Microsoft announced Wednesday it will work in tandem with the largest British retail chain, Tesco, to offer DVD-like features with digitally downloaded movies as part of a new “virtual DVD” service. The service is scheduled to debut in the UK sometime this fall. The ingenious plan is to let British customers download special digital copies of “certain home video titles” bought from Tesco.

These special downloadable copies will include interactive content and bonus material, both of which are usually associated with movies distributed on physical media. To boot, the downloadable versions will also provide some network-dependant features, including auto-updated trailers, games, ringtones, MP3s, and movie viewing parties with online chat. Microsoft revealed in a press release that the service will be based on Silverlight technology.

The company had announced Tuesday that Silverlight 4, the next iteration of its Flash rival, will include PlayReady DRM, making it possible for retailers and movie studios to provide digital movie copies with much the same rich interactive experience as offered by DVD and Blu-ray titles. Microsoft also said that it does plan to offer its virtual DVD service elsewhere.

Palm is expecting another webOS-based child. Mommy Palm announced on her blog Tuesday that she will soon be delivering her second webOS-based handset, called the Palm Pixi, in a leaner form factor than its elder brother. “Palm Pixi -- due on the Sprint network in time for the holidays -- is Palm’s thinnest phone ever,” the company announced on its blog.

The Pixi will feature a full QWERTY keyboard, EV-DO REV A, built-in GPS, a 2.63-inch capacitive display with a resolution of 320 pixel by 400 pixels, a 2MP camera with LED flash, and 8GB internal memory. Palm appears to be saving vital details regarding the Pixi’s price and launch date for a later date. Phone-cover connoisseurs will also be able to purchase stylish back covers in the "Palm Pixi Artist Series.”

Microsoft today announced that it plans to showcase some new Silverlight features at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam (September 11–15). The new features, which include support for offline DRM and native multicast support, will be found in the next iteration of its Flash rival, Silverlight 4.

The support for offline DRM will be powered by the company’s PlayReady technology, allowing “movie studios and retailers to provide the same rich interactive experiences via digital copy and Internet distribution as consumers get with DVD or Blu-ray.”

 It not only aims to level the playing field – in terms of user experience - between digitally distributed movies and those distributed on physical media, but also enhance the user experience even further through “network-delivered updates, special offers and live events.” Microsoft has not given any date for the release of Silverlight 4.

A recent Nikkei report indicates that a government-backed consortium of seven Japanese companies will be developing a new CPU architecture. The consortium, which is backed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, consists of some of the leading Japanese semiconductor companies, including Hitachi, NEC, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Canon.

According to the report, the consortium’s plan is to develop a highly power-efficient CPU for use in a wide array of consumer electronics. The consortium hopes to deliver the first solar-powered prototype by the end of fiscal 2012.

A Digitimes report suggests that Taiwanese mobo makers are not optimistic of the Japanese consortium’s chances. Their sense of pessimism is “due to uncertainties in terms of the total costs of R&D manpower and funding.” The project will be kick-started with an initial funding of 3-4 billion yen (US$32-43 million).

Contrary to most reports, the new CPU architecture is apparently not aimed at challenging the dominance of Intel’s x86 CPUs, which don’t even dominate the market segment the new CPU will be developed for; the new CPU is intended for the embedded chip market.

A federal appeals court yesterday provided much-needed succor to Microsoft in its high-stakes legal duel with Canadian firm i4i. The latest judgement temporarily suspends the permanent injunction on the sale of Microsoft Word in its current patent-violating avatar. Microsoft’s Canadian adversary was granted the injunction last month by U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis. The Judge had found Word’s default file format, Office Open XML, to be in violation of i4i’s US patent number 5787449.

"Without prejudicing the ultimate determination of this case by the merits panel, the court determines based upon the motion papers submitted that Microsoft has met its burden to obtain a stay of the injunction," the court said.

After Judge Davis had granted the injunction to i41, Microsoft evinced fear that it could lead to "irreparable harm.” It most dreaded the fact that the injunction could keep the “centerpiece of its product line out of the market for months.” Dell and HP had also backed Microsoft in their respective amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court brief) filings.

The venerable Windows XP operating system has shown few signs of perishing despite the fact that it is almost eight years old. Windows XP’s durability must be worrying Microsoft, which is preparing for the retail launch of XP’s grandson, Windows 7. But the OS usage figures for August released by web analytics company Net Applications will surely comfort Microsoft.

Windows XP usage plunged 1.1 percent in August, equaling its previous worst showing in November 2008. XP still has a viselike grip on the OS market, with a 71.8 percent market share. According to Net Applications’ data, Vista usage reached an all-time high of 18.8 percent in the month of August, during which it rose by 0.9 percent. Windows 7 also gained 0.3 percent to finish the month with a 1.2 percent market share.

After enraging social web luminaries Twitter and Digg, dissident marketing company uSocial has now set its sights on Facebook. It has launched a new service allowing Facebook friends and fans to be bought by the thousands. Facebook buddies are available in multiples of thousand, with the minimum being 1,000 friends and the maximum being 5,000. If it is fans that you are looking to buy, the company can provide up to 10,000 fans.

uSocial is currently offering all the friends/fans packages at introductory prices. While 1,000 Facebook friends or fans can be bought for $177.30, the price for 5,000 friends is $654.30. The current cost of adding 10,000 fans is $1167.30. Although many doubt the worth of buying friends, uSocial founder Leon Hill claims his company delivers targeted friends. "We are getting, basically, targeted friends and fans who are saying, 'Yes, I want information on this,” he told the Associated Press in a phone interview.

He said that friends are added manually by accessing the client’s Facebook profile and sending friendship requests. Facebook is not too pleased by the prospect of users sharing their login information with others.

"Buying and selling of actions that are supposed to be taken by a user are certainly, we would argue, not authentic," said Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.

Google has been awarded yet another patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Its latest patent - a design patent for its no-frills homepage - did not come on a platter, though.  It took over five years for the search giant’s legal cronies to secure the USPTO’s nod.

The patent application describes the now-patented Google homepage, in a rather long-winded manner, as being a "graphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal.” Although the verbose account of the minimalist Google homepage may lend an air of significance to the patent, this design patent is actually limited in scope just like other design patents. Furthermore, experts believe it is difficult to enforce design patents in court.

The Google homepage has remained largely unchanged – only links to some other Google services have been moved - in the five years intervening the patent filing and approval.  The design patent will expire on Sept 1, 2023.

In a public display of their legendary camaraderie and combined muscle, Intel and Microsoft tried to convince a gathering of reporters in San Francisco yesterday that new Wintel PCs - featuring Intel’s yet-to-be-launched Westmere processors (32nm) and running Windows 7 - will offer vast improvements in the way of faster performance and greater power efficiency.  

They demonstrated Windows 7’s frugal power management by running a DVD on two identically configured ThinkPad T400s. The T400 running Windows 7 only consumed 15.4 watts, while its Vista-toting twin hogged 20.2 watts. The executives claimed that this translates into an additional battery life of 1.4 hours.

The impressive power efficiency on offer can be imputed to a technology called Windows timer coalescing, which “helps improve the energy efficiency of periodic software activity by expiring multiple distinct software timers at the same time to increase the average processor idle period."

The year began with speculative whispers of Zune’s impending demise. Despite all the uncertainty clouding the Zune’s future, Microsoft announced the Zune HD on May 26, 2009. The company wants to turn over a new leaf with the Zune HD. If Paul Thurrrot’s Supersite for Windows is to be believed, Microsoft has made up its mind to efface the specter of the Zune’s past. All current Zune models are being phased out as Microsoft looks to start anew with the Zune HD. Plunging demand for old-hat PMPs combined with the abysmal showing of the original Zune must have led Microsoft to this decision. The Zune HD is scheduled for release on September 15, 2009.

Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent filing by Discovery Communications. The filing, which was made in February, describes the subject of the patent as an "electronic book having electronic commerce features." Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The picture that emerges after reading the patent application is that of a typical e-reader.

However, unlike typical e-readers, it would feature video playback. The device is described as "a novel combination of new technology involving the television, cable, telephone and computer industries." Rumors about Discovery’s foray into the e-reader segment first emerged when it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon alleging that the latter’s Kindle range of devices infringe its patents related to e-books.

Discovery still hasn’t commented on the entire issue, but many analysts have. Industry watchers are not too excited by the possibility of a Discovery-branded e-reader. "My initial reaction is that this could be a 'patent troll,' Phil Leigh, an analyst at Inside Digital Media, told the Washington Post.

The app store bug appears to have mutated into something highly contagious. Another smartphone maker has avowedly contracted this bug.  Samsung has announced its plans to launch a mobile app store in Europe. The Samsung Application Store will be launched in the UK, France and Italy on September 14.

Only Omnia and I8910 HD users will be able to access the app store when it debuts. Access to the app store will eventually be expanded to more than 30 countries and a couple more Omnia devices.  Similarly, the company hopes the app count will rise from 300 at launch to 2,000 by the end of 2009. Samsung claims its latest venture has the backing of some major app providers, including Electronic Arts, Capcom, Gameloft, TAITO, and Paragon SW.

Although HP and Dell are planning to introduce new ultra-thin notebook models, based on Intel’s Consumer Ultra Low-Voltage (CULV) platform, in the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research has forecast a rough road ahead for the segment. According to Digitimes’ research wing, global ultra-thin notebook shipments are expected to account for 4% of all notebook shipments in 2009. It anticipates that 6 million ultra-thin notebooks will be shipped this year. It blamed their high prices for their low desirability with respect to netbooks. “In terms of the price/performance ratio, the ultra-thin notebooks' components carry higher prices than most of the standard parts, but their working performance is only slightly better than netbooks,” said Joanne Chien, senior analyst at Digitimes.

MSI has confirmed it is working on a convertible touchscreen netbook based on Intel’s upcoming Pine Trail platform. The confirmation comes a few days after a report on Digitimes had hinted at such a product. MSI hopes that its touchscreen netbook, called the Wind U150, will be the first to feature the Pine Trail platform, which it believes will debut at CES in January, 2010.

However, the word from the horse’s mouth is that Pine Trail will be shipped to customers before the sun sets on 2009. The U150 will feature a 10-inch touchscreen and run Windows 7. Pine Trail is the codename for the next generation of the Intel Atom.

It will have the CPU, GPU and memory controller on the same die. This chip, codenamed “Pineview”, will be clubbed with a second chipset codenamed “Tiger Point”. Being a two chip solution, it will be more energy efficient than its predecessor.

The Android Market abounds with Augmented Reality (AR) apps just as the iTunes apps store waits for its own deluge of such apps. Although the first wave of AR iPhone apps was expected to follow after the launch of the new iPhone OS, Yelp has shipped the first installment of augmented fun to keep US-based iPhone users occupied in the interim. The augmented reality feature is only meant for the iPhone 3Gs.

The functionality has been built into the new Yelp app, which can be downloaded from the app store. Shaking the iPhone 3Gs three times when using the new Yelp app invokes a view called “the Monocle.” The app overlays markers for restaurants, bars and other nearby businesses onto the camera view. As is the custom, the app uses iPhone’s GPS, camera and compass to find and display landmarks. This is the first AR app on the US app store.

The British Met Office is in possession of the country’s most powerful supercomputer, which it uses to better predict the possible impact of climate change on Britain. The weather supercomputer, installed in its headquarters, is now being lambasted for having such an embarrassingly large carbon footprint that the facility holding it has been labeled the worst public building in the UK in terms of pollution.

According to the Department of Communities and Local Government, which compiled the list, the Met Office’s HQ owes 75% of its carbon footprint to the mean machine, capable of 1,000 billion calculations every second. The supercomputer hogs 1.2 megawatts of energy. 'We would be throwing ourselves back into the dark ages of weather forecasting if we withdrew our reliance on supercomputing, it's as simple as that,' a spokesman for the Met Office said, justifying the use of the £30million ($48 million) supercomputer.

Microsoft will release its latest operating system, Windows 7, to retail on October 22, 2009.  The retail launch will be accompanied by customary pomp and pageantry. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is his company’s pick for headlining the Windows 7 launch event to be held in New York, according to invitations Microsoft sent to journalists today. Ballmer has some relevant experience having kicked off the Windows Vista launch in NYC on Jan 30, 2007. The venue of the event is yet to be revealed.