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Sarah Palin

The e-mails must be preserved until a lawsuit requesting that the e-mails be made public is resolved, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers said. The judge also said e-mails from private accounts belonging to Palin’s staff must be preserved.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin must save any e-mails she sent from private accounts regarding state business, an Anchorage judge ordered Friday.

(Credit:
Alaska governor's office)

Palin and her staff used about a dozen private e-mail accounts for state business, and a Yahoo account belonging to Palin was hacked earlier this year.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is no longer using private e-mail accounts for state business, Assistant Attorney General Mike Mitchell said.

State officials should work with Yahoo and other e-mail service providers to preserve the e-mails, including those from accounts that have already been deleted, the judge ordered.

VeriSign on Tuesday announced that it has sold its minority stake in mobile-entertainment joint venture Jamba to partner News Corp. for approximately $200 million.

That deal propelled News Corp. into one of the world’s largest mobile-entertainment companies, providing through Fox Mobile Entertainment Jamba’s ringtones,
mobile wallpaper, and other such offerings.

The joint venture was announced two years ago, when Rupert Murdoch’s media company acquired a controlling stake in VeriSign’s mobile-ringtone subsidiary, Jamba, for $188 million.

The sale bumps News Corp.’ unit Fox Mobile Entertainment’s share of Jamba from a 51 percent stake to full ownership. And it enables VeriSign to focus on its core Internet infrastructure business, according to Jim Bidzos, the company’s interim CEO. VeriSign runs the master database for such domains as .com and .net.

This post was updated at 1:39 p.m. PST with Yahoo declining to comment.

“A search of this magnitude you can never rush, but since it’s one of the most high-profile CEO searches, there are any number of people who have made it be known in, or outside, the U.S. that they are interested in the job. I would imagine that Yahoo would be into its second or even third round of interviews with a short list of candidates,” Nosal said.

“If six months go by, you know that the board has seen a bunch of people and you begin to think that the board doesn’t know what it wants, or the board is looking for a Superman that doesn’t exist, or no one wants the job,” Holman said. “All those alternatives are bad. You don’t want the company to look like damaged goods.”

A number of industry players and major Yahoo investors had discounted Decker as a viable CEO candidate for the struggling Internet search pioneer, following Microsoft’s failed buyout bid of $33 a share for the company. Yahoo, which had traded at roughly $19 a share before the initial bid became public last January, closed Wednesday at $12.71 a share.

Although sources familiar with the search say there is no deadline for naming a CEO and that it’s hoped one could be selected by the end of the quarter, executive recruiters say there is an artificial deadline.

He added he would be “surprised, if not disappointed,” if Yahoo does not name a CEO within the next 30 to 45 days.

Decker has undergone two full rounds of in-depth interviews with Yahoo’s board, according to sources.

Executive recruiter Jon Holman of the Holman Group noted that if a CEO is not found within a four-month period after launching a search, the process “begins to grow hair.”

And at least one influential Microsoft source noted that Decker is well regarded at the software giant, even though the companies weren’t able to strike a buyout, or partial deal for just the search business.

“If she has gone through two rounds of full interviews with the board, it sends the signal that she is being given strong consideration,” Nosal said. “Rarely do boards go through a second round of full interviews, unless there is something significant they see there, whether it’s for an internal or external candidate.”

And an All Things Digital post Wednesday notes Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz is another serious contender for the post.

Yahoo may have fallen out of favor with Wall Street after the failed Microsoft buyout bid, but that doesn’t mean you can count Yahoo President Sue Decker out of the running for CEO, people familiar with executive search say.

Meanwhile, strong outside candidates have reportedly included former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, whose expertise with the carrier could have come in handy in righting Yahoo’s failed effort to win the Verizon search business. Sarin is reportedly no longer interested in the Yahoo CEO gig.

(Credit:
Yahoo)

For Yahoo, naming Decker as CEO could potentially bode well for its efforts to quickly reignite talks with Microsoft, given that an outside hire would need time to analyze the different aspects of Yahoo’s businesses before holding discussions to potentially sell off parts of the company.

And, in executive recruiting circles, more than one in-depth interview with an internal candidate signals a strong contender, said David Nosal, CEO of executive recruiting firm Nosal Partners.

Yahoo announced on November 17 that its founder and CEO Jerry Yang would step down and resume the role of chief Yahoo once a new CEO was selected. In the meantime, Yahoo is nearing its two-month mark in its search.

Yahoo declined to comment on Decker and the CEO search.

But one source familiar with the search noted: “She has always been a strong candidate.”

In February, Yahoo debuted its Buzz social news site, which propels the most popular headlines to the main Yahoo News page. The main Yahoo News site has more than 40 million users, the company said.

The interface of the new Yahoo News is also wider, fitting in more without the need to start scrolling. And in anticipation of the upcoming election, Yahoo has enhanced its “political dashboard” for 2008 election news headlines and poll tracking. As with many current politics sites, the centerpiece is a red-and-blue electoral college map–and Yahoo users can create their own scenarios. The latest update allows a given candidate’s poll performance to be tracked over time.

(Credit:
Yahoo)

The new Yahoo News beta.

Yahoo News has realized that there’s a lot of information out there on the Web and that people just don’t have time for all of it. That’s why the new opt-in beta of a revamped Yahoo News, which went live on Thursday, tries to cut to the chase.

This post was updated to clarify what’s new with the Political Dashboard.

“Essentially, we’ve found that news consumers want only the first few paragraphs of a news story, and then they move on,” an e-mail from Yahoo representatives explained. “Given the short attention span of today’s audience, we modified the site to present only the first five paragraphs, and we’re now offering relevant links to other stories much higher on the page.”

Grumble, grumble. I was going to post about the Asus Eee PC 900a that Best Buy is selling for $299, but fellow CNET blogger Michael Horowitz beat me to it. (Still waiting to learn what Netbooks have to do with “defensive computing,” Michael. Ahem.)

I have a BT8010, and I’d give it 3.5 stars because the headset is overly susceptible to ambient noise and a little uncomfortable over long stretches. But for $19.99 (plus a reasonable $7 for shipping), it’s almost too good to pass up.

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

During business hours, the BT8010 functions as a fairly standard headset, albeit one with a cool OLED display and jog dial. When you want to get your groove on, you just connect the second earpiece and presto: stereo earbuds. Once you’ve experienced the joy of walking around with your phone in your pocket and music piping wirelessly into your head, you’ll never go back to corded headphones.

(Credit:
Jabra)

Instead, let’s revisit the Jabra BT8010, a stereo Bluetooth headset that TigerDirect has on sale for $19.99. I’ve covered it before: CNET rated it four stars out of five for its convertible design, OLED display, and music-playback features.

Just make sure your phone supports A2DP stereo Bluetooth. Many models do, but for some reason, it’s not available on all handsets (cough
iPhone cough). And it’s pretty much AWOL on MP3 players, which mystifies me because, as I may have mentioned, wireless earbuds are suh-weet.

Microsoft assured the judge that its recently announced layoffs would not affect its ability to meet the objectives of the consent decree.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly expressed concern that Microsoft would not be able to resolve the thousands of technical documentation issues that have cropped up with respect to the documents describing communications protocols licensing. Microsoft acknowledged more will arise as it develops technical documents for Windows 7. Regulators, though, said it was too early to tell whether that would keep the company from resolving all the issues before the consent decree expires in November.

In the meantime, Microsoft developed tests to try and make Windows Vista run more efficiently. The company asked original equipment manufacturers and independent software vendors to run the tests.

WASHINGTON–Government antitrust attorneys said on Wednesday that they continue to receive complaints from hardware makers and other companies about Microsoft’s business practices, even as the software giant has stepped up its efforts to cooperate with the state and federal authorities overseeing its antitrust consent decree.

Regulators also noted at the conference that Microsoft resolved an undisclosed complaint, filed by a third party wishing to remain confidential, regarding cross-platform gaming. To settle the matter, Microsoft agreed to provide additional compliance training to Windows employees who work with hardware vendors. One of Microsoft’s executives will also make a statement at an industry meeting within the next two months regarding the company’s commitment to support game developers on Windows, whether they choose to develop for other platforms as well.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company has also made progress developing a set of documents that would enable third-party licensees to create software interoperable with the company’s operating systems. Four months ago, regulators complained the software maker was dragging its feet in creating the documents, but it has since stepped up efforts and has turned in four to regulators for review.

The marketing program was developed in response to consumer dissatisfaction with Windows Vista, explained Microsoft attorney Charles Rule.

Correction 11:51 a.m. PST: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified a state of California lawyer as a U.S. Justice Department lawyer.

“It’s an issue Microsoft was very concerned about, and Microsoft is going to address those issues very directly, and hopefully successfully, in Windows 7,” he said.

Microsoft has taken actions to change the marketing program since hearing about the complaints but not all concerns have been eliminated, Houck said at a status conference meeting held in a district court to assess the company’s compliance with the decree.

In the more than six years since the department has been enforcing the consent decree, it has received the largest number of complaints from third parties about a particular
Windows Vista marketing program run by Microsoft, said Steven Houck, who represents the state of California. The U.S. Justice Department and a number of states said in a court filing last week that complaints were received “from several companies that manufacture and sell a variety of products that work with Windows.”

“The purpose of this was to improve the performance of PCs for consumers,” Rule said.

Microsoft’s actions “did move things in a positive direction,” Houck said, “but we still have been hearing from (independent software vendors) and (original equipment manufacturers) that they continue to have concerns about these programs.”

Microsoft attempted to create incentives for the other companies to run the tests by offering marketing dollars in exchange for tests with successful results. However, the software company received complaints from regulators and the other companies that such incentives could be discriminatory and has altered the program.

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

“Marketing dollars will not be tied to the outcome of those tests,” Rule said. “We continue to refine the program so it reaches the objective of making PCs more attractive to consumers.”

The other possibility is that MySpace Music is waiting to find a chief before rolling out the music service, which will offer downloads, free streaming music, and concert tickets.

Sources told me months ago that overseers of the new music service, formed by News Corp. and the three largest music labels, were shooting for a September 15 launch date.

The blog Silicon Alley Insider wrote recently that the launch date had been moved back to September 18. Now Peter Kafka of SAI, citing music industry sources, is reporting the launch date may get pushed back a week.

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that the candidates have been reduced to two: Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook chief operating officer, and Andy Schuon, a longtime music industry executive.

MySpace Music is having some trouble getting out the door it appears.

My sources said the deal was still held up by a few obstacles but that the parties were working to get something done in time for launch.

Kafka, a former writer for Forbes magazine, reports that there are two obvious possibilities. On Monday, CNET News reported that EMI, the smallest of the four top recording companies, was close to finalizing an agreement to join the other labels in backing MySpace Music.