As RIM enters the fourth month of its stock slide which has seen its valuation drop from $148 to just $60, it is rumored that the borg is looking to assimilate. Given that RIM has long been married to Microsoft’s Exchange platform, snapping up RIM would be a perfect acquisition for Redmond. Analysts are even going so far as to suggest that an offer stands to purchase RIM at $50 per share if the company drops below that value.

If the maneuver is real and were to happen, Microsoft would immediately have a 38 million-strong user base. Owning the world’s single largest smartphone user base would put Microsoft in an interesting position and dash Google’s plans for (friendly?) world domination.

On September 29, it was revealed that Wal*Mart would be killing off their DRM servers which would have left anyone who bought music from their service prior to February out in the cold. Now it appears that ol’ Wally has had a change of heart and will not be closing their DRM servers after all.

Three cheers for the awesome power of internet rabble-rousing.

If you’ve had a file or folder that claimed it was in use and could not be deleted, unlocker is for you. It will forcefully detach any file you want to delete from the Windows process controlling it, which makes it possible to finally remove it.

This tool is invaluable in the elimination of annoyances and spyware-controlled DLL files

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’re the owner or user of multiple Firefox-bearing computers. If you’ve been having trouble keeping your bookmarks synchronized or have completely given up on such a task, perhaps Foxmarks is for you.

Foxmarks stores bookmarks on a central server so they can be retrieved with any installation of Firefox that also has the addon installed.

Go forth and replicate!

Fresh from the pipe is a new legion of new doodads for your slackerly endeavors on this Friday morning:

• RIM, apparently not content to sit around and smirk about the Storm and the Bold, are working on some super phone with a 5mp camera, all sorts of wacky 3G/4G connectivity, 1GB of memory and a list of other niceties.
• Asus is applying the “Eee PC” moniker to everything now that they’ve had a smashing success with their netbook. The newest product carrying the diluted name is a mini desktop.
• Could Orange in the UK be halting sales of the Blackberry Bold due to previously-unknown software issues? Could this be the source of my pain?
• HTC is unveiling their first WiMax-enabled mobile phone. This thing is smoking hot. It combines the aesthetics of their awarded Touch Diamond with the beautiful screen of the Touch HD.
• Seagate is going solid state!
• A mouse with 15 buttons. Sure, it’s junked up with more marketing than you can shake a Shivering Felspine at, but fifteen mouse buttons excites me.
• Panasonic goes 32nm?! WTF? Panasonic? Seriously?
• Maybe you don’t need 3G connectivity or don’t think that the Bold is for you. Perhaps you’d be interested in the Javelin, or Blackberry’s Curve 8900. It’s the Bold with a new keyboard and a pedestrian EDGE radio.
• Are you tired of blitzing your wallet by leaving your PS3 on to charge your PS3 controllers? Blitz no more as now you can plug ‘em straight into the wall.
• That fussy old Microsoft-adopting-blu-ray-for-Xbox rumor is back and once more gaining strength. Speculate yonder. PS, SNES is best. UPDATE @ 12:24 PM: Microsoft says it’s just not true.

Go forth and salivate. More gadgets will join the ranks throughout the day as they roll in.

The ongoing drama continues as a Yahoo!’s stocks slip below $12 per share, a far cry from the $33 offered by Microsoft not so long ago. The rising clamor, calling for a sell-off to Microsoft at $22 per share, comes from Mithras Capital Partners which is purported to own 00.14% of Yahoo!. While the lobbying is not a complete selloff, it “would unload Yahoo’s Asian assets and non-search businesses, extract $3 billion worth of cost savings, and receive $2.8 billion of tax benefits.”

Today Micron Technologies, Inc. announced that it intends to cut jobs and reduce their production of flash memory. Micron reveals that they are ailing in the credit crunch as with other manufacturers and went on to say that their Flash SSD division has been hit worst of all.

Micron, the United States’ largest memory IC manufacturer, has most recently partnered with Intel Corp. to develop NAND-based flash memory. Time will tell how this recent announcement will effect this ongoing partnership and, further, the flash memory landscape.

Since 2004, 41 partners from 12 European countries have been aiding the University of Bristol in being the first to commercialize quantum cryptography. The cryptographic devices which are capable of interfacing with traditional networking equipment are now running on six Siemens Austria-provided fiber nodes between 6km and 82km in length.

Dubbed — and rightly so — an unbreakable cryptosystem, quantum cryptography has long been the Holy Grail of encryption as attempts to break the system unavoidably leaves signs of tampering behind. According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the observation of atomic motion fundamentally alters the characteristics of an atomic state which makes it incredibly easy to identify and reject data that has been tampered with.

The world’s first quantum encrypted network will be discussed and demonstrated tomorrow (10 October) at 8:00 UTC via the SECOQC site.

So last week MySpace “relaunched” their Music part of the site. They have always given artists and bands their own page with the ability to upload some songs but this time around they actually made it useful.

Artists are now able to upload their songs, sort them by album and playlists, and let people buy the tracks right from their MySpace page.

What does this mean? Instead of putting up three or four songs just to keep their MySpace audience happy, many artists are now uploading full albums - some even their entire discography.

Artists now have two ways of making some green. MySpace pays them a small amount for each song played and listeners can buy the songs directly off of their page.

I could really care less if the artist gets $0.0005 from each song played. What I care about is I can now listen to full albums of Jimmy Eat World and Flogging Molly while I am at work and away from my MP3 stash.

Not all artists are cool enough to put up full albums on their MySpace page, or perhaps they just haven’t “got around” to it yet. However, about 2/3 of the bands I enjoy have done as much, so it seems to be catching on.

Twitter is sweeping the internet faster than anyone could have ever imagined. Companies such as Southwest and Zappos now have Twitter accounts. Before you know it, even normal people will be getting their Tweet on.

Here at Icrontic we like to blast some tweets of our own. Many of our own members have accounts which you can follow. Also, if you are a registered member you should take a peek at our new Twitter directory.

So you have a Twitter account now. You might have Twitterrific or Twhirl installed on your desktop if you’re a real h4xx0r. Maybe you are even cool enough to work the new search feature. Well, think again.

It’s time you step up your “A” game. Head over to Epic Fu and learn how to become a true Twitter power user.

In light of the insecurities that have plagued Windows XP, Microsoft was prompted to reveal the User Accounts Control (UAC) feature with Windows Vista. By providing alerts when potentially-risky operations were taken or done on the system, the user would be alerted to the dangers. Unfortunately, UAC did so much prompting that most users simply ignored the box or grew downright indignant with it. In response to user irritations, Microsoft has said that UAC will be returning with Windows 7 but improved based on user feedback.

In the E7 blog which covers the development of Windows 7, Microsoft covered UAC in astonishing detail. In addition to metrics related to the regularity of UAC popups, their triggers, and types, Microsoft pledged an improved UAC experience, saying:

Based on what we’ve learned from our data and feedback we need to address several key issues in Windows 7:

• Reduce unnecessary or duplicated prompts in Windows and the ecosystem, such that critical prompts can be more easily identified.
• Enable our customers to be more confident that they are in control of their systems.
• Make prompts informative such that people can make more confident choices.
• Provide better and more obvious control over the mechanism.

All of which is to say that Microsoft is listening and, while not preparing to ditch the feature, hopes its next iteration won’t be the most hated popup on the planet.

A sample Fast Dial configuration courtesy of the Fast Dial developers

Google Chrome’s homepage with its thumbnailed most-used webpages has been receiving lots of acclaim. Based on the Speed Dial feature in the Opera browser, it’s a very convenient way to hit your most-used websites in a real hurry.

Fortunately for Firefox users everywhere, we’ve a solution to get the same effect. Firefox addon Fast Dial adds the same functionality as Opera or Chrome, but allows the user to manually select what sites get thumbnailed for use.

Download Fast Dial for Firefox 3.0+ today.

The Lclock interface

Today’s awesome download is the Windows clock replacement known as Lclock. In addition to sleekly sprucing up the clock area of the Windows system tray, it adds a convenient calendar popup that features notifications. The calendar can have an unlimited number of user-defined alarms that can be programmed to fire once, daily, or weekly for a user-determined duration.

I keep my life on schedule with this handy application, and you might find it just as useful.

BONUS: Lclock can be skinned! If you have a custom Windows theme, there are many skins out there that can match it. Download Lclock today.

It would seem that there’s actual news to report today, but we know you guys like neat electronics. So without further ado, here’s today’s serving of GnG.

• With recent advancements in NAND flash write durability, solid state disks are now more reliable than mechanical drives over five years. Capitalizing on the developments, Samsung is entering the server market with their FlashSSD line.
• There are, once again, rumblings in the machine that a Blu-ray addon is coming for the Xbox 360. Your daily fill of unsubstantiated rumors!
• Sanyo’s next-generation blue LASER technology is qualified to read and write 100GB BDROMs.
• If you happen to live in the UK, just 259 quid will land you the PocketSurfer 2R and a lifetime internet connection for the device. This thing is actually pretty swank.
• Is Apple preparing to release an $800 laptop? Inquisitr thinks so.
• NVIDIA is preparing to release two new GPUs with a winter refresh. The GeForce 270 and GeForce 290 appear to be on the block. Other interesting NV facts abound as well.
• MSI is revealing the “Wind 2″ or the U150. It’ll feature 802.11n, HSDPA, a new monitor bezel and an updated color scheme.

Check back throughout the day for an updated listing.

(Ed note: We know what day it is, honest guv.)

Some readers of Icrontic are big into typography, and today we write for you. Enter Wordle, the dynamic and interesting generator that arranges the content of a page or RSS stream into a word art map of that content. Bigger fonts mean more repetitions, and the amount of customization that can be done is endless. New colors, shapes, fonts and arrangements can be selected in addition to the mesmerizing choices generated at random

See what Icrontic’s RSS feed look like after the jump.

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