By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

The last few months have been a long and bumpy road for Yahoo! and Google. The two companies announced in April that they would collaborate on an advertising deal that would see a strong partnership develop between the two top search engines in the industry.

The deal has come under fire from nearly every direction. If it wasn’t the Department of Justice or EU regulators (whom the deal would not even affect), it was Californian members of the House of Representatives or scores of advertisers.

Given the fact that both Yahoo! and Google have given the Department of Justice two extensions to carry out its investigation into whether or not the deal presents anti-trust issues, it’s fairly safe to assume that the two companies are pretty sick of waiting to roll out this deal.

Originally meant to kick off in early October, Google had said from the start that without or without word from the Department of Justice, the two would go ahead with the deal as planned in October. Obviously, this is not the way events transpired and now media reports say the company could be ready to walk away from the deal.

Kara Swisher, All Things Digital, speculates that Google would rather walk away from the deal than accept any caps or changes the Department of Justice would want to make to the deal. Swisher says that while it would be virtually impossible for Yahoo! to call it quits on the deal, the Mountain View company could easily decide it’s not worth it.

This is reinforced by the fact that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt said previously that the deal was specifically designed to meet government needs. The two companies reportedly spent a considerable amount of time drawing up a deal that wouldn’t step on regulators toes and if this is true, Yahoo! and Google have likely tailored the deal as best they can without compromising the results of the deal for themselves.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Sony has had to recall more batteries for fear faulty batteries will cause the computers to overheat. Sony announced today that it would recall 100,000 batteries affecting five major PC makes including Sony itself, Toshiba, Dell and HP.

Today’s recall is the second in as many months for song. The Japanese company recalled nearly 450,000 of of its Vaio laptops citing overheating concerns. While 100,000 may seem a lot, the number is dwarfed by the fact that just two years ago, Sony as forced to recall 9.6 million laptops following concerns about batteries.

The U.S. government issued a recall of 35,000 Sony batteries yesterday and Sony itself said it would be recalling a further 65,000 batteries worldwide. The government (specifically, the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission) issued the recall following a number of complaints that laptops were reheating. According to Reuters, PC makers have reported 40 cases of overheating, including four cases where users suffered minor burns, and 21 cases of minor damage from fires and overheating.

Hewlett Packard is the worst affected with around 33,000 units affected. Recalled models are the HP Pavilion dv1000, dv8000 and zd8000, the Compaq Presario v2000 and v2400 and the HP Compaq nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230, nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120, nx9600. Recalled models will have a bar code label starting with A0, L0, L1 or GC. Affected Toshiba models are the Satellite A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X, M50/M55 and the Tecra A3, A5, S2. The Commission says 3,000 Toshiba models are affected. With only 150 computers are affected, Dell was dealt the best of the heavy blows. Just the Latitude 110L and Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, 5160 models are affected and only those with battery model number OU091.

More information on recalled products (for the United States) is available from the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission.

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By Devin Connors - Source : Tom's Guide

The Beatles are finally coming to this generation of consoles.

During a teleconference call with Apple Corps. (the multimedia company, NOT the computer maker), and MTV, Cambridge-based Harmonix announced that it would be working on a new game devoted entirely to The Beatles. While the details are still clouded, what is certain is that the Beatles appearance will not be a Rock Band expansion, but rather a brand new title built from the ground up, according to Harmonix’s own Alex Rigopolis. In what is certainly good news for gamers everywhere, the new game will be 100 percent compatible with existing Rock Band peripherals.

Apple Corps. decided on MTV and Harmonix primarily because of their passion for music, as well as Harmonix being the company that is credited with introducing the masses to music-centric video games. “Introducing the genius of The Beatles to a whole new generation of music lovers through original and inspired ways is extremely exciting to us at Apple Corps,” stated Jeff Jones, CEO, Apple Corps. “We are truly pleased to be working with the innovative forces at MTV and Harmonix as they embody our mutual passions for music and creativity.”

While all the suits seem to be happy with the deal, the Beatles surviving members are also thrilled with seeing their music come to life in a whole new way. “It gives me great pleasure to be part of this partnership,” said Ringo Starr. “The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that The Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in. Let the games commence.” Paul McCartney also chimed in, saying that “The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out.”

With the Beatles now attached to Harmonix and Rock Band, one of the hottest game franchises in recent memory, you will now be able to play Yellow Submarine before being able to download it on iTunes. The deal is also sure to strike a blow to Activision and its Guitar Hero franchise, who is currently competing on an even keel with Rock Band.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Apple recently hired Mark Papermaster, IBM’s former vice president of microprocessor technology development. While Mr. Papermaster was no doubt thrilled to be headed to Apple, it looks like his old employer is saying not so fast to Papermaster’s decision to leave the company.

The New York Times reports that until quite recently Papermaster was one of IBM’s top 300 managers and said that he had signed a noncompete agreement with the company that would prevent him from accepting a job with a competitor for a full year following his departure from IBM.

According to the Times, IBM believes Apple’s decision to hire Papermaster is an attempt to expand its presence in the markets for servers and chips for handheld devices. The company believes that should Papermaster go ahead with his move to Apple he will be "providing to Apple technical and strategic advice on a variety of issues" according to IBM’s complaint.

Many people believe Apple’s decision to take on the former IBM employee could have something to do with the company’s purchase of PA Semi last year. At the time, Jobs told the Times that PA Semi was to be used to build chips for the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Read the full story on the New York Times.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Google Labs is really kicking off and today brings us yet another glorious creation from the Gmail team.

According to InformationWeek the Gmail team have added the ability to send an SMS message from the chat window in the left-nav panel in Gmail. While the Gmail blog has yet to display an official announcement for this new feature, InformationWeek reports that it will be posted early today.

Further expanding the possibilities for the left-nav, (which can already include chat, calender and Docs) users can now send a message from inside Gmail by entering the recipient mobile phone number into the chat window. This in turn prompts a "Send SMS" popup menu. According to InformationWeek, Google’s texting service also assigns the Gmail user a persistent pseudo-phone number, meaning the recipient can reply to the SMS later using a consistent number.

As usual, to make use of the feature you have to go into settings and activate the SMS Labs feature. GoogleWatch got a hands on demo of the feature with Gmail Product Manager, Keith Coleman who said the addition of SMS to chat was down to people becoming increasingly frustrated that they couldn’t reply to friends who signed off mid-chat. While it seems like a great idea, Gmail warns that recipients may be charged each time you hit enter so it could be pretty easy to rack up a high bill. This feature is perfect for finalizing plans with friends who’ve been disconnected but could be costly if you use it for full blown conversations.

SMS capabilities is one of many new features to come out of Google Labs in October alone. The Gmail team tout Labs as a way to test as many of their ideas as possible with more popular Labs being considered for permanent implementation.

We’ll keep an eye on the Official Gmail blog and update when there’s more information available.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Intel and Asus have launched a new project that will see the companies create user designed computers.

Endeavoring to build the ideal netbook and gaming PC, Intel and Asus have decided to ask the audience with their new website, WePC.com. Asus and Intel have created WePC.com as a place where users come together to share ideas, images and inspiration about their dream PC. Designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by Asus and could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook built by Asus with Intel inside.

A cool idea but it needs a little work. There’s no mention of when we’ll see some results from all the submitted ideas and bickering that’s likely to go on in the community of WePC. Dreaming of innovation is all well an good but unless there’s some kind of time frame that users can bank on before seeing results, there’s a huge chance people will get bored and wander off.

The WePC community will be divided into three groups: netbooks, notebooks and gaming notebooks, which will logically be powered by Intel Atom, Intel Centrino 2 and Intel Centrino 2 Extreme processors, respectively in that order.

Besides getting a custom design recognized, prizes are said to be rewarded to select participants for their creative role in this project, though details have yet to be announced.

Mike Hoefflinger, general manager of Intel’s Partner Marketing Group says that Intel believes the spark for innovation can come from anywhere but basically, this idea is ask the consumer what they want and then give it to them. Certainly in the netbook market it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate the good from the bad — and companies are finding it harder and harder to add features that will make their product stick out. Asus, however, is the company that kicked the whole thing off and so, it’s already apart from everyone else. While time might be an issue, something good might come of this. If it doesn’t, it’s not really a big deal, but if it does, it could be a real money maker for Asus and a win for the consumer community.

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By Devin Connors - Source : Tom's Guide

Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who raised over $100 million in September alone, paid over $44,000 to Massive Incorporated for his in-game advertising campaign.

With only five days left until the United States chooses its next President, Barack Obama seems to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to his campaign. And while both he and John McCain are hitting the campaign trail with monster-truck force during this last week before Election Day, Obama is doing more to sway the minds of the young and the technologically savvy.

After raising over $100 million in September alone, Obama had some serious coin to spend on advertising. While much of this went towards more "traditional" advertising, like paying CBS, NBC, FOX and other networks $1 million each to run his 30-minute infomercial last night before the rest of Game 5 of the World Series, funds were also diverted to advertising on game consoles and handheld devices.

Earlier this month, Obama’s campaign released an iPhone App which urged voters to go to the polls for Obama on November 4 as well as spread the word about Obama and his policies. After attempting to lock down the iPhone vote, Obama also launched an advertising campaign through the popular console title Burnout: Paradise.

While the Obama campaign has reportedly spent over $200 million on TV advertising, the Burnout ad campaign only cost him a paltry $44,465.78. The ads, which have run in several battleground states for the last several months, are the work of Massive Incorporated, a Microsoft-owned advertising firm which specializes in in-game advertising, handles all in-game billboards and advertising for Burnout: Paradise, an Electronic Arts title. Massive also handles in-game advertising for other publishers, including 2K Games, Konami, Microsoft Game Studios and Activision.

As reported earlier this month by Tom’s Guide, companies like Massive and Electronic Arts view advertising by a political personality like the rest of the media: good business and a solid source of income. “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates," said Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts."Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

With the game industry’s constant growth when it comes to revenue and unit sales, politicians advertising in a AAA-title is likely a trend that we will continue to see in the coming years, especially during election years. While the Obama campaign seemed eager to work with Massive on in-game ads, the same offer was made to John McCain, who apparently declined the offer.

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