Wakey wakey: All the news in 30 seconds
Rounding up what just happened so you don't have to
Monday morning and - whaddya know? - we hear that Microsoft is back sniffing round Yahoo again with a view to buying at least some of the internet specialist.
After the initial, and protracted, failed bid to buy all of Yahoo, Microsoft now says it’s willing to look at ways to work together.
Options open
An official statement reads: “In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business.”
While that sounds slightly ambiguous, the company goes on to explain that the original proposal might not be entirely dead:
“Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!”
It continues: “Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future development.”
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In other words, this looks a lot like backtracking by a company that previously claimed to have no further interest in Yahoo. One thing, however, is clear – the influence of Google on the minds of Microsoft is even greater than we thought.
Touchy feely
Next, that new RIM BlackBerry we tipped you off about last week appears to be the real deal. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the BlackBerry Thunder will arrive towards the end of the year for sure.
The iPhone-like full touchscreen is definitely in the mix, but we feel RIM will need to add something extra special if it’s to tackle Apple’s crowd-pleaser.
Also Apple-related, a rather driven programmer fed up waiting for the company’s Multi-Touch technology to reach the desktop has built his own version.
Christian Moore took the concept used in the iPhone and ported it to a MacBook display, with which he proved just how lame old-fashioned mice and pointers really are. Check out the video for yourself here.
Shiny bauble
Lastly for this morning, fans of Sony’s Alpha A350 digital SLR camera with money to spare are probably already on a plane to Japan to pick up the limited-edition ‘Silky Gold’ version that went on sale there today.
It costs the equivalent of £500, so at least there’s no price gouging going on just for a lick of sparkly paint. We’ll take two.
That’s it for now, but stay tuned to TechRadar for the rest of the day’s news as it breaks or grab a feed here - get it while it’s hot.
J Mark Lytle was an International Editor for TechRadar, based out of Tokyo, who now works as a Script Editor, Consultant at NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Writer, multi-platform journalist, all-round editorial and PR consultant with many years' experience as a professional writer, their bylines include CNN, Snap Media and IDG.