Seattle

Microsoft will not say what went wrong inside its Xbox 360 video-game consoles that could lead to -billion in repairs, but bloggers and their online readers seem to have their own answer: heat stroke. Frustrated gamers have been going to blogs and forums to swap horror stories and voodoo-like solutions for problems with the consoles.

Microsoft announced on Thursday it will extend the warranty on Xbox 360 video-game consoles to three years, and said too many of the machines have succumbed to ”general hardware failure”. ”We don’t think we’ve been getting the job done,” said Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division.

Amazon.com will begin selling high-definition independent films in the HD DVD format through its on-demand DVD-printing service, the company said. The web retailer said it will waive processing fees for the first 1 000 films it accepts for production by its CustomFlix Labs subsidiary.

Google says in a court filing that it is pressing for an extension to the United States Justice Department’s oversight of Microsoft’s business practices, most of which is set to expire in November. Over the past year, Google has complained to state and federal regulators about Microsoft’s ”Instant Search” program.

Microsoft launched a redesigned MSN portal optimised for cellphones on Sunday, stepping up its offering at a time when more powerful devices increase the demand for richer content on handsets. There’s a new battle, a new frontline developing on the mobile phone,” said Phil Holden, Microsoft’s director of mobile web services.

Microsoft will unveil a coffee-table-shaped ”surface computer” on Wednesday in a major step towards Bill Gates’s view of a future where the mouse and keyboard are replaced by more natural interactions using voice, pen and touch. Microsoft said it will manufacture the machine itself and sell it initially to corporate customers.

Microsoft has signed deals with Volvo and whisky maker Chivas Brothers to support two new web-only video series from Reveille, the production company behind TV shows The Office and Ugly Betty. The two new shows will arrive on Microsoft’s MSN website in the next six months.

In a big win for a little Wi-Fi startup called Fon, Time Warner Cable will let its home broadband customers turn their connections into public wireless hot spots, a practice shunned by most United States internet service providers (ISPs). Fon has forged similar agreements with ISPs across Europe.

Watching users fumble and nearly drop an early version of the FlipStart compact PC practically gave Robin Budd a heart attack. The culprit was the three-key sequence, Control-Alt-Delete, required to log off or reboot a Windows PC. When the shrunken-down laptop goes on sale later this month, early adopters might get a kick out of FlipStart’s solution.

Microsoft is taking aim at Google’s rival book-scanning project, saying the search company ”systematically violates copyright”. In prepared remarks he is scheduled to deliver on Tuesday to a publishing industry group, a Microsoft lawyer also said Google is cutting into the profits of authors and publishers.

Microsoft said on Monday it has completed the software code for its Office 2007 suite and will begin to offer the world’s most popular package of desktop software to corporate customers on November 30. The new Windows Vista operating system and 2007 Exchange e-mail server will also then be made available to business customers.

When Microsoft researchers learned recently that a software flaw had been made public and could prompt internet attacks, the company ordered a team to fix the flaw and make the repair work with other products. But some security experts complained that the software company wouldn’t help people fast enough.