Several computer manufacturers have reportedly indicated that Vista, Microsoft’s newest operating system, is consuming more battery power in laptop computers than anticipated. Since laptop users want to be able to use their PCs as long as possible without being tethered to an electrical outlet, the added drain that Vista puts on battery power can be a definite disadvantage for them.

Two leading computer manufacturers, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, have reported that they are implementing their own battery-saving, custom power-management settings to compensate for the drain caused by the Aero Glass interface in the Home Premium edition of Vista. For its part, Microsoft has said that it encourages PC makers to customize default power profiles for maximum efficiency.

Creative is launching a small-capacity MP3 player that has the same capacity but the half price of Apple’s Shuffle player. Known as the Stone, the new £28 (US$56) player will be available in six glossy finishes: black, red, pink, blue, green or white and has a capacity of 1GB.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Apple’s updated iPod Shuffle is available in white, pink, blue, green or orange.

Microsoft Corp. has stepped up its pursuit of a deal to buy Yahoo Inc., two newspapers reported on Friday, as the two companies re-enter talks to strike a deal and fend off a common competitor in Web search leader Google Inc.

Yahoo shares jumped 17.96 percent to $33.24 in Nasdaq trading on Friday, while Microsoft shares fell 1.26 percent to $30.58.

The two companies have held informal talks over the years, but the latest approach comes as Microsoft seeks a deal to counter Google’s rapid growth.

Yahoo will begin to close down Yahoo Photos, in favor of Flickr, the competing photo sharing site the company bought just over two years ago.

Yahoo Photos users will be given the opportunity to move their pictures over to Flickr. But Garlinghouse admits that Flickr isn’t the right sharing site for many users of Yahoo Photos, so users will be given the option to instead move pictures to Shutterfly or the Kodak Gallery.

This is an interesting move for Yahoo, a company geared towards serving the mass audience of online users. Flickr is a great service, but it’s the black sheep of popular photo sites — it’s got a different organizational system from most sites, it’s more open, and it attracts a more tech-adept user base.

As with most big Yahoo service changes, this transition will take several months.

Voice over IP provider Skype on Thursday said it’s slashing the cost of sending Short Message Service messages using its service by 50% for the next several days.

Between May 2 and May 8, Skype users who send SMS messages to recipients in the United States, Australia, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Belgium, Thailand, Ireland, Austria, and Italy will be charged half the usual rate. Before the week-long reduction, Skype charged $0.112 per message sent to recipients in the United States, $0.088 to Australia, and $0.063 to Thailand.

SMS messages can be sent by Skype users from their PCs to mobile phones. Skype users also can make free or cheap voice calls and video calls using the company’s services.