.

AIM bots are nothing new; they have existed on the service in various forms for years. However, as part of a holiday shopping promotion with GAP, AOL has taken steps to expose users to the feature, adding a special group with the ShoppingBuddy and Moviefone bots. The company is also asking for feedback and says users can move or delete the bots as so desired.

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Google late Tuesday officially launched into beta its Google Base listing service that enables users to upload all types of information and make it searchable online. The service acts as a giant Web database for everything from recipes to classifieds, but should eBay and craigslist be worried?

According to product manager Bindu Reddy, Google Base is simply an extension of the company's existing efforts to collect and organize content. Base joins other Google services like Sitemaps, Print for books, and Google Video.

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