News Bits: Yahoo! rejects Microsoft, Starbucks gives away free WiFi, Dell gets wireless USB

Yahoo! rejects Microsoft offer

Yahoo! has decided to reject Microsoft's takeover bid of $44.6 billion. The company said in a statement that "After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments."

Read More (ChannelRegister.co.uk)

Starbucks to use AT&T, breaks with T-Mobile

Starbucks has chosen to stop offering T-Mobile HotSpot access at its coffee shops, and instead will offer AT&T. Current HotSpot subscribers will still be able to have access to WiFi in Starbucks stores due to an agreement between Starbucks and AT&T. The new AT&T plan gives customers 2 free hours per day, with $3.99 buying another 2 hours. Monthly subscriptions start at $19.99 and will also be valid at locations other than Starbucks. Finally, AT&T broadband customers will be able to surf the Internet at Starbucks for no charge. The new changes will start to be implemented in Spring of this year.

Read More (News.com)

Dell notebooks get Wireless USB option

Dell is now offering wireless USB as an option on its Inspiron and XPS notebooks. The option is priced at $150 and includes a Belkin 4-port hub. It is available on the XPS M1330, M1530, and M1730, as well as the Inspiron 1525.

Product Link (Dell.com)

Nvidia introduces GeForce 9500M, 9300M

Nvidia has not officially announced its 9-series mobile graphics cards, but the specifications can already be found on Nvidia's website. The 9300M-G has 16 stream processors, a 400MHz core clock, and a 600MHz memory clock. The 9500M-GS has 32 stream processors, a 475MHz core clock, and a 700MHz memory clock. These specifications are strangely exactly the same as the 8400M-GS and 8600M-GT specifications respectively.

Read More (TomsHardware.com)
Forum Discussion
9300M Specifications (Nvidia.com)
9500M Specifications

 

I wonder if these 9 series cards are DX10.1 and shader 4.1 compliant? Can't find any text on it.

 

You spelt 'announced' wrong

 

Why would NVIDIA make the same exact card in the new 9 series? Wow...

 

I'm wondering the same thing. That's why I suspect it must be DX10.1 and Shader 4.1 compliant versions of the 8 series. What, with the pending release of Vista SP1.

 

How useful is Wireless USB compared to Bluetooth?

 

Poor T-Mobile.

:/.

 

You've got the 9300m linked to the 9500m page and the 9500m linked to the 9300m page.

 

I guess I'll go to Starbucks more often since the last incident.

 

Wonder if Starbucks in Canada will have the same (or similar) deal.

 

Very useful.

Wireless USB is significantly faster then bluetooth. Up to 480Mbits/sec. Just like the USB 2.0 ports in a lappy.

Whereas bluetooth with EDR is only up to 3Mbits/sec.

More importantly is the use of a wireless USB hub. Instead of plugging in your USB peripherals like USB mem stick, mouse, printer into your lappy... simply plug them into the wireless USB hub and you're off and running. Think of it as a docking station that you don't need to dock with - only be near. About 20-30 feet near.

And best of all, no wires coming out the side of your lappy.

Pretty nice, yeah?

Here's an example pic of what a wireless USB hub looks like: (you just won't need the dongle pictured since it would be built into the lappy)


Here's the link to the item: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=377793

 

I like the Starbucks news about them and AT&T. I'm not a regular coffee shop patron right now (could happen in the future), but in the places I've encountered T-Mobile's wifi I've found it to be grossly overpriced--particularly in hotels.

Also, I'm glad to see Yahoo not being immediately taken over by Microsoft. However, I'm sure Microsoft is going to play games to try to have their way regardless of what Yahoo says. I've read a few places where Microsoft is considering ousting the current board or going around them in order to take over Yahoo via alternate means. Microsoft is no longer a software company--it's an acquisition company riding in everyone else's wake. This explains why I feel their recent pieces of software have been lackluster compared to what they've put out in previous generations.

Finally, I would hope that Nvidia just put those 9000 series pages up as place holders and actually does make substantial or incremental hardware improvements. Hopefully that's not wishful thinking.

 

I think Yahoo was stupid to turn down Microsoft's offer, I also bet their share holders will continue to push the deal.

 

Why? Wouldn't you rather have separate entities rather than one huge corporation? Remember, competition equals innovation.

 

I don't exactly consider Yahoo! to offer any sort of competition to other companies...

 

I am quite surprised to hear starbucks charges customers to use WiFi. Where i come from all you have to do is buy a drink and you could sit there the whole day. Of course you could also sit on the bench across Starbucks and surf the whole day as well, but most people wouldn't mind paying the $3.00 for a coffee.

 

Yea, when I went to college on the other side of the state, there was a small privately owned coffee house that let you surf the internet for free as long as you wanted.

I went there before I ever went to a starbucks, and I was rather surprised when I found that I had to pay them (on top of my grossly overpriced and disgusting coffee) to use the internet.

Considering how I could never bring myself to sit at a starbucks for more than 2 hours, this seems like a nice step up.

 

Yahoo rejects Microsoft: Good for them! We don't need Microsoft becoming bigger than they already are.

Starbucks Drops T-Mobile: About F'ing time! That was the one reason I hated going to coffee shops in my hometown of Indianapolis: Every single one was a Starbucks and every single one charged for wireless! Even though you only get 2 free hours, it's still better than nothing!

Dell Offers Wireless USB: Whatever that is....

nVidia 9 series: It's coming....

 

I'm a big Starbucks goer in my hometown, so this will be nice.

And I think Dell may be on to something with their Wireless USB. I'm very interested by this.

As Greg said, Yahoo! hasn't really done anything for the market as of late. It's just a matter of time before they can't NOT take the deal.

 

Confused about ATT's broadband customers using WiFi for free.

Do they mean the ones that use a data card for mobile broadband thats monthly fee based? Or do they mean if you currently have a data plan with ATT such as the Media Net or the BlackBerry plan?

If its the former, wouldn't you have access to the internet already via ATT's data card?

 

I'm personally happy to see Starbucks dropping T-Mobile. They're offering two free hours now, but still . . .

 

I beleive that it would create even more innovation from YaSoft and Google. Right now Yahoo isn't even on the same level as Google, nothing is.

 

Microsoft acquiring Yahoo wouldn't help them compete with Google. Microsoft could compete and trump Google if it wanted to, but it doesn't know how. They just ride in Google's wake and copycat the things they do. The same thing has been going on with Vista as compared to Mac's OS software. The problem is a lack of innovation and creative freedom at Microsoft. They're stuck in some old established ways and are unable to break out of the bureaucracy of their management structure to bring new ideas to the table. You've got managers on top of managers on top of managers--multiple levels in which a single creative idea is expected to jump through. Most of those creative ideas comes from fresh talent whom normally doesn't get the management positions that run the show at Microsoft. Essentially, those innovative things that would let Microsoft come out on top against Google and other rivals are being drowned at the source. No wonder people like working for Google more than they like working for Microsoft. Microsoft has a structure problem, pure and simple. They're looking for a silver bullet or the next big thing instead of crafting it themselves. Right now Microsoft is caught up in cost-cutting, outsourcing, and emulating what other innovative companies do. Acquisition firms (Microsoft) are not fit, innovative, creative firms (Google).

 

Since the 9500m and 9300m has been announced does that mean the 9600m GT /entire 9 series is coming soon as well? Or will we still have to wait like 6-9 months since the desktop versions aren't out yet?