Bill Gates, the oft lauded, oft loathed mastermind behind Microsoft has said he is ready to step down from full-time work at his company in order to devote himself to another brainchild: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to MSNBC Monday.

Gates founded Microsoft and ruled the company ‘with an iron fist’ for 33 years. Once the richest man in the world, he is now the third wealthiest due mostly to his work with the philanthropic foundation he began with his own capital in 2000.

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Last week Yahoo announced large partnerships with seven mobile carriers in Asia that will give it a significant advantage in the quickly growing mobile Internet market.

The Sunnyvale-based Internet company’s deals involve five online mobile search partnerships and two advertising partnerships, putting it at the head of the mobile search market in front of rivals Google and Microsoft.

The online mobile search partnerships are with Mahanagar Telephon Nigam Ltd. of India, China’s Hong Kong CSL Ltd., Smart Communications, Digital Mobile Phlis, Inc. of the Philippines, andVibo Telecom Inc. of Taiwan.

The mobile advertising partnerships are with Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia, and Idea Cellular Limited of India.

The partnerships will make Yahoo the standard search engine on many of Asia’s mobile phones, a position that is quite valuable considering Google’s inferior number in the same category.

Although its rank in online search and advertising fall well behind Google, these overseas partnerships give Yahoo a powerful position in mobile media-one of the fastest-growing Web 2.0 platforms.

In addition, Asia is quickly growing into the world’s largest Internet and mobile service regions, further bolstering Yahoo’s future business plans.

Within the last year and a half, Yahoo has brokered 60 similar partnerships worldwide, including one with T-Mobile, a lesser mobile carrier in the U.S. but a large one in Europe. With the latest deals, Asia now has about one-third of those partnerships.

The deals come in the aftermath of failed negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo, with the company looking to better its image.

Yahoo also announced new email domain names, seemingly in a similar public relations effort. New users can register under newly formed Ymail and Rocketmail.

The One Laptop per Child project, that we already covered here, is teaming up with software giant Microsoft in hopes of bringing the incredibly inexpensive computers to more children worldwide.

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It was at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) that Bill Gates unveiled the Windows Home Server, a new operating system for use in the home. It will store all the data from all computers in the same house.

Developed with the US manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, the server will store all documents, videos and photos from all the computers in the house. But Windows Home Server will also enable you to share information relating to security and various peripherals, such as printers, between all these computers. The Microsoft game console Xbox 360, as well as the digital media player Zune, can also access the server and share and receive data stored on the Windows Home Server. A real family network!

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On the 8th of January, the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), the biggest electronics fair in the world open to the public, opened its doors in Las Vegas, until the 11th of January. For forty years, the event has been closely following innovations marking the future of advanced technology. 150,000 visitors are expected this year.

This fortieth edition, inaugurated with an opening speech by Bill Gates, the Chairman and Managing Director of Microsoft, is expected to give pride of place to mobile devices and high definition, which look like being the major trends for 2007.

Silicon Valley’s powerful software-developers organization, SDForum (www.sdforum.com), has named Susan Lucas-Conwell (picture right) its Executive Director with the goal of pursuing the organization’s growth strategy and strengthening its international ties. She extends a warm welcome to French developers.

SDForum is a unique place in Silicon Valley. A catalyst in the area of emerging software technologies, the software developers organization was founded in 1983 by entrepreneurs and developers wanting to strengthen their connections, do business together, and share their experience. Beyond providing information to its members, SDForum also brings them knowledge and know-how through its vast coaching network.

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