Latest news

Microsoft has finally confirmed its acquisition of Yammer, for $1.2 billion.

CEO David Sacks will continue to lead the company as it is integrated into Microsoft's Office division.

Adds Microsoft: "Yammer will be an important addition to Microsoft's cloud services and this acquisition underscores our commitment to helping customers move to the cloud. Together we'll deliver the most complete solution in the marketplace."

Original Story:

Microsoft will be purchasing the business social networking site at an unheralded price.
Yammer, which is little known outside of corporate circles, has been called "Facebook for the workplace" due to its ability to create private social networks within companies.

The company launched in 2008 and was started by PayPal's former COO and has raised $140 million in venture capital since its founding.

Last year, Microsoft purchased Skype for $8.5 billion, in its largest acquisition, ever.

By buying Yammer, many expect Microsoft to add more social features to its popular Office suite. Office brings the company over $20 billion revenue per year.

Although it remains unconfirmed, many expect Google to reveal their so-called Nexus 7 tablet at this week's Google I/O event.

Today, Gizmodo Australia has posted some more specs for the device, which is supposedly manufactured by Asus.

If accurate, the Nexus 7 will sell for $149 (with 8GB internal storage) and $249 (with 16GB storage), run on a powerful 1.3GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 12-core GPU.

Additionally, the 7-inch tablet will have a WXGA 1280x800 IPS display, Android Beam, NFC and Google Wallet.

Finally, there is a chance that the tablet will be unveiled with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the first device to have the updated operating system.

Samsung has said today it expects Galaxy S III sales to top 10 million next month, making it one of the largest smartphone launches of all time.

JK Shin, head of its telecommunications business, noted that the sales will be a tally of the global sales of the device.

Europe first received the devices on May 29th, and the U.S. saw its initial rollout this week.

The phone was set for launch on Thursday in the U.S. but Sprint was the first to warn of a delay in the U.S, followed by AT&T.

Thanks to "overwhelming demand," Sprint and AT&T had to push back the available date for the new flagship iPhone rival.

It appears that Microsoft is ready to discontinue their free Office 2010 Starter edition.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has made an ad-supported version of their popular suite available to anyone with a new Windows 7 computer. The Starter edition comes with Word and Excel and lacks features of the fully paid version, but nonetheless the software was popular.

Into the future, starting with the release of Windows 8, new buyers will get links to trial versions of full Office, instead of a pre-loaded Starter like in the past.

Despite being the clear leader in the market, Microsoft has seen increasing competition in past few years. OpenOffice and LibreOffice offer full office suites, for free, and Google Docs is preparing to gain offline capabilities, making it another free alternative.

Microsoft Office ranges from $99 to $499 depending on the type of package.

According to Reuters sources, Sony and Pansonic will team up for an OLED TV partnership.

The deal will be announced next week and be an "agreement to cooperate in developing ways to mass produce next generation organic light emitting diode (OLED) televisions."

Both companies will develop tech to build the displays cheaper. Sony and Panasonic are looking to compete against South Korea's LG and Samsung, the companies which knocked them from their perch as the kings of TV sales due to aggressive pricing.

The new deal will have both companies pool their research and development resources to regain some of that ground.

HTC has confirmed it is dropping out of the Brazilian market.

The manufacturer will be "completely shutting down their operations in Brazil" including laying off employees.

All device wholesales will be ceased, immediately, say the phone company.

Although new devices like the HTC One phones will not make it to the country, HTC promises to continue support for all existing devices.

Concluded the company: "After analyzing the sales numbers, we have decided to pull out of the Brazilian market."htc

According to multiple sources, Sony will look to invest $620 million into the desperate digital camera maker Olympus.

The once-giant company was rocked by an accounting scandal earlier this year, with most major executives being forced to resign. The company had to restate their past earnings to show losses in the billions that had been hidden in off-balance sheet vehicles.

If accurate, the deal would make Sony the company's largest shareholder with an 11 percent stake.

Both companies declined comment but the sources expect the deal to close net month.

Using its position, Sony will likely team up with Olympus on camera technology and its medical equipment business.

According to the UK's Sunday Times, RIM may be looking to split its business to stay alive.

RIM could separate its handset manufacturing division from its popular messaging network, and has hired JP Morgan and RBC Capital to look into "its strategic options."

Most likely, the report reads, RIM will sell its handset division rather than just split it into its own listed company.

Potential buyers are Facebook and Amazon, notes the paper, without citing sources.

RIM's messaging network will also likely be opened to Apple and Google as a way to generate income through licensing.

Taking aim at Netflix, Amazon Studios has selected their first four original series.

Three of the shows will be comedies and the final will be a kid's show.

Amazon Studios has been taking scripts from writers, and anyone chosen for the Series Development Slate is awarded $10,000.

The series will eventually be streamed via the Amazon Instant Video digital video service. The service is free to all Prime members.

Overall, 9000 scripts have been submitted, with 1000 series pilots submitted, as well, in the last two years.

Via TNW, the four projects are:

The 100 Deaths of Mort Grimley – Where a man kills himself, then is forced to become an avatar of Hell, with the duty to get a special list of 100 people to commit suicide in his stead, or else be damned to spend all of eternity next to his cruel, smothering mother.

Magic Monkey Billionaire - When their magician owner dies after winning the lottery, Rabbit and Monkey are shocked to learn that he left his money to happy moron Monkey and donated evil genius Rabbit to a 2nd grade class. In each episode, Rabbit hatches a plan to steal Monkey's billions.

Leaked video of the upcoming Nokia Air line of products has made its way to YouTube.

The "Air" operating system is cloud-based that allows you to have all of your apps and data in the cloud, without needing to actually download the services to the phone.

On the hardware side, the devices are sleek, metallic and the UI itself seems to be based on MeeGo.

There is a tablet, a slider phone, and a full-sized smartphone device.

Check the video here before someone takes it down:

According to new comScore figures, Facebook's unique visitors from the U.S. declined in April and May, although the drops were not drastic.

In March, the social networking giant had 158.93 million uniques, which fell to 158.69 in April and finally 158.01 in May. The trend is down (at least for now) but a 0.06 percent drop is surely not scaring Facebook.

A fair comparison to 2011's results is impossible as comScore recently changed their calculation methods.

On the bright side, users who access the site used it for a longer period, spending an average of 380.8 minutes per month. That figure was 378.9 minutes in April.

Facebook has over 915 million users across the globe.

A U.S. federal judge has put the kibosh on Apple's case against Motorola Mobility, now a division of Google.

The judge ruled that Apple cannot pursue an injunction against Motorola Mobility, dismissing the litigation with prejudice, meaning it can't ever be brought again.

Writes Judge Richard Posner: "Apple is complaining that Motorola's phones as a whole ripped off the iPhone as a whole. But Motorola's desire to sell products that compete with the iPhone is a separate harm -- and a perfectly legal one -- from any harm caused by patent infringement."

Motorola Mobility was pleased by the ruling, and Apple did not comment.

Apple had sought to bar all Motorola products using Apple's patented technology.

The parties can appeal.

This week, a U.S. judge has set the trial date for the price fixing case brought against Apple and the major book publishers by the U.S. government.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote has set the trial to begin on June 3rd, 2013.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department accused Apple and the five major publishers of colluding to jack up the price of ebooks in 2010 and take market share away from leader Amazon. Apple was launching the first generation of their iPad tablet at the time.

Amazon had been selling new release books for $9.99, but the complaints claims the publishers, at the behest of Apple, colluded to "create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99."

HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette each settled to avoid court, but Apple, Penguin and Pearson are fighting the charges.

Amid concerns that there is may be something seriously wrong with him, Google CEO Larry Page has told employees that there is "nothing seriously wrong with me."

Page has an unspecified condition that affects his vocal chords and will keep from speaking at Google's important I/O event and forced him to miss the annual shareholder's meeting.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told the media and shareholders at the meeting that Page had "lost his voice" without elaborating.

The company says Page still runs the everyday business, but has been asked to rest his voice by physicians.

Thanks to former Apple CEO Steve Job's ongoing health concerns before his passing last year, whenever major executives miss prolonged periods of time there is a bigger spotlight placed on them, and not only by investors/shareholders.

The Motorola Droid Razr and Razr Maxx will be finally getting the Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Verizon has announced that the two popular Motorola devices will be upgrading to the latest Android operating system.

As of today, phones have begun receiving the update, via the usual update methods.

With the update comes improved video calls, improved voice-to-text dictation and the same standard 4.0 upgrades like Face Unlock.

Perhaps more important, the update brings new "lock screen buttons for easy camera, text message and dialer functionality."