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For those of you looking to save a few dollars this holiday season, be sure to find your gifts using Live Search.  Microsoft's Live Search Cashback is a program that pays Web users rebates for buying products from participating Microsoft vendor partners. 

That includes a lot of popular retailers like eBay, Barnes & Noble, Overstock, Sears, AT&T, FTD, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Kmart, and Saks Fifth Avenue.  When you buy items through those websites after using Live Search to locate them, Microsoft will send you PayPal funds or a rebate check in the mail.  There is a limit of $200 per rebate, 12 transactions, and/or up to $2,500 of savings each calendar year.

Today Microsoft said Live Search Cashback program has been an overwhelming success since its launch in May.  Microsoft has seen a 30 percent jump in the number of products listed on the Web site, which is now drawing 4.5 million unique users and 68 million search queries per month.

Today, officially, the monopoly and the merger, are complete. XM adds 22 new channels, Sirius picks up 11 new channels, and a bunch of old ones have been moved, renamed, and generally all mixed up. Click below for your printable cheat sheet.

XM's New Lineup

Sirius's New Lineup

So the FCC allowed a merger between Sirius and XM so they could compete with terrestial and internet radio stations, but Sirus XM is allowed to have 6 satellites in outer space, and ftfradio.com isn't allowed to have 1?  Until we get an ubiqutous internet bubble around the earth or internet radio preloaded in our cars, in what way is this a level playing field?  Maybe the folks at savenetradio.org could petition the FCC to allow the launch of an open-standards satellite for internet broadcasters to relay their signals off of?

On Tuesday, the FCC voted 5-0 to approve unlicensed white space usage.  FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has voiced his support throughout the process, along side major companies like Google, Microsoft, and Intel and their campaign toFree The Airwaves.  The National Association of Broadcasters weren't too happy though, as they fear it could interfere with wireless audio equipment.  No word yet on when the world will support our efforts to Free The Future.

With the release of Windows 7 not coming any time soon, have you ever stopped to wonder if it is actually version 7.  Well sure, why wouldn't it be?  According to Mike Nash on the Vista blog, its easy to see how they came up with that name...

1. Windows 1
2. Windows 2
3. Windows 3
4. Windows 95
5. Windows 2000
6. Windows Vista
7. Windows 7 (or 6.1 as its actually numbered internally on software at Microsoft)
   

That would make all of these major releases, simply minor updates.

   3.1 Windows NT

   4.1 Windows 98

   4.3 Windows Millennium

   5.1 Windows XP

Oh, I get it now.  Windows NT wasn't a major change in code, you haven't released a worthwhile operating system since Windows 2000, and you've tried to convince people these were all amazing and necessary releases worth paying for.  Now do you understand why the world hates you?  Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, "Windows 7 is Windows Vista, just a lot better"  So you're saying is that its more of a fancy Windows 6.1?  Windows 7, bleh, this better be good.

Baltimore became the first city to receive Sprint's XOHM WiMAX service after the carrier officially turned on the signals in the downtown area on Monday.  Networks in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. or Northern Virginia are still being tested.  Download speeds should come in around 3-4mbps and prices are reported to be around $35/month with no contract necessary.

Representatives from T-Mobile, HTC, and Google all kicked off the official launch of the first Android phone, T-Mobile's G1 (previously known as the HTC Dream) with a live event today in New York City.  Here's a round up of the day's activity.

Let's take a second to think. How many computers do you have OpenOffice installed on? If you answered "all of them" you may need to think about setting aside time for an install-fest because OOo3.0 is here!

The long-awaited next release... now with .docx support!

If Microsoft's excited about one thing right now, its the upcoming premiere of Surface, one of its largest and most intensive R&D investment.  The first official unboxing of a Microsoft Surface table has come from our friends from downunder.  Although this technology will make its debut in 275 lb. coffeetable form, look for other implentations such as Sphere.  Soon your restraunt dining experiences will never ever be the same again.

    One world, one dream?  Really?  Well, as long as you use proprietary software.  When Microsoft signed an exclusive deal in January to broadcast the 2008 Olympics online with their partner network NBC, Linux users knew they wouldn't be invited to the party.  nbcolympics.com uses Microsoft's Searchlight which doesn't and will never have a GNU/Linux port.  Web adoption of proprietary standards like those used in MS Searchlight continue to endanger the openness of the world wide web and hinder those using free software.  We can only hope that the open source community will pull together, share ideas, and conceive a workaround before the live streams are gone forever.