3 Hours of Radio Love Saturday

No college bball games will interrupt my show this Saturday so tune in for a packed show...a lot of tech news happened this week and we'll yap about it all.

Wal-Mart just announced it will stop selling HD-DVDs this summer. Toshiba and its HD-DVD backers will soon sit shivah for this format which looks pretty much dead.

We are almost exactly one year away when the FCC shuts down the analog TV airwaves. Feb. 17, 2009, is not too far and some politicians say the switch to digital TV may be a cluster **** if more consumers and retailers aren't made aware of the change.

Speaking of analog, this Monday marks the date when AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless shut down their analog networks. If you have an old brick-type cell phone and can't make a call next week, you now know why.

Blackberry service went down for a few hours on Monday. Yahoo turned down $44 billion. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO??!??!

I'll straighten everything out from 11a-2p on The 9-5-0. After that I will head over to Reliant Center for the Texas Home & Garden Show. Come by from 3p-4p when I'm on stage answering your questions and giving away goodies. AT&T will have a booth showing off their U-verse service. I'll probably hang around there after that.

Yahoo Poo Poos MS Offer, Starbucks Drinks In AT&T

Classic negotiation tactic. Deal Making 101.

As expected Yahoo rejected Microsoft's offer of $31 per share. Not to worry that the offer was 62% above Yahoo's market value at the time, right?

What? You think Yahoo was going to take the first offer? Hells no. They are either buying more time to look for another suitor, er partner, like AOL or Jerry Yang & Co. want to right the online ship themselves.

Personally I would not want to play chicken with Steve Ballmer. Microsoft's next move may be to take the $44.6 billion offer directly to Yahoo shareholders.

Other news stealing headlines today from Amy Winehouse include an announcement from Starbucks that it is dropping T-Mobile as its in-store WiFi provider. Regional AT&T Chief Ed Cholerton gave me a heads up last week that they were going to be the coffee chain's new WiFi partner. I must have been too stoked up on caffeine to report it here.

The good news for consumers about this move is that AT&T will offer many users free service. Got U-verse or DSL? You'll be spending time at Starbucks with your laptop and free access. AT&T remote business access services members are also set as are Starbucks prepaid card holders.

Worse case scenario is that you can pay AT&T $19.99 a month for access and use the WiFi service not only at 7,000+ U.S. Starbucks but also at 17,000 more AT&T hot spots in the country. Between McDonald's, Barnes & Noble and now Starbucks, who needs citywide WiFi?

Yodeling Paperclips

That could be the new icon for Microsoft if its proposed offer of $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo goes through. That news is rattling the Left Coast this morning from Seattle to Silicon Valley along with Wall Street.

The cash-and-stock bid was said to be unsolicited by Yahoo but it should not come as a surprise to the search engine's CEO Jerry Yang. Since he took over the reins last year from ousted leader Terry Semel, young Mr. Yang has been trying to make Yahoo as relevant when he and his partner founded the company in the mid-90s.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo - technology leaders in their respective categories for many years - have been losing ground, revenue and buzz to Google. This merger could be the only way that Microsoft finally catches up to Google with Internet traffic and ad revenue.

Yahoo stock was up over 51% to $28.96 in pre-market trading Friday. Microsoft stock is holding steady around $32.60.

No doubt we will keep a close watch on this story.