Laptop users may soon get longer battery life from their machines, with ZPower set to plug in its new silver-zinc batteries, which it claims last significantly longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

The batteries will be available in consumer and business laptops from major PC makers starting in August, according to Ross Dueber, the CEO of ZPower, although he declined to name any of the vendors on Thursday.

Silver-zinc batteries pack more energy than lithium-ion batteries, giving laptops 40 percent more run time, according to Dueber. If a laptop runs for two hours with a lithium-ion battery, it should run for closer to three hours with a silver-zinc battery, he said.

The battery’s water-based chemistry also makes it nonflammable, compared to lithium-ion, which uses dimethyl carbonate, a flammable liquid. Cells can go off “like firecrackers” in lithium-ion batteries, Dueber said.

The silver-zinc batteries also won’t degrade in capacity during the first year, while lithium-ion batteries can lose up to 30 percent of their capacity over that period, Dueber said. After a year, however, silver-zinc batteries start degrading at a rate similar to lithium-ion batteries.

It also remains to be seen if silver-zinc batteries can compete on price, since lithium-ion is relatively cheap, Sapru said. The silver-zinc batteries contain silver, which can be expensive.

Discount online retailer Overstock.com announced on Thursday that it will be selling its products outside the United States for the first time.

“We’re actually right smack dab in the middle of integrating,” Jake Bailey, Overstock’s director of international sales, said in an interview with CNET News.com on Thursday. No final date has been given for the launch of international sales, but Bailey said it will be before the end of 2008.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based company has inked a deal with E4X, which runs a service called FiftyOne Global Ecommerce. The partnership has enabled Overstock to start billing and shipping to a total of 34 new countries–Canada, as well as 33 European nations. FiftyOne lets a participating retailer ship to a U.S. address and receive U.S. currency, while the buyer pays in his or her home currency.

Microsoft Corp. finally dangled a higher takeover bid in front of Yahoo Inc. Friday, hoping to reach a friendly deal after weeks of saber rattling.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker upped its offer beyond the original value of $44.6 billion, or $31 per share, according to a person familiar with the matter. The specifics of the new offer weren’t known by this person, who didn’t want to be identified because the negotiations are still confidential.

The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Microsoft boosted the offer by “by several dollars” per share, lending weight to the assertion by many market analysts that Microsoft can afford to pay up to $35 a share.

Amazon.com is suing New York over a new law that requires out-of-state online companies to collect sales tax from shoppers in New York.

“We are challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted legislation in New York,” Amazon spokeswoman Patricia Smith said.

Officials estimated the state would gain about $50 million by requiring Internet giants such as Amazon.com to collect state sales tax. New Yorkers, like residents of many states, are currently on an honor system to report their online spending when they file state tax returns.

The law applies to companies that don’t have a brick-and-mortar presence in New York but have at least one person in the state who works as an online agent - basically someone who links to a Web site and receives commissions for related sales.

Businesses with a physical presence in New York already collect the state sales tax on online purchases. The proposed law would apply to companies that have $10,000 or more in New York sales.

The suit argues the change unfairly targets Amazon, is overly broad and vague, and violates the commerce clause of the constitution because it imposes tax-collection obligations on out-of-state entities.

New York state has argued that the law closes a “tax loophole.”