It seems like only yesterday that the tech world was buzzing with talk about a proposed acquisition of the Internet search giant Yahoo, by software giant Microsoft. Maybe it wasn’t actually yesterday (more like February) but even though talks about a transaction valued at nearly $50 billion have collapsed long ago, rumors continue to come up about continued talks. In an effort to perhaps silence some of those rumors, Microsoft issued a statement today on their website about it.

“Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo!; there are no discussions between the companies,” the company said in a statement.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, had publicly opposed the acquisition even though he was heavily pressured by Yahoo shareholders who were led by American billionaire financier Carl Icahn. On May 13, 2008 Carl Icahn purchased as many as 50 million shares of Yahoo in an attempt to lead a the fight to remove Yang and other directors at Yahoo in response to what he considered "irrational" actions in rejecting Microsoft’s takeover bid. His fight was unsuccessful.
Since the launch of the Microsoft bid in February, Yahoo shares have fallen 61 percent.

However, today Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer said, while speaking at a Gartner conference in Orlando, Florida that "It’s clear that Yahoo did not want to sell the company. It didn’t want to sell when we offered $33 [per share]. Perhaps there will be continuing opportunities to talk about a search partnership in the future."

At the same conference, Balmer also outlined some of his thoughts on waiting to upgrade to Windows 7, saying "If people want to wait they really can.”

Mozilla pushed out the first beta of Firefox 3.1 on Tuesday night but the release omits some much anticipated improved JavaScript functionality.

The preview edition of the open source web browser is intended to allow developers to run a slide rule over the software as well as giving the public at large a chance to take the software for a spin.

Major enhancements over version 3.0.x of the browser include a revamp of the Gecko layout engine, improved support for the latest developments in style sheet standards (ie CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties), a tab-switching shortcut and support for a range of new web technologies.

And, as previously reported, the next version of the browser includes a privacy (AKA prOn) surfing mode.

The "Web 3.1" features supported include Geolocation API, <video> and <audio> elements, and offline applications. The Geolocation API offers similar functionality to the recently release Geode add-on for Firefox 3.0.

Read more @ The Register

Adobe today announced the release of Flash Player 10. Interactive designers and developers can leverage the new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Flash Player 10 for unprecedented creative control to deliver the most compelling Web applications, interactive content and high quality video to users across multiple browsers and all major operating systems.

“Designers and developers know if they deliver video, online games, rich Internet applications (RIAs) and other interactive experiences using Adobe Flash Player, they can reliably reach the entire Web,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe.

“Flash Player 10 continues to set the pace for Internet innovation, and we’re excited to see how the community is already using it to create an entirely new class of experiences not previously achievable on the Web.”

Adobe Flash Player 10 builds on the capabilities of the world’s most pervasive application runtime with new support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and animation, advanced audio processing, and GPU hardware acceleration. Building on over 25 years of Adobe expertise with text, the highly flexible new text engine in Flash Player 10 provides interactive designers and developers with more text layout options and better creative control.

Download: Adobe Flash player 10

Microsoft has delivered a beta of Vista Service Pack 2 to select hardware and software partners according to sources close to Microsoft.

Last week the company put a place holder online for information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2. In it Microsoft acknowledges the existence of the beta and claims "No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product".

According to All about Microsoft writer Mary Jo Foley the company will deliver SP2 before the highly anticipated Windows 7 release rumored in the second half of next year.

It is widely expected that Hyper-V will be included with Vista SP2 alongside the usual OS improvements and hot fixes that a service pack brings.
Microsoft could reveal further information about Vista SP2 at the company’s professional developers conference (PDC) next month.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been at it again (no not the shouting) telling analysts that people can wait for Windows 7 if they like.

In a Q&A session with Gartner analysts Neil MacDonald and David Mitchell Smith at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando, Ballmer said “Windows 7 will be Vista, but a lot better” according to ZDNet.

“If people want to wait they really can,” said Ballmer. “But I’d definitely deploy Vista” he noted. Unfortunately that’s not likely to fill the confidence boots of investors or customers who have been put off by Microsoft’s Vista offerings.

Earlier this month Ballmer hinted at a forthcoming operating system "Windows Cloud" that would help developers write Internet-based applications.
Microsoft will be revealing all about Windows 7 at PDC and will unveil exactly what Windows Strata really is too.

There was outrage last month when it was discovered Apple had included a "kill switch" into the iPhone software.

The kill switch meant that any applications Apple did not approve of or were dangerous could be disabled remotely by Apple themselves.

In the terms and conditions of the Google android fine print Google has said they "may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement … in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion".

The T-Mobile G1 is the first phone to run the Android software developed by Google and goes on sale Oct. 22.

Will Google get the blogger world and mainstream press up in arms like Apple did?

Google has released its third quarter earnings results.

Google reported revenues of $5.54 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, an increase of 31% compared to the third quarter of 2007 and an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008.

"We had a good third quarter with strong traffic and revenue growth across all of our major geographies thanks to the underlying strength of our core search and ads business. The measurability and ROI of search-based advertising remain key assets for Google," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. "While we are realistic about the poor state of the global economy, we will continue to manage Google for the long term, driving improvements to search and ads, while also investing in future growth areas such as enterprise, mobile, and display."
On a conference call for investors a Google spokesperson described a busy quarter with lots of announcements including Google Chrome and the T-Mobile G1 Android phone.

When questioned on the current market, Google admitted that search queries regarding stocks, gold and the market crisis had increased significantly.

Google’s share price shot up nearly 7% in after hours trading at the time of writing this report.