Investor Carl Icahn Pushes Forward with a Yahoo! Proxy Battle

You might have thought that the entire Microhoo! deal was long over, but that might not be the case. Microsoft withdrew their bid two weekends ago, but we found out only a day later that Yahoo! would be up for more negotiation. What that proved to us was that Yahoo! only had intentions to drive their sales price up, and didn't really think they were worth the quoted $37 per share.

Here's where things might get interesting. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has decided to press forward with a proxy fight with the goal to remove Yahoo!'s current board and replace them with people who have some business sense. This wouldn't affect just half the board, but all 10 members.

Of course the question now arises, would Microsoft even be interested in resuming talks? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer seemed rather disinterested in Yahoo! after the needless two-and-a-half month barter-fest. Could he have had enough, and would Yahoo! be interested in pitching a more reasonable offer? We may know as soon as tonight.

Any Yahoo shareholder faces a Thursday deadline for nominating an alternate slate of directors, which could then conceivably press for the company to return to merger negotiations with Microsoft. Those nominees could be elected at the Yahoo's annual meeting slated for July 3.

Source: MarketWatch

Dell's XPS Line-up Isn't Going Anywhere

We posted the other day about a Wall Street Journal article that claimed Dell was pulling their XPS gaming line-up in order to focus primarily on Alienware. As it was quoted, the XPS line was "cutting into" Alienware's profits... which did seem like an odd claim to make.

It turns out that even well-respected newspapers can be completely and sorely wrong. Dell representative Anne Camden posted on the official blog that XPS wasn't going anywhere, and that the WSJ was incorrect. Rather, Dell will be investing "like crazy" into Alienware, making sure that it will become the premier game PC builder out there, but the XPS line-up will live on.

Anne goes on to state that the XPS line-up is an integral part of Dell's heritage, and recent product launches contradict a company that suddenly that would want to pull the plug on a series. So there you have it, XPS is here to stay, and I for one am pleased. I'll always build my own rigs (no surprise there), but if I was suddenly lazy, the XPS line-up would be one I'd consider. The last few iterations of their rigs have been amazing.

Dell XPS and Alienware are both great brands – arguably the greatest brands in PC gaming – and both will live on. But we are going to expand our focus on Alienware. We are going to invest like crazy in product development, design and engineering to propel Alienware as the premier gaming brand in the future.

Source: Dell Blog

Splashtop on up to 1 Million ASUS Motherboards Per Month

In case you happened to miss it yesterday, I posted a brief article taking a look at the latest iteration of DeviceVM's Splashtop, as seen on ASUS' upcoming P5Q Deluxe. Numerous sites posted about this yesterday, but not a single one posted much info in any real depth, nor a single screenshot. We did, and I recommend checking it out to learn more about this cool technology.

The huge news was the fact that ASUS is heavily backing the technology, with a goal to include the embedded Linux environment on up to 1,000,000 motherboards a month. You read that right, one million. That means if you buy an ASUS motherboard in the months to come, chances are good it will come pre-installed with Splashtop.

One thing that many tend to misunderstand is that Splashtop is not supposed to replace your primary OS. It can't even save to a regular hard drive, or even allow you much customization at all. What it is for is quick bouts for specific reasons. The quick boot time can help you get things done fast, and as we'll see in the months to come, it will certainly have a place in the notebook market. The best part is that you don't even need to know Linux to use it.

I will be talking to both DeviceVM and ASUS about this and more at Computex, which occurs in a few weeks. So stay tuned.

Dubbed "Express Gate" by ASUS, Splashtop is a heavily-modified Linux environment that's built into a flash chip on a motherboard, allowing you quick access to its features. After pushing the power on your tower, you can be inside the environment in just under ten seconds, ready to take advantage of whatever applications are pre-installed.

Source: ASUS Shows Faith in Splashtop

Funpidgin Released, Fixes Crippled Pidgin Feature

It's rare to see an open-source application split up into two parts of a "fork", but Pidgin is one such victim. Late last month, arguments between the development staff over a controversial feature forced one side to split off and develop a version that should be developed.

The feature in question was the auto-resizing of the text entry area. Instead of allowing the user the option to switch between a manually controlled text area or the new version (which increased in size as you typed), they forced the new version on everyone, without any desire to consider giving people the option.

This has to be one of the stupidest reasons for a fork, but it is one problem that annoyed me quite a bit, so I can certainly understand the frustration. At first I thought my client was broken, but when I found out it was actually a feature, I went back to the old version. Now, that doesn't have to be the case, as Funpidgin pre-installs with the plugin needed for resizing, as well as a few other things.

What makes us different from the official client, is that we work for you. Unlike the Pidgin developers, we believe the user should have the final say in what goes into the program. So far five new features have been added to Funpidgin upon requests from users, and all of them are optional. It is these options that make the use of Funpidgin enjoyable to a diverse range of people.

Source: Funpidgin, Via: DownloadSquad

May 15th Tech Roundup

Motherboards & Processors
• ASUS Striker II Extreme - HardwareOC
• Gigabyte's P45 Plug-Fest - Tech Report

Displays & Video Cards
• ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MB Crossfire - TheTechLounge

Memory & Storage
• Aeneon XTune 2GB DDR2-1142 - Big Bruin

Peripherals & Gadgets
• EnGenius ESR-9710 Wireless-N Gigabit Router - ClubOC
• EVO-G MP1 Mousepad - Hardware Logic

Cooling
• FrostyTech Top 5 Heatsink Chart - May 2008 - FrostyTech
• Nova Winner 3 Mousepad - Tech-Reviews
• Xigmatek HDT-SD964 CPU Cooler - Technic3D

Chassis & Power Supplies
• BFG ES-800 800W Power Supply - techPowerUp!
• Hiper Osiris Mid-Tower - Pro-Clockers
• Kingwin 700 Watt Mach 1 Power Supply - Techware Labs
• NZXT Tempest - Bjorn3D
• NZXT Tempest - Phoronix
• OCZ EliteXStream 1000W Power Supply - 3D Gameman
• Sigma Unicorn Gaming Chassis - ClubOC
• Ultra X3 800Watt Modular Power Supply - TweakNews

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Smooth Creations Broodling - HotHardware