With Microsoft now in charge of the sexy stuff--search--what will become of Yahoo?

While Yahoo will still be doing instant messaging, email, and--of course--content aggregation, it's search technology that was the holy grail. With that quest over, what happens to Yahoo's talented crusaders?

Banning texting while driving is such a no-brainer that it's hard to believe there is even a discussion. States may say they have better things to do, but when the feds threaten to cut off highway funding they'll find the time. Good for the feds.

That is, after all, how we got the infamous 55-mph speed limit. Compared to winning that battle, this is a cakewalk.

In its coupling with Microsoft, Yahoo has sent itself down the road to insignificance. Not that it wasn't going that way already, it's just the downhill slope has become steeper. Yahoo is now merely a content site, and not a very good one at that.

If you think Yahoo was among the living dead before the search deal was announced, you might think Yahoo did OK. Microsoft-generated cash should fatten its bottom line, though its not the sort of money Yahoo boss Carol Bartz seemed to be holding out for.

Horizon Group Management has probably by now figured out that suing a tenant over an uncomplimentary tweet was probably not the best course. If the company had been worried that a tweet about a supposedly moldy apartment would damage its reputation, it has certainly magnified that effect probably millions of times.

Forgive me if, should I move to Chicago, I choose not to rent from a company that describes itself as a "sue first and ask questions later kind of an organization" as though it is a virtue. Moldy apartment or not.

Better speech technology could make texting while driving more than dangerous, it would become obsolete. No longer would it be necessary for a driver to read teensy words from a tiny screen or type using an equally downsized keyboard--these could be replaced by simply talking and listening.

A good vehicle telematics system could easily include this feature, allowing the user to dictate SMS messages as speech-to-text and hear responses read as text-to-speech. This could be especially important as an adjunct to computerized dispatching systems, which often require a driver to look at a mobile terminal screen, if not a cellular handset.

A Chicago-area woman is being sued for $50,000 by her landlord over a critical Tweet, the Chicago Sun-Times reported today. The landlord is quoted as describing itself as a "sue first and ask questions later kind of an organization." The tweet in question appeared to go to fewer than 20 friends of the sender.

Listen people, you can get sued for Tweets the same as you can get sued over something you post to a Web site or blog. You may think you are only tweeting to friends, but unless you select "Protect My Tweets" on your Twitter "account" page your tweets are both public and searchable. Facebook isn't safe, either.

Why does Apple get to decide what applications your iPhone can run? That's a question on customers' minds today after Apple rejected Google Voice as an iPhone application, apparently to protect AT&T's lock on iPhone users.

This is another example of how Apple's monopoly control over iPhone apps is bad for customers.

With Apple's new tablet computer making the jump from rumor to accepted "truth," it's time think about the applications it might support. In short: What are we supposed to do with a netbook-sized iPod touch?

I am especially wondering whether it will be useful for business applications or just a games and entertainment device. I am thinking the latter, but am open to it being a broader platform than prevailing wisdom suggests.

Industry researcher In-Stat reported Monday that "USB is the most popular and most used interface among users on both home and business PCs, while Bluetooth is proving highly popular on cell phones."

“For home use, USB flash drives were the most popular USB application, followed by printers and digital still cameras,” said Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst, in a statement.

Hot rumor this morning is a sounds-true-enough reprise on the $800 supersized iPod touch for Christmas rumor, this time with a nod toward Apple using the new super iPod to save the recording industry.

Exclusive handset deals are helping AT&T sign-up more new customers than Verizon, but exclusive probably isn't forever, admits AT&T's CEO. Post-exclusivity, AT&T's future doesn't look nearly as bright as its past. Verizon's lead looks solid.

Verizon said Friday it added 1.1 million customers in the second quarter. That's less than the 1.4 million AT&T reported a day earlier. However, Verizon remains the #1 provider of cellphone service in the U.S., with 87.7 million customers compared to #2 AT&T 79.6 million.

Google's new Latitude Web app for iPhone is so hamstrung that Apple customers may be wishing they had a BlackBerry or Android handset instead. Why? Because lacking multitasking, Latitude really isn't Latitude.

Here's what the free Google Latitude service does: It allows you to make your location available to other users in near real-time. On the color BlackBerry models, Android, Symbian/Nokia, and Windows Mobile--lets call these "real" mobile platforms--this is done constantly and in the background.

Gmail users may soon lose easy photo sharing, but Yahoo could be the real loser. Which is odd since Yahoo is the aggressor, purchasing the Xoopit photo sharing tool and apparently closing the service to new Gmail users.

Does Yahoo actually think Gmail users will switch mail services to keep Xoopit? Or will some other vendor offering the same service--maybe Google itself--step into whatever void is created?

It is hard--make that impossible--to recommend that Windows XP users upgrade to Windows 7. Especially when the new OS really wants a clean installation, goodbye apps, goodbye drivers, goodbye hours of people's time. RTM or not, Win7 isn't any closer to many users' PCs, including most of mine.

I'd hoped the clean install "feature" of Win7 would have been lost between the previews and release-to-manufacturing. Microsoft doubtless has sound technical reasons for not installing Win7 over XP. I just hope they aren't counting on many upgrades. (Greg Keizer describes upgrading in this piece, which soft-pedals the challenges just a bit).

Global recession? Not for Apple, whose Wall St. financials are blissfully unaware of Main St. reality. Apple's sadness? They can't keep up with demand.

First the supply side: If you want to purchase an iPhone 3GS right now, especially a white one, be sure to check Apple's iPhone availability tool before heading to the mall. Some models--color and memory combinations--are locally scarce, though the situation can change hourly.

Yahoo boss Carol Bartz calls its redesign the "most significant change in our home page since the company's inception." It's also a big step backward for web design.

What she's managed to create is a place for folks who have no online life and need to be told how to find one, while looking at lots of ads, of course. Maybe that's what Yahoo is supposed to be about, but it's not what most users want.

In order to take a bite out of piracy, Microsoft sells copies of its Office Suite in China for just $29 dollars. I wonder how many copies Americans would have to pirate to get the same price? So much for the notion that "crime does not pay!"

I found the pricing information earlier today in a BusinessWeek story about how Microsoft is slashing prices to grab market share and fight off Google and the others that are giving away functionality Microsoft customers are used to paying for.

We now know that any cellular use while driving is dangerous, but we could have known years sooner if the U.S. Department of Transportation hadn't shelved research findings for fear of angering Congress.

This is another case in which the government did research and then squelched the findings because it didn't like the result, or more specifically its political implications.

Microsoft should turn and run from whatever deal it may have in the works with Yahoo. If regulators might do more to hurt Google than this deal can, why should Microsoft hinder them?

Reading the news that Microsoft might be buying Yahoo's search advertising business, Google execs must be having a very fine morning. Microsoft appears ready to hand them a "get out of anti-trust, free" card. What's not to like?

Microsoft will never win a war of words with Apple. And it should give up trying. The result is never good: Better to ignore the annoying fly than to look stupid trying to swat it and repeatedly missing.

With a year and 1.5 billion downloads under its belt, maybe its time for Apple's App Store -- and Music Store -- to get some competition. Whether Apple likes it or not.

Is it really in customers' best interest for Apple to have such tight control over what iPhone and iPod users can buy? Of course not.

Small and medium-sized businesses have more important things to worry about than Microsoft's new Azure, a cloud-resident platform for building applications served to users online.

SMBs are more likely to have applications built atop Azure offered to them as software-as-a-service (SaaS) products than to do the development themselves. Large enterprises may, however, find Azure interesting right from the start.

As Google positions itself for a future of web-based operating systems and applications, a new reality is about to intervene: Microsoft Office 2010, with both web and stand-alone versions, will kill Google Docs. Long live, Office Web!

Maybe Google will be able to rescue something from its Docs misadventure, but it better do something quick. Microsoft says it can solve big customers' big complaint about Google Docs and will do so at a price Google understands: Free.

For two days we've been treated to report after report about 15-year-old Alexa Longueira, who last week fell into an open manhole while walking around texting instead of paying attention to her surroundings. Yes, texting can be dangerous.

The closer you are to Windows 7, the more you like it. That's what supporters of the new operating system say. To them, reports that 60 percent of IT admins aren't planning to deploy Microsoft's newest simply don't make sense.

"I want Windows 7 -- it's a significant improvement and enables netbooks," wrote one user, responding to my post yesterday quoting a survey that found widespread antipathy toward the Windows XP and Vista replacement.

From what's been reported so far, I don't see much to like about Office 2010. The discussion thus far has lacked a single "killer feature" that makes me want to plunk down a few hundred dollars for an Office that seems only a teensy bit better than what I am already using.

In fact, the real "killer" aspect of the announcement may be what a free online version of Office does to the chance of consumers and very small businesses ever paying for Office again. Microsoft can blame that on the Googleopoly, right?

News that 60 percent of IT administrators don't want Windows 7 is hardly an auspicious start to Microsoft's Partners Conference, being held this week in New Orleans. If the survey is right, Windows 7 may do better than Vista, but perhaps not by much.

The survey, commissioned by ScriptLogic, is a very preliminary assessment of Win7's chances. But, it does give us an idea of what faces Windows 7 as the new OS begins battling for acceptance in corporate America and the world. Here is some interesting research that speaks about wide acceptable of Windows 7.

Hotmail users can now decide and Bing, in a limited way, right from their e-mail inboxes. While not the sort of thing likely to cause people to switch from Gmail, the feature shows Microsoft has some clues about leveraging one online service off another.

"With Hotmail’s quick add feature, now enhanced with Bing, you can easily search, find, and insert content from the web straight into your e-mail messages. With just one click you can add restaurant reviews, movie times, images, videos, maps and more," Microsoft said yesterday in a blog post announcing the enhancement.

The amazing thing about Google is how a business that makes 97 percent of its revenue selling advertising has people convinced that it is a technology company. And then gets a free pass despite a series of failures outside its core competencies in search and online ad sales.

Right now, Google seems to be flooding the market with products that are not quite finished. People do not care because the products work well enough and are free. But, suppose people had to pay for them? Then where would Google be?

Congratulations today to Steven Sinofsky, an old Microsoft hand, who having managed to avoid the Vista disaster while still delivering Office and Windows 7 on-time today finds himself President of Windows, responsible for the OS, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer.

This is as much a confirmation of Steve Ballmer's belief that Microsoft has turned the corner on Vista as anything you'll find. Sinofsky's leadership with Windows 7 has been judged a success--and the product isn't even finished yet.

As smart and popular as Google may be, the success of Chrome OS is not a fait accompli. Sometimes the smartest and most popular kid at school simply falls on his face. Google Chrome OS could very well turn out to be that kid.

Will Chrome OS be the promising upstart that fails to thrive in the real world? It's much too early to tell, but here are five reasons that Chrome OS could fail:

Will Google Chrome OS be the undoing of Windows? For the past two decades, the biggest threat to Microsoft has been that someone would create a new consumer operating system, popularize it, and then grow the new OS to challenge Windows on all fronts.

That is what I told Microsoft execs on numerous occasions over many years. I encouraged them to build a modern operating system that could eventually replace Windows. Instead, they built Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. Of the three, I actually liked Windows 2000 the best.

At the risk of piling on, I'll join the chorus of those who wish Windows 7 Ultimate was, well, more ultimate--offering truly important features that aren't in other versions of the new OS. While I don't think having an "Ultimate" that really isn’t will be the undoing of the House of Gates, I can tell you I won't be buying it.

I did, however, based on previous experience, purchase a copy of Windows Ultimate, because it was the upgrade for Windows XP Pro and required for the network I was running at the time. A business network I was running at home, mind you.

It wasn't always obvious that applications would be as important to mobile users as the iPhone has helped them become. Or that they would be even more important for keeping competitors at bay.

The first statement is a personal admission that I never expected a mere cellular telephone could become so important in my life. The second is an observation that applications are Apple's firewall--at least for now--against encroachment by Palm, BlackBerry, and Google Android.

It’s interesting that Facebook board member Marc Andreessen is willing to comment on the company's revenue potential--he says it's $500 million in 2009 and billions in the future.

With 225 million users, I would think Facebook could generate a lot more than $500 million in revenue. That is less than $2.25 per user. What the Netscape founder has not been quoted on is the more important number: profits, which I think will elude Facebook for years to come.

TechCrunch blog founder Michael Arrington says his Crunchpad web tablet is getting closer to becoming a reality, with prototypes due by month's end. Arrington also told the San Francisco Business Times that he has formed a Singapore company, Crunchpad, Inc., to manufacture the device.

The touchscreen tablet, designed for web surfing, video chat, and light email use, is eerily similar to Microsoft's failed "Mira" eHome wireless smart display, which PC World recently named one of the "10 Dumbest Tech Products So Far".

For all the hoopla, it turns out that Microsoft's foray into presenting real-time information--Twitter posts--on Bing is pretty lame. I just hope it stays that way.

Some AT&T and iPhone customers are angry over delayed delivery of voicemail messages. Sometimes, they say, a voicemail message may not appear in their inbox for several days after it was recorded.

"I have had this happen on a number of occasions," wrote one AT&T customer in response to my item posted yesterday. "I've been growing tired of AT&T's issues for quite a while now. I look forward to the iPhone being available through Verizon sometime in the not-so-distant future.

In a move that may actually pass without a huge uproar, Facebook has begun testing new privacy options that will make the service pretty much just like Twitter, but only if you want it to be. Or so they say.

If these changes pass without a big user protest it would mark something of a return to normalcy for the service, which in the recent past has become globally-recognized for its ability to tiff users at seemingly every turn.

Ever feel like your iPhone is holding out on you? Not delivering voice mail in a timely manner? Well, I have and now I know why--sometimes AT&T doesn’t deliver visual voicemail for days.

That's according to Glenn Tenney, a computer security expert who posted his experiences and findings onto a mailing list maintained by Dr. David Farber, the famed professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.