online store

As it heads toward the release of a new operating system next month, Palm has launched a version of its online store to allow direct downloads and purchases from Palm's mobile devices.

Palm's Software Store offers a catalog in excess of 5,000 software titles, including games, which Palm users can buy and download on their mobile devices. In its previous incarnation, Palm owners needed to download an app or game to a computer, and then transfer the software from the computer to the mobile device.

Palm OS and Windows Mobile

Microsoft has rolled out a partnership with eBay to give consumers instant cash rebates. But the software giant is still reeling from a major outage that left Black Friday shoppers frustrated with its program.

Microsoft announced the cashback concept in May, hoping for an edge in the search-engine wars through ad-funded cash rebates for customers who find and purchase products using Live Search. The program partners with brands like eBay, Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears and Zappos.com, and includes more than 10 million product offers from more than 700 merchants.

Microsoft has rolled out a partnership with eBay to give consumers instant cash rebates. But the software giant is still reeling from a major outage that left Black Friday shoppers frustrated with its program.

Microsoft announced the cashback concept in May, hoping for an edge in the search-engine wars through ad-funded cash rebates for customers who find and purchase products using Live Search. The program partners with brands like eBay, Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears and Zappos.com, and includes more than 10 million product offers from more than 700 merchants.

Apple Inc., facing a tight U.S. consumer spending environment, is gearing up for a one-day sale on Friday and at least one analyst expects the company to offer discounts of up to 15 percent.

The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is the traditional kickoff to the U.S. holiday shopping season and one of the biggest buying days of the year for consumers.

The outlook for the computer and consumer electronics industry is universally grim, with shoppers widely expected to cut back on purchases as a recession looms.

Microsoft on Friday opened an online store for U.S. customers. The company already has online marketplaces in the United Kingdom, Germany and Korea.

The home page for the Microsoft Store features the Microsoft Xbox 360 hit Gears of War 2, but also offers various flavors of the Microsoft Office productivity suite. Microsoft also features the Zune and a small ad for Vista Ultimate.

On Thursday, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to vote on a request by the National Music Publishers Association to increase the royalties paid to its members for online music sales. Artists are currently paid a royalty of nine cents and want the CRB to increase it to 15 cents.

The move is opposed by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Digital Media Association, a trade group of online music retailers that includes AOL, Apple, MusicNet, Napster, RealNetworks and Yahoo.

Microsoft Corp. will let independent developers sell video games for the Xbox 360 console -- and keep most of the profits -- beginning this holiday season, the company said Tuesday.

In a move to "democratize game development" and broaden the range of titles available for the Xbox 360, Microsoft said it will let game makers who are members of its $99-a-year XNA Creators Club submit their games for peer review. If they pass, the game creators can sell their work on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the console's online store.

Apple reported Thursday that more than five billion songs have been downloaded from its online iTunes Store.

That milestone confirms a MusicWatch survey from NPD Group that found the iTunes online store is the top music retailer in the U.S., selling more music than retailing giant Wal-Mart. As recently as the third quarter of 2005, the iTunes Store was ranked seventh among major music retailers.

Android, the open-source mobile platform spearheaded by Google, is gaining favor with developers and online media. At its Google I/O conference in San Francisco last week, Google showed off a variety of new Android tricks to the nearly 3,000 developers in attendance. According to news reports, the developers were favorably impressed, and media outlets are teeming with reports on the conference.

Movement-Sensitive Street View

A big hit was a demonstration of Google Maps Street View and a touchscreen interface with a unique navigational approach.

A report pegs the much-awaited announcement of the 3G version of Apple's iPhone for June 9. According to technology blog Gizmodo, a source "very, very close" to the launch has confirmed that the second-generation iPhone will be announced during the keynote address of the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco on that date.

The keynote will made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other company executives.

Piper Jaffray Report