Yahoo has now reached a settlement with investor Carl Icahn, who wanted to replace the current board after the company refused to sell all or a part of the company to Microsoft, with Microsoft saying it could not work with the current board.

The settlement will see Icahn, who owns 68.7 million shares (or 4.98% of Yahoo’s common stock), joining the Yahoo board and withdraw his proxy battle. This will also see another board member Robert Kotick not seeking re-election.

Another eight members are facing re-election at the next board members, and the board will expand to 11 members, adding Icahn and two other nominees from Icahn’s proposal.

The launch of the MobileMe service from Apple, which was to replace the .mac service, has been a complete failure as Apple was forced to give a free month to users for a second time.

The new service allows users to sync calendars, contacts, emails and data to PCs, Macs and iPhones for $119 a year. However, the service has been plagued with problems since the launch, when it was knocked offline for several days so Apple could fix bugs and its server load.

Its biggest selling point is its “cloud computing” - which allows users to sync important data to a server, without losing the data. This means that if you had several photos that you want to keep, you can put them on a server that will sync the data to the other computers connected and the iPhone itself - so you can edit, view or regain the files if you lose them.

Now, just over a week later, users are experiencing several problems accessing their email, with some experiencing sync problems with Outlook.

In addition, it falsely charged some users with US$100 for a free trial account, instead of a $1 “preauthorization” charge. It has offered a free month to those affected.

Prepaid iTunes gift cards will no longer be on sale at several stores, including Coles, Myer, JB Hi-FI and Target as their payment provider to the iTunes gift cards Bill Express is now placed into administration.

Customers would have encountered problems as many checkouts were advising that vouchers were unavailable.

Bill Express had been the provider for iTunes gift cards since the introduction of the iTunes Store in Australia, but was placed into administration earlier this month.

However, other retailers like Big W, Dick Smith Electronics, Safeway and Woolworths are still selling the gift cards. This is because they use a different supplier - E-Pay.

O2 in the UK has plugged the security hole after it caused a storm of people angry with the service after it had been revealed that photos sent by MMS can be found with a simple Google search.

MMS messages are sent to its web server if the recipient does not have a compatible phone - like the iPhone 3G - and the recipient will receive a URL so that they can view the image themselves. But it had been discovered it could be accessed by a simple InURL search on Google.

It has taken down the server, with people attempting to view the site are now redirected to an Apache server error. The leak - many containing images of children - was embarrassing to the company, as it also runs a site that is dedicated to protecting children online.

The ABC has launched its rental and download service called ABC Shop Downloads, after an eight-month development period. However, there are just a few things wrong with it - and it has nothing to do with the content, which consists of current hits like the Chaser to vintage, archived programming like Aunty Jack.

For most programs, you can rent programs for unlimited viewing during a seven day period for $2.95. However, it will offer several programs as free downloads for testing purposes. You will, however, still need to register your credit card for the free downloads, but they say it won’t result in charges.

The service was developed by Hyro and uses Windows Media technologies and Microsoft’s Flash competitor Silverlight. And since it uses Windows Media and its DRM, you will not be able to play anything on a Mac or Linux computers except previews.

But, they are planning to move once Silverlight 2 is out for the Mac, and will be using PlayReady later in the year.

Yes, and it sucks - and I would not bother to try it; unless you want to see Chaser recaps and vintage ABC programs. This is not a review - I have not reviewed it, but based it with information made available from many sources.

Facebook is set to get a new look to reflect on how its members (like us) communicate with each other. The new design, which will be unveiled to the public on Monday, will see an expanded Wall - where everyone can leave comments and photos, which will include the user’s Mini-Feed.

This comes after MySpace revamped most of its site, but not its profile section. Both are, however, reducing their pages to make it load faster and reduce the clutter which has plague them so much.

However, the new design, which several members had a peak, has faced a lot of criticism over it was not really helped them.

Get ready for a change soon - and expect a review of it soon.

The Ministry of Defence in the UK has admitted that another laptop with "sensitive information" has been stolen while one of its officials checked out of Britannia Adelphi in Liverpool’s city centre on Thursday. This comes after the Ministry was forced to admit that it had lost 658 laptops between 2004 and 2007. This now brings the total to 659.

It had previously admitted that it had lost 347, but had to revise that number after "anomalies in the reporting process" were discovered. Merseyside police is reported to be investigating the situation.

Source: The Guardian

Paris-based security firm Intego has released the very first antivirus software for the iPhone. However, it does not run on the phone itself, but on a user’s Mac.

The software, Virus Barrier X5 10.5.3, would be able to scan the iPhone for viruses by copying the files to the Mac for a security check, once the user has plugged in the cable and is connected to the Mac itself. The company claims that since Apple has opened it its SDK, users would be at risk of installing apps that would harm the devices, or even take control of them.

There is, however, only one known malware that is publicly known. Antivirus vendors have predicted that since the iPhone is running a stripped down version of Mac OS X, it would lead to an increase of malware on all Mac OS X, but currently the threat is low; but other vendors are agreeing that the Apple App Store can be hijacked.

MySpace is a popular social networking site which allows you to customize everything - but that is not our tutorial for today. This tutorial is basically for the comments, where you can add images and change colours to text, among other things.

But many, like new users, do not know what <b> means. So, TECHGEEK is pleased to bring out the basics of HTML.

This tutorial is to be used with MYSPACE ONLY! Many new social networks use XHTML, which is a variation of HTML and there are things under this lesson which are not supported. You can comment on the TECHGEEK blog, however, do not use this tutorial - a follow up will be up soon (like next week.)

Like this Tutorial? Need your questions answered? Suggesting a new tutorial? Comment below!

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Facebook is pursuing a lawsuit against the German social network, StudiVZ; for infringing on the "look, feel, features and services" of Facebook.

The service claims that it has 10 million active members, and it is the largest German speaking social network, covering Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. The site, actually, has three parts to suit different school year levels - like Studivz.net is a site for college-aged students, Schuelervz.net for high school students and Meinvz is for older adults.

As well, the company has other sites in Italian (Studiln.it), French (StudiQG.fr), Polish (Studentix.pl) and Spanish (Estudiln.net). And, all have the same design.

It does actually have a claim, as the site does actually look like Facebook, but just in German/French/Polish/Spanish/Italian and in red. (Image from TechCrunch)  (NB - That is obviously not the real Mark Zuckerberg (or is it?).