Only kidding, Jerry, we love ya really. Well if you haven’t worked it out already, Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo, is stepping down. I know some readers will be saying ‘about time, too’ but let’s be fair, the man built Yahoo into one the pioneering internet giants so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from him.

Yang announced in a memorandum that he will continue in his role until the board names his successor. But he’s not leaving Yahoo - on stepping down, Yang will then return to his previous job as “chief Yahoo,” a corporate strategy role, which means he’ll still be on the board.

Jerry Yang had only been in the CEO seat for a year and a half but during his tenure it’s been a roller coaster ride with shares rising rapidly when Microsoft announced an interest in buying the company. Then there’s the share price wipeout that followed the ‘deal, no deal, deal…no deal’ saga (currently Yahoo’s share are languishing at $11.82, down from around $33 at the height of the acquisition frenzy). Yahoo’s share price actually shot up by 4% after trading on Monday - does that tell you how the investors feel about this decision?

Roy J. Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman, wrote in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as C.E.O. over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo as a key executive and member of the board.”

There is a belief that Jerry’s departure could reignite Microsoft’s interest in Yahoo as Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, has complained that Mr. Yang wasn’t interested in the deal. So the Yahoo acquisition death knell might be soon be beating out the wedding march!had no real interest in the deal. Microsoft declined to comment - sure they’re not interested, their much hyped Live Search is sucking both Yahoo’s and Google’s dust! Why would they want to buy the no.2 search company?

But Microsoft isn’t the only interested party; Yahoo and AOL have been discussing a merger for a number of months now. From a company perspective, a deal with AOL would seem more in keeping with the traditions and direction of Yahoo but I’m sure the board are probably more concerned with expanding the waistline of their wallets.

Yahoo said it would look for possible replacements inside and outside the company. Potential candidates include Susan L. Decker, Yahoo’s president; Daniel L. Rosensweig, the former chief operating officer of Yahoo who is now a principal at the investment firm Quadrangle Group; and Jonathan F. Miller, the former head of AOL.

Popularity: 60% [?]

Watch out Google, the rumour mill is grinding and sources suggest that Apple is developing a search engine to rival the search giant - I can hear Google sniggering as I type!

The news, which came out of TechCrunch.com, may well be influenced by the fact that Google’s Android OS looks set to take a chunk out of the iPhone market - fight fire with fire, boys.

Although this rumour seems to be a death wish it’s actually quite a logical move on Apple’s part - right now, iPods and iPhones own a seriously large chunk of the market for their respective sectors. By building a search engine which integrates into OS X and charging for ad space Apple could pull in some serious moolah. Then there’s Safari - make an Apple search engine the default setting, sit back and let the money roll in.

TechCrunch does go on to point out that Apple may simply be redesigning the user experience for searching whilst retaining Google as the engine of choice.

Either way, Google currently holds the search engine crown. To beat them, Apple will have to produce something specatular which integrates easily and provides the relevancy users want. Integration will be simple for Apple - they own OS X, the rest…let’s wait and see.

Popularity: 81% [?]

Sun, the UNIX giant has announced a round of what is termed in the industry as ‘restructuring’ - basically, it means lots of people will lose their jobs. In fact, 3,000 people are being made redundant!

The announcement comes following a 7 percent drop in first-quarter revenue last month. It may not seem like a big number but when you considering the billions Sun turns over in revenue it equals an awful lot of pay packets.

The restructuring will see between 15 percent and 18 percent of Suns global workforce being laid off - including Rich Green, executive VP of software.

Sun’s restructuring will result in a charge of between $500 million and $600 million over the next 12 months, with about $375 million to $450 million coming in the current 2009 fiscal year.

The company said it should start seeing cost savings in the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Sun expects the restructuring to save it between $700 million and $800 million annually. I wonder how much of that cash will be eaten up in the first year by redundancy payoffs?

Sun is also planning to realign its software organization into new business groups: Application Platform Software, Systems Platforms, and Cloud Computing & Developer Platforms, with a focus on “boosting open-source momentum and growing new sectors of the market who view technology as a competitive weapon.”

Popularity: 52% [?]

The latest rage in camcorder technology seems to be the so-called ‘YouTube-friendly mini camcorders’ with the likes of Kodak and RCA touting their wares on the market. So, with those manufacturers in mind, it wasn’t surprising to hear that Pure Digital Technologies (they make Flip Video mini camcorders) announced a model of their own.

According to PDT, the Flip Mino HD is the “world’s smallest HD camcorder,” - I’m not taking any bets on this one considering the official figures show it weighing only 3 ounces! The Flip Mino HD looks nearly identical to the standard-definition Flip Mino but manages to cram in 720p resolution and 4GB of memory which equals about 60 minutes of recording time.

According to the press release, the Flip Mino HD features “all-new built-in FlipShare software for easy saving, organizing and sharing of video from your computer.” Which is kind of what the current Mino does, isn’t it? When more info is released we’ll update this post with the details.

Like the standard Mino, you’ll can customise the Mino HD at theflip.com/store (if you’re in the UK, just buy it from Amazon - it’s cheaper and quicker). Starting prices for the Flip Mino are about £113.93 on Amazon - there’s a link at the bottom of this post.

Other competitors in the HD mini-camcorder market, such as Kodak’s Zi6, haven’t faired so well. Cnet had this to say about the Zi6 - The Kodak Zi6 is technically an HD camcorder the way a tomato is technically a fruit: it meets the definition, but doesn’t deliver the experience. True, the Zi6 records video in 1,280×720-pixel resolution at both 30 frames per second and 60fps–720p resolution–which technically qualifies it as an HD camcorder, but a lot of factors go into creating an image, not just a CMOS sensor capable of capturing an image at a certain resolution and frame rate.”

PDT have managed to stay ahead of the field with their mini camcorders so maybe they have produced a killer product. I’ll guess we’ll see once we have a review!

For anyone interested, here’s the link to the original Flip Mino at Amazon - Flip Mino

Popularity: 37% [?]

Well, it would appear that way to according AVG, the virus scanner. An update released for AVG contained an incorrect virus signature, result? AVG decided that user32.dll contained the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN! Quicker than you can say ‘Oh dear, my computer if f**ked’ AVG recommended that you delete the offending file. That’s where your problems start. Deleting the file has two effects - system fails to stop booting or goes into a continuous reboot loop cycle. At the moment, only Windows XP seems to be affected.

Users of AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 have been affected by this somewhat erroneous update; revised signatures have been published which will resolve the minor issue!

If you have removed user32.dll you can quite easily repair your PC; boot from their original Windows CD and choose the repair option. Alternatively, you can use another CD to boot from and restore the file from C:\Windows\System32\dllcache.

AVG, who have around 80 million users worldwide, haven’t published an official reason for this PR disaster just yet but there is an FAQ no. 1574 which covers a “False positive user32.dll”. Inside the article you’ll find help on restoring Windows through WRC.

AVG is hugely popular due to the availability of the free version of their Anti Virus scanner. Some people may well grumble about their machine being trashed but don’t expect a mass exodus especially as the software is free.

AVG’s popularity stems mainly from the free version they offer for home users; if you’re looking for an alternative free virus scanner for Windows I highly recommend Avast!. ClamWin is another alternative; it’s a Windows port of the popular Linux scanner ClamAV.

Popularity: 54% [?]

Demand for video and data traffic on the internet is rocketing. Cue Cisco and the next generation hardware for telcos.

4 years development and $200 million has put Cisco in a position to reap some serious profits from the ever increasing demands being placed on the internet. The new Cisco router, ASR 900, is capable of 6.4 terabytes throuhput every second - that’s some serious bandwidth for downloading ‘men’s entertainment videos’! Here’s an idea of how fast this router is: you could download 250,000 songs or 200 movies in ONE SECOND!

The new router should help telcos cope with the tidal wave of data currently being experienced,wel, at least until some bright spark gives us Gig ADSL connections to our houses!

Popularity: 66% [?]

In the words of  MySpace CEO, Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe, “It’s possible”. So, I guess that a ‘yes’. Although MySpace is currently concentrating on improving the MySpace Music service a move into the iTunes territory doesn’t seem unrealistic. By teaming up with the likes of Sony, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group MySpace Music is attempting to become THE online place to access your favourite tracks.

Just like Apple, MySpace Music allows you create and share your playlists and browse those of your friends which is a rather clever way of advertising to users who wouldn’t ordinarily browse for tracks other than those they’re interested in.

Apple currently has the advantage in the form of music downloads to a dedicated device, the iPod which dominates the market. But the growth of social networks as a place to share more than just your personal details and interests represents a tantalising source of revenue for an industry struggling to monetise itself. In these circumstance, MySpace would be unwise to discount something like a ‘MyPod’. Maybe Apple know this already hence Apples game downloads

Popularity: 27% [?]

It’s not just the computing world that’s going ultra small - mobile phone manufacturers are pushing the at the boundaries as well and the INVISIO G5 is no exception. This has to be the world’s smallest Bluetooth headset. Take a look at the INVISIO G5’s specs:  whilst offering an impressive array of features. Just take a look at what this Bluetooth headset has to offer:

• talk time of up to 4 hours system and 150 hours standy (on a full charge)
• measures a miniscule 33 x 16 millimetres

Ok, it’s tiny but how does it match up? Whilst not a contender for the Worlds Smallest Bluetooth Headsetworks, the Motorola H5 MINIBLUE certainly offers a few more features:

• talk time of 1.5 hour
• works as a distance of up to 30 feet
• built-in speaker reduces background noise by channeling voice up  through the ear canal
• a rather funcky metal charging case included

It’s the age old cry ’size isn’t everything’!

Popularity: 60% [?]

…again

The Google Yahoo ad deal is dead, share price is down (read ‘abandon ship’) and it would appear that Yahoo doesn’t have a clear idea of where it’s going. Time to post the ‘For Sale’ signs again.

Straight from the Yang horses mouth - “To this day the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo,”

“I don’t think that is a bad idea at all, at the right price whatever that price is. We’re willing to sell the company,” he told the audience at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.

“But why not sell earlier?”  I hear you say. According to Yang, Microsoft walked away from a public offering even though Yahoo were prepared to negotiate. I thought Microsoft walked away because Yahoo wanted more - is that what they mean by negotiation? A further deal by Microsoft to buy Yahoo’s search engine also fell flat on its face. It’s pretty easy to see why also these setbacks spawned rumours of Yang quitting Yahoo.

So, the door is still open to Microsoft but are they interested?

Popularity: 60% [?]

Err, hooray!

Ok, I admit to having a FaceBook account but I rarely use it. Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes it all gets a little too much. How many of those ‘friends’ in your FB account are really friends? Think about it for one moment; when you add a friend FB suggests other people who might be friends so you add them and then FB suggests more individuals who might be of interest… ad infinitum! You see what I mean.

I’ve no doubt raised the hackles of some the FaceBook fanboys (and girls) so here’s some news that should keep you touch with all things FB no matter where you are: mobile phone operator 3 are to launch a FaceBook handset.

The success of 3’s Skype handset has prompted them to look for yet more ways to empty our wallets into their waiting hands.  In addition to the FB functionality users will also get Skype integration, an eBay tracker and Windows Live Messenger on a HSDPA (up to 7.2 Mbps) handset.

The handset is due to go on sale for £99 in December on a PAYG tariff.

Wallets at the ready FB fans, if the economy hasn’t sucked us all under by then!

Popularity: 60% [?]