Netscape will never see the light of the day again…

Netscape, the browser of choice for Internet users in the mid-to-late 90s, will finally be laid to rest by its current owners AOL. The browser, which failed to keep up with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and then went through attempts to relaunch before becoming the inspiration for Mozilla Firefox, was quietly killed in the beginning of February. AOL announced it would cease support and development by the beginning of March this year.

Users who download version 9.0.0.6, which will be the last version product by AOL, will notice a message informing users of the date that support will end, and recommending that they switch to either Firefox or Flock.

Recent statistics show that Netscape is currently used by less than 0.8 percent of web surfers.

Nvidia takesover Ageia Technologies

Nvidia announced it has completed the acquisition of Ageia Technologies, the company behind the PhysX in-game physics acceleration expansion card. The acquisition gives Nvidia access to Ageia’s existing base of PhysX card customers, more than 140 released games with PhysX optimization already built in, and over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX software development kit.

Soon after completing the deal, Nvidia President and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced that work is currently in progress to port Ageia’s physics acceleration engine to run in software on Nvidia’s existing GeForce 8-series graphics cards, of which the company says more than 50 million have been shipped.

The port would make use of CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), Nvidia’s programming structure designed to allow general-purpose programs to be accelerated by a GPU’s unique parallel processing architecture.

Ageia’s own PhysX expansion cards were initially criticized for their relatively high price and the fact that only a few games could take advantage of them. With this move, dedicated PhysX cards will br replaced by multi-GPU setups with one card processing the physics.

Napster returns to its roots

Napster, at one time the most infamous peer-to-peer music file sharing service is back in action, with the launch of a fully legal music store. The company, once in heavy legal trouble for abetting music piracy, will now sell music in MP3 format without any copy restrictions. The MP3 format allows for compatibility with iPods, and Napster will be marketing itself directly at iPod users who are tied in to the iTunes Music Store because of conflicting formats.

Songs are currently available only to US customers, in 256kbps quality for $0.99 each. A subscription service also runs, but these tracks will come with a form of digital copy protection.

Yahoo : Microsoft – Back in action

Yahoo has resumed negotiations with Microsoft after turning down a takeover offer last month. After rejecting Microsoft’s offer and claiming its value was higher than the bid amount, Yahoo faced criticism from its own shareholders, who would have stood to profit from the deal. Now, the companies are said to be negotiating business ventures other than a direct takeover.

Meanwhile, billionaire and Yahoo stakeholder Carl Icahn has brought a massive stake in Yahoo, estimated at 59 million shares, in order to pressure the board of directors into inviting and approving a fresh bid from Microsoft. He was threatened to nominate an entirely new board which would reconsider the decision.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has also postponed its annual shareholders’ meeting, in what could be an attempt to prevent Icahn from tabling his motion to oust the current Yahoo board. Even if he is successful at convincing a majority of shareholders to vote in a new board, he would still have to persuade Microsoft to make a fresh bid. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has also published an open letter to Icahn calling his actions “misguides” and stating that the current board has the interests of all shareholders in mind and has chosen the best way to maximize profits.

Yang and co-founder David Filo both own ten percent of Yahoo each, while other top officials hold up to five percent each.

Nokia’s Tube mobile phone

Somewhat surprised by the success of the iPhone, Nokia mobile phones started a project in October last year. Until now, there have only been sketches and mockups, but at a developers’ conference, Nokia showed off its attempts at a touch device, called the “Tube”.

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