Filed under: New Releases, PlayStation Store

It’s the day you’ve all been waiting for (unless, of course, you’re waiting around for Pain). Everyday Shooter is finally available in Europe - and it only took five months! Good going SCEE! There’s also a demo and some DLC for GHIII. Here’s the full release list:

• Riff: Everyday Shooter full game (£4.99/€7.99)
• Guitar Hero III “Classic Rock Track Pack” add-on (£3.99/€5.99)
• Everybody’s Golf 5 demo (free)
• Conflict: Denied Ops teaser trailer (free)
• Conflict: Denied Ops “Developer Diary 1″ (free)
• Conflict: Denied Ops “Developer Diary 2″ (free)
• Resident Evil 5 wallpaper (free)
• Super Stardust HD theme (free)
• Spiderwick movie trailer (free)

No PS1 games? Maybe we’re being spoilt … We’re just so happy to finally see Everyday Shooter available in Europe. If you want to know what we thought of the game, check out our review and, if you want to see more screenshots, have a look at the gallery below. It’s very pretty.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Next big thing, Procter and Gamble (PG)

For Fortune 500 companies, it’s often the case that there are many websites to manage (perhaps more than 100, which may not even include the foreign language translations). So, it can be time-consuming to leverage search engine marketing across Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO).

Well, this has been a big market opportunity for Covario, which automates paid and organic search. In fact, the company recently snagged $16 million in venture capital from FTVentures, Dubilier & Company and Voyager Capital. Some of its customers include P&G (NYSE: PG), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).

“Our solution not only reduces costs but also drives more traffic,” said Russ Mann, the CEO at Covario, in an interview with me.

“We plan to move into mobile, video and IPTV,” said Mann. “But for now, our customers are most interested in search marketing. As for other areas, such as social networking, I think there’s huge hype. Big customers are experimenting with this but it looks like there is mostly remnant traffic and the click-through rates are very low. That is, the users are not there to buy.”

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Cellphones

It looks like Android will have more than just its openness and pretty face to show to the world soon. According to a report from Reuters, LG has officially set a time-table for bringing a Google-powered handset to market (and obviously not the phone above). “We will bring it out late in 2008 or early 2009,” said Chang Ma, the company’s vice president for marketing strategy. The plan sounds shockingly close to competitor Samsung’s scheme for a rollout of the Linux phone in early 2009. Clearly, companies are doing more than just putting pen to paper on the platform — let’s just hope those minor kinks get straightened out before the new year.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Even for a company the size of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), the $44.6 billion buyout proposal for Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) is a big bet. And it’s expensive. Hey, just look at Yahoo’s feeble attempts to ward off the bid (such as a deal to merge with MySpace).

On its face, it looks like Microsoft wants several things: the Yahoo brand, the assorted content properties, applications (like Flickr) and the lucrative display-ad business.

But perhaps there is more? Well, according to a recent piece in the New York Times, it looks like Microsoft may also be using the deal to bolster its hugely profitable Office franchise.

In other words, Microsoft will be able to offer low-cost or free versions of its software and monetize it with the large amounts of Yahoo traffic. It’s something that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is already aggressively pursuing.

So, to get perspective on things, I had a chance to talk to David Koretz, who is the CEO and founder of BlueTie (which offers web-based email applications). According to him:

“Yahoo! gives Microsoft access to a huge number of users and leading Web-based applications, but it doesn’t solve the monetization problem. They are still an order of magnitude behind Google in per-user monetization. The future of application delivery is the web, but the future of application monetization is definitely not banner ads.

“The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo is a band-aid. It’s an aging client-server software company clutching to a maturing display advertising business.

“When Web advertising grows from a $45 Billion business to a $100 Billion business over the next five years, it is not going to be driven by display and search advertising. The future is in mobile, video, and application advertising — areas that neither Microsoft nor Yahoo have expertise in.”

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Okay, we suppose cellphone companies trumpeting some sort of fuel cell technology isn’t that weird, but nevertheless, Moto sure seems proud of its most recent advancements. Showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress are a number of “alternative power solutions including fuel cell and reflow batteries,” which can be deployed in most every wireless / mobile environment out there. More specifically, the outfit is demonstrating a fuel cell-powered WiMAX base station, and it’s also suggesting that said technology could “further guarantee [the] availability of uninterrupted power” in TETRA radio networks tha