The new version of the BBC iPlayer is due to be released tomorrow, with features lots of us have been waiting for. The most important below:

• Full integration for TV as well as Radio
• A rewind and Fast-forward function for Radio, as per TV
• Easier Navigation, including Last Played option
• Combined categories for TV and Radio, allowing easier access to relevant content
• Larger TV viewing area
• A TV Schedule for viewer planning

So all-in-all a better experience for your online pleasure. But then we do actually pay a license fee for this stuff, so maybe we should demand it. Either way the iPlayer should be a bit more user friendly for the future after the updates.

After all the talks have turned to nothing, and shareholders prepare to oust the current board, there are tiny whisperings that maybe the Microsoft/Yahoo deal isn’t over - just yet.

Most of this is speculation, but there are already rumours about a renewed bid, far below what Microsoft originally offered. So is it just more gossip? Or (tin-hat time now I think) is it Microsoft using the public to revise interest in an otherwise dead pursuit? Maybe it’s true and Yahoo aren’t interested. Or maybe Jerry Yang has realised all the bad press for his failure to accept Microsoft’s offer has meant he’s had to go crawling back to accept a worse offer and retain his position in the company? All these questions, and only time will give us the answers.. Original source is this Reuters Article

You all know the story right? Ian Usher has put his life up for sale on the internet, with the aid of Ebay. By his life I mean his home, his job, his friends, his car - everything except himself. Interesting, quirky, but why did he trust the users of Ebay to “play fair?”

Just 24 hours after the bid began it was swamped with pranksters. People using other people’s accounts, people playing tricks on each other - you name it. At what point did Ian Usher actually think this wouldn’t happen?? It’s far too tempting for people to put in stupidly high bids - then “blame it on their friends.”

The current (authentic) bid for his life, as of this post, is about £189,000 ($372,000) which he says isn’t enough to cover the cost of the house! Check out the auction here, it ends in 3 days if you fancy moving to Perth.. And no fake bids please. I mean it.

We want to see an end to the Yahoo! Microsoft battle that will hopefully benefit the whole online community. However, with the current tit-for-tat goings on between Jerry Yang and Carl Icahn, it looks like the dispute over who’s more capable of running the company will go on for a few months yet - at least until the board of directors get a vote of confidence, or otherwise.

With a reply to Carl Icahn’s recent ramblings about whose is bigger than whose, Yahoo! are appealing to the stockholders to hopefully see the light and retain their confidence in an otherwise chaotic company’s recent history. Is Steve Balmer still rubbing his hands, ready to exploit the spoils? Or is he thinking of distancing himself further from this self-imploding wreck of a company? Only time will tell I guess..

August 1st is the date when a new board will be proposed by Carl Icahn, shareholder and expert at releasing cats amongst pigeons. Mr Icahn has publicly stated he will sack Jerry Yang, one of the co-founders of Yahoo, if he’s successful with his bid, along with a lot of the other directors.

I personally don’t think Carl Icahn is going to be successful with his bid - he’s starting to come across as a bit of a mad man, with his intimations of “showing Microsoft Yahoo! are serious about a deal.” Serious? Don’t you mean desperate? I’m sure Steve Balmer is rubbing his hands with glee at the moment with the negative discourse and division in the Yahoo! camp - ready to pick up the pieces once the dust settles.

Google Earth is soon to release a plug-in that will allow 3D content from the Google Earth archives to be displayed within your browser window - rather than using the stand-alone Google Earth app. The plug-in currently supports, in it’s Beta form, Firefox 2 and IE6/7.

This is a move, I think, that spells the end for the application, that has always seemed to fit strangely with the rest of Google’s ideals. The concept of cloud computing is lost a little when you have a clunky OpenGL app that needs to be fired up every time you want to find a location. To be honest I always use Google maps as I find it easier just for this reason. To me it looks as though Google realise this and are moving Google Earth over to a browser-only platform.

I don’t know about anyone else here, but are you getting sick of this Microsoft-Yahoo stuff? I’m covering it because it would be silly of me not to, but does anyone really care that much anymore? Microsoft - If you want to buy them, front the cash. Yahoo - If you want to be bought, accept the offer. It’s not difficult is it? And as if to rub salt into the wounds, Microsoft is now considering a different option of a partial buyout of the company. Almost like a compromise between the board of directors and the shareholders - I don’t see how big a deal for Microsoft this would be. Surely it’s all or nothing??

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is going to suggest a new board of directors for the shareholder’s meeting on the 3rd of July. Mr Icahn has said that the shareholders (himself included, owning $1 billion worth) should have been given the chance to vote on the future of the company during the Microsoft negotiations, and felt the offer put on the table was more than good enough to be accepted by Yahoo. If this move works, does it mean the new board will go to Microsoft, cap-in-hand asking for renewed negotiations?

Those of you who use the McAfee SiteAdvisor plugin for Firefox, will be aware of how McAfee are helping to protect users from malicious sites. The plugin notifies users with a simple colour coding that allows users to visually work out if a website has been reported for malware or spyware attacks. The plugin works with community support - reports being fed to McAfee from users with comments posted on the site’s page detailing the problems they faced.

Well now, McAfee have teamed up with Yahoo, to do a very similar thing on their search results. When you search for a term using Yahoo’s engine, there will be an indication next to the site that identifies it as malware/spyware, if it’s been reported that the website has been up to no good. This should hopefully prevent people from clicking on the link, or at least, make them find out why the site has gained such a reputation. If you already have McAfee’s SiteAdvisor plugin installed, all search engine results are automatically checked anyway, so you won’t gain much. And you have the added advantage of being notified of a malicious site when you’re browsing it. At least the Yahoo deal is a step in the right direction. Read the Yahoo! press release.

Microsoft has backed down and walked away from its Yahoo takeover plans. Not prepared to part with the sort of cash Yahoo were after, Steve Balmer is quoted as saying, “Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer.”

This really surprises me - I thought that the offer would either be accepted, or Microsoft were going to go hostile - walking away was never on the cards for me. So after months of anticipation, lots of discussion (both with the companies themselves, and globally on blogs, podcasts, even mainstream news) the deal has fallen through, and both parties are going their separate ways. A question still remains though - What sort of damage has this whole situation down to the stability of Yahoo? Read the Microsoft press release here.