Yahoo! getting into banking? People being buried with their mobiles?! Must be the morning roundup...

Yes, this morning we have more on Apple v Apple at the High Court, plenty of search including Microsoft and Google’s new interfaces and a story about people being buried Egyptian style, except with their blackberries moreso than their slaves.

Good morning readers. If you’re sitting eagerly awaiting this at 9.30am, my apologies. I was delayed this morning by a fax machine. Ohh and by the way, I hate technology. "Sending.... Sending... Sending... Not Sent, Please Try Again." Dear ohh dear...

We begin this morning with Apple (Computer) vs Apple (The Beatles), with Apple vs France and Denmark having gone quiet for the morning in the midst of industrial dispute. The High Court is to hear the case in which The Beatles (or the surviving members) are claiming that Apple Computer has broken the stringent agreement that the two signed many moons ago concerning the use of the Apple trademark. The agreement basically says that so long as Apple Computer sticks to said computers they can get along with Apple Corps, The Beatles record label. They claim that iTunes is a breech of this agreement. This can only end well

Meanwhile in Searchland, Google has apparently consolidated and grown its share of the search market while Microsoft, with its stated aim to grow, grow, grow its new and improved search, has actually shrunk. In February Google got 42 percent of the market, while MSN Search, which is soon to be Windows Live Search in Microsoft’s continuing conversion efforts, went from 16.3 percent in the same period last year to 13.5 percent this year. Well, isn’t that just a kick in the balls

The two competitors aren’t being too slow to try and grow however, and both Google and Microsoft have new search interfaces in the works. Microsoft is putting a new face to its soon to be launched Windows Live Search, adding such features as an infinite scroll bar which allows you to continue scrolling while it loads more results. Google meanwhile has done something to the side, with green bars telling you how many search results you’ve got in categories such as Froogle and Image searches. Google have not, apparently, heard the saying "If it ain’t broke..."

The EU meanwhile is continuing to break bottles over Microsoft’s head, with the antitrust commissioner Neelie Kroes warning Microsoft that they won’t be allowed to sell Vista if they breech antitrust rules. With Microsoft bringing a new OS to market the commissioner could deliver a hellova kick if they hold up Vista. Or it may all just be hot air. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell with the EU

Yahoo ! has seen its shares rise by 6.05 percent after rumours went flying around that Yahoo ! Japan is to get into the online banking scene. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is reportedly going to give Yahoo ! a stake in its online Japan Net Bank, moving Yahoo ! into a position to offer banking as part of its hole-in-one portal strategy. I can see putting banking, an email account, a chat program and one password together encountering no problems whatsoever

This may be a bit of a personal question, but err, do you want to be buried with your mobile phone ? And would you like us to stick in a few extra batteries, just in case you wake up with a shocking hangover only to find that the battery is as dead as you supposedly were ? Well, it is becoming more and more popular to be buried - and even cremated - with ones mobile phone, and other assorted paraphernalia, according to the BBC. Harkening back to those Egyptian chaps who were buried with everything up to and including their servants, people are being buried from South Africa to Colorado with their mobile phones, in case they wake up, and their riches, in case they need to order a takeaway. Of course cremating mobile phones has a slight problem : They tend to explode when heated

And umm, with that thought penetrating your brain I think I’ll go and get back to reading my fax machine manual. While we’re on the subject, I don’t suppose any of you know how to read Japanese... ?

Coming up today we have "DualHead2Go : Three Monitors, One Laptop", and something about online gaming. Yes, yes I am feeling cryptic this morning. Thank you.