MICROSOFT and Yahoo! have discussed a possible partnership before, but now Yahoo!’s woes and Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6-billion bid to buy the Internet portal might mean this scenario is just that much closer to becoming a reality.

How do you feel about a Microsoft-Yahoo! (Microhoo?) merger? Do you think that would  make Yahoo! cool again, and that it would finally make Microsoft cool?

Anyway, you can also check out INQUIRER.net reporter Erwin Oliva’s story, “Yahoo! board responds to Microsoft bid.”

UPDATE: Southeastern College filed the civil case this noon, and Microsoft Philippines has issued a statement saying it tried to resolve the dispute before the case was filed.

Here’s an INQUIRER.net VDO Clip taken by our reporter Lawrence Casiraya, showing Estelito Mendoza, the legal counsel for Pasay City-based Southeastern College, describing the P100-million copyright infringement case.

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HERE’S an excerpt from INQUIRER.net reporter Lawrence Casiraya’s Breaking News story:

A Pasay City school is scheduled to file at noon Monday a civil case against software firm Microsoft Corp. and its local subsidiary, Microsoft Philippines, for alleged illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

The case stemmed from Microsoft’s allegedly unauthorized and illegal “digital copying” and distribution of a locally developed manual on the use of Microsoft Office. Ironically, Microsoft has been at the forefront of attempting to curb the illegal distribution of its own copyrighted software in the Philippines, working with the Optical Media Board and the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team.

The registered copyright of the manual in question is owned by Southeastern College (SEC), which is set to file the case against Seattle, US-based Microsoft and its Philippine office at the Makati City Regional Trial Court.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft Philippines is holding its media Christmas party tonight.

WE had fun doing the audio and video podcast interview with new Microsoft Philippines managing director Rafael “Pepeng” Rollan, who shared his thoughts on Windows Vista, software piracy and open source.

The podcast session also gave us a chance to catch up with Microsoft execs Sam Jacoba and Mae Rivera-Moreno, as well as Joy Mirasol of their PR firm Perceptions. Special thanks to Mae for making sure we could set up our equipment properly at the Microsoft office and rearrange the furniture as needed. And to all Microsoft employees there that day, our sincerest apologies. If you were wondering why the centralized aircon in your office was suddenly turned off, we’re to blame heh The aircon was too loud in Pepeng’s office during the podcast and we asked if it could be turned off before we realized that it was centralized. D’oh!

Anyway, check out Episode 4 of The Newsmaker Vidcast, hosted by INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno. INQUIRER.net reporter Lawrence Casiraya took the video, while I produced the vidcast.

Click here for the audio podcast.

IT was a rare moment: Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the two icons of the personal computing age, together on stage — something that hasn’t happened in a long time.

Of course it was all over the news, and it’s interesting to read that the two longtime rivals acted more like friends as they traded quips and reminisced about the good old days of computing.

Bill and Steve almost seem tailor-made as rivals in an epic tale for the digital age. The two of them are so different that they’re almost caricatures — like comic book characters destined to oppose each other. Bill and Microsoft are almost universally bashed, while Steve and Apple are, well, the apple of a lot of people’s eyes. Bill’s a geek. Steve’s cool. Bill is coldly logical. Steve’s the mystical dude with the “reality distortion field.”

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GOOGLE is great. Now they’ve gotten better.

Google wants to give you everything you need in one page with the launch of its Universal Search service. Here’s an excerpt from the Reuters story in CNN:

Universal Search means that standard Google searches will draw results from separate properties covering books, local information, images, news, and video, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search and user experience.

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