MySpace's DIY ad service

MySpace on Monday launches MyAds, a do-it-yourself service that lets anyone create their own banner ads, target those ads and distribute them for as little as $25.

Say you're a pizza maker in Chicago. You follow easy-to-use prompts to make an advertisement and send it to football fans in Chicago on Sunday evening, setting the price you are willing to pay if a fan clicks on your ad and the dates MORE

Microsoft sweetens pay-to-search deal

By Yi-Wyn Yen

It's been four months since Microsoft introduced its cashback rebate scheme that pays people to use its Internet search service. But Microsoft continues to fall behind Google in search.

On Wednesday, Microsoft (MSFT) plans to unveil a new rewards program to get more consumers searching on the company's Live Search engine. While a company spokesperson would not discuss details of the latest rewards gimmick, a Microsoft executive says the MORE

Electronic valves promise big energy savings

By Michael V. Copeland

SAN DIEGO - Valves are one of those things you don't think about - until someone tells you it's a $300 billion market. That's right, those things that open and close. The automotive world spends $2 billion alone on little valves inside hydraulic transmissions. Washing machines, soda dispensers, ice machines and air conditioners all require various types and sizes of valves to do their thing.

The vast majority MORE

Plastic Fantastic

By Michael V. Copeland

SAN DIEGO - There are still those rare tech gadgets that elicit oohs and ahhs from even the most jaded gear hounds. PlasticLogic's display is one of those. The size of a sheet of paper, about three-eighths of an inch thick and weighing 13 ounces, the device is a gray-scale screen - which can store thousands of documents for reading and annotating.  Picking up the prototype here MORE

Holiday deadline for Google's dream phone nears

By Scott Moritz

Google and its phone manufacturing partner HTC may have trouble breathing life into Android by the holiday shopping season.

The tech duo is working on the hotly anticipated mobile software for T-Mobile's so-called Dream phone. But time is running out since the device will need clearance from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, a process that typically takes three months.

Last year, Google (GOOG) made a big splash announcing it was MORE

Cashing in on virtual goods

By Michael V. Copeland

In a recent conversation with Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha (he did the YouTube and Meebo deals among others), he dropped an interesting tidbit. The market in China for virtual goods – digital swords, armor, dresses, etc. used in online games and communities – is larger than the market for online advertising.  Let that soak in a bit.

Botha pegs the Chinese virtual goods market at about $1.2 billion MORE

New iPhone: Cool corporate tool

By Scott Moritz

With Apple chief Steve Jobs set to lift the curtain on the next-generation iPhone Monday, the new fun-loving iPhone wants to be all business for any hard-charging gadget shoppers looking for a BlackBerry alternative.

The problem Apple faces is that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) is a tough player to dislodge.

But Apple (AAPL) is game. The company's version 2.0 iPhone software will feature a suite of business applications MORE

T. Boone Pickens on Yahoo

By Todd Woody

NEW YORK - T. Boone Pickens dropped by Fortune to chat with the magazine's editors and writers and naturally Yahoo came up. The billionaire oilman has bought 10 million Yahoo shares and is backing Carl Icahn's bid to oust the Internet company's board in the aftermath of the failed (so far) deal with Microsoft.

"I'm just coat-tailing Carl on that," said Pickens, who celebrated his 80th birthday last Thursday. MORE

What Microsoft will do next

By Michael V. Copeland

The last time Microsoft walked away from a major acquisition was more than a decade ago. It was 1995 and a $2 billion bid to buy financial software company Intuit fell apart under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice. While there are clear differences between Microsoft's Intuit deal and its failed attempt to buy Yahoo, a look at what happened within Microsoft after the Intuit bid MORE

Time Warner Cable braces for independence

By Scott Moritz

Time Warner Cable (TWC) posted strong numbers as the unit gets set to fly independent of parent Time Warner (TWX), but analysts see turbulence ahead as Verizon (VZ) enters the key New York market with a rival TV offering.

The No.2 cable shop reversed a trend of losing basic subscribers by adding 55,000 net new customers in the first quarter. Even better, the company added 896,000 so-called revenue generating MORE