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A prolonged, ongoing Gmail outage has some Google Apps administrators pulling their hair out as their end users, including high-ranking executives, complain loudly while they wait for service to be restored. At around 5 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Google announced in the official Google Apps discussion forum that the company was aware of a problem preventing Gmail users from logging into their accounts and that it expected a solution by 9 p.m. on Thursday. Google offered no explanation as to what is causing the problem nor as to why it will take the company so long to solve the problem, which manifests itself by giving Gmail users a “502” error when trying to access their e-mail accounts.
Advanced Micro Devices reported a narrower loss than expected for its third quarter on increased sales of its microprocessors and graphics chips. It was AMD’s eighth consecutive quarterly loss but a much smaller one than the year before. Revenue from AMD’s microprocessor unit climbed 8 percent year over year, while revenue from its graphics business climbed 40 percent. The growth came from AMD’s quad-core Barcelona server processor, which had its first full quarter of shipments following delays, and from new Radeon 4000 graphics chips that shipped during the quarter.
Microsoft said Thursday it is not pursuing an acquisition of Yahoo, despite public comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday suggesting a deal between the two companies might still be on the table. Microsoft’s position on Yahoo hasn’t changed and it has “no interest in acquiring Yahoo,” the company said. The statement came after Bloomberg.com and other news outlets quoted Ballmer as saying that buying Yahoo would still make economic sense for shareholders of both companies. The comments were made at a Gartner conference in Orlando, Thursday, according to published reports.
Microsoft is considering giving its Windows client OS the capability to be turned on very rapidly by allowing users only limited access to the OS, a concept it’s calling “Instant On,” according to a survey Microsoft conducted. The company would not comment on the survey, saying only that Microsoft “routinely does research about various scenarios to see what customers are interested in having their computers do.” Microsoft said it’s “too early” to discuss Instant On specifically. However, the company may be considering it as a feature of Windows 7, the next version of its client OS, which is expected to be released late next year or in early 2010.
…And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.
