Microsoft enters retail business

After years of brushing off the notion, Microsoft will open its own line of retail stores, reports CNet.

Without detailing the plans, Microsoft said it has hired David Porter, a 25-year Wal-Mart veteran, to lead the effort. Sources say Porter's mission will be to develop the company's retail plans and that the effort is likely to start small with just a few locations.

Porter, who will start next week, will report to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, also a Wal-Mart veteran. Most recently, Porter was at DreamWorks Animation, heading that company's product distribution effort.

There's no denying Google has a talent for building a monopoly in the search-ad biz. The question is whether it has a talent for anything else, reports The Register.

Less than a month after murdering its print ad programmes, Google has given up on radio ads as well. This morning, with an official Google blog post, the company said it will soon "phase out" its two-year-old Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio programmes.

With radio ads disappearing, it hopes to offload the radio automation software it built for ad-space-selling broadcasters.

US and Russian communications satellites have collided in space in what is thought to be the biggest incident of its kind to date, says The BBC.

The US commercial Iridium spacecraft hit a defunct Russian satellite at an altitude of about 800km over Siberia on Tuesday, Nasa said.

The risk to the International Space Station and a shuttle launch planned for later this month is said to be low.

BT's third-quarter financial results press release runs to 26 pages - yet the letters “NHS” are not mentioned once, says Computing.co.uk.

When BT won contracts for the £12.7 billion NHS National Programme for IT, in December 2003, there were quite a few raised eyebrows around the industry.

Now BT is making no public comment on the project and will not confirm or deny to what extent its problems are due to the ongoing delays in the delivery of the programme.