In a development destined to reshape the entire mobile ecosystem, Palm plans to begin accepting buyout offers, sources tell Bloomberg. The phone maker has reportedly enlisted Goldman Sachs Group and Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, while rumor has it that Taiwan's HTC Corp. and China's Lenovo Group have already kicked Palm's tires. Of particular interest to suitors is Palm's WebOS software, which competes against mobile operating systems from Apple's iPhone and Google. According to Bloomberg, the biggest winner could be Elevation Partners LP, which owns about 30% of Palm, the value of which has …

For any media or technology company, being acquired by Google has become a rather run-of-the-mill milestone. The latest startup to join the club goes by the name Plink, a mobile visual search tool that specializes in identifying recognized works of art and is expected to help Google Goggles visual search. As Media Memo put it: "It's Monday, which means that Google has purchased another company." Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it's safe to say it didn't break Google's bank. "No FTC review here," jokes Search Engine …

Making the spirit of Louis Leakey proud, Google Earth recently helped paleoanthropologists discover a human species that they say pre-dates our "genus Homo" ancestors. Over the last two years, professor Lee Berger at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg used Google Earth to track down over 500 previously undiscovered "caves and fossil sites" around the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. Based on those findings, scientists searched the newly discovered sites where they then discovered a new human species. Christened "Australopithecus sediba," the species "was an upright walker that shared many physical traits …

Netflix has renewed distribution deals with Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios Home Entertainment. According to TechCrunch, both agreements encompass physical and digital distribution of movies and, in the case of Fox, TV programs. "And yes, they include 28-day windows between street date and Netflix catalogue availability for new releases." Particularly now that Netflix has released its iPad app, TechCrunch predicts that "the digital distribution agreements with both studies will propel Netflix higher on the list of comScore's top online video sites." Fox's renewed deal with Netflix brings an expansion of the license for its streaming content, …

Building excitement for next week's relaunch, Twitter Creative Director Doug Bowman is hinting at what we can soon expect from the top microblogging platform. Bowman posted a corner of the redesign on his Dribble page, with the message "Working on what may end up a significant redesign. Not final yet. What we can show without giving away the farm." According to Fast Company, Bowman has given the site "a much cleaner look than its current inception ... There's more than a nod to Apple, with the cog wheel of Mac OS X making an appearance on the Actions button …

To improve users' shopping experiences, Microsoft has updated the etail section of it search/decision engine. In order to streamline research for online merchandise, Bing Shopping no longer requires users to enter a query before exploring various categories. "You'll notice that we've created a list of product categories on the left side of the homepage to help you start your search," says Lawrence Lam, from the Bing Shopping team. "Just click a category to drill down to other parts of our catalogue to find the products you are looking to buy ... We know how much we all …

"Now, the sneak peek we definitely like -- it lets you preview a message without opening it so you can take immediate action," comments ReadWriteWeb. Nested labels, meanwhile, "turns Gmail's once-revolutionary 'tagging' system into something that more closely resembles the traditional folder structure found in email programs like Outlook." The purported problem with Gmail's tagging system is that there's no easy way to retrieve a combination of tags.ReadWriteWeb, in its humble opinion, believes that Gmail has missed an opportunity to take labels to "the next level," i.e., "Why can't there be an easy-to-use function somewhere at the …

Along with clearing the way for Google's acquisition of AdMob, what could Apple's new iAd mobile ad system mean for the world of online media and marketing? For one, the continued rise of the app at the expense of search marketing, according to Steve Jobs, who insists that smartphone owners are getting all of their information through apps, so search ads are not as effective. "Search is not where it's at" on phones, Jobs told reporters -- including one from The New York Times -- on Thursday. "People are not searching on a mobile device …

Challenging Skype and other VoIP providers, Google has built a Google Voice desktop application to make and receive calls, sources tell TechCrunch. "From a user perspective, this will let Google Voice users take calls right from their desktop," notes TechCrunch. The news follows Google's acquisition of Gizmo5 last November. The service stood out for its ability to make P2P VoIP calls as well as make and receive calls with POTS (normal landlines) and mobile phones. Crucial to Google existing Google Voice product, Gizmo5 provides an endpoint for calls. "Google Voice, now with …

What's all this? Imagine, an iPad you can carry in your pocket. Wait a minute, isn't that just ...Citing "upstream component sources," senior Digitimes Research analyst Mingchi Kuo says Apple plans to launch a mini iPad as soon as the first quarter of 2011. Based on available specs, however, the pintsize iPad sounds a lot like an iPod touch. Indeed, the smaller iPad is expected to stand 5-to-7 inches tall, while the iPad is just under 5 inches in height. The smaller iPad will be priced below $400, and will target the "highly-portable" mobile device …