Friday 8am Silicon Valley news report:

RumorMill: Amazon to Open Web Services API's? _CloudComputing

From a legal standpoint this would help negate some of the concerns around API liability. Amazon is known to have an extensive patent portfolio and in past has not been afraid to enforce it. A clear policy regarding the use of their API's would certainly help companies that up until now have been reluctant to adopt them.

News Corp hopes for broader ad deal with Google -Reuters

According to recent media reports, Google is seeking to renegotiate the deal at a significant discount to the current terms, which popular IT blog Tech Crunch pegged at $300 million a year.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: Bing! -AllThingsDigital

Does Bing mean that your interest in Yahoo (YHOO) is waning? Ballmer jokingly recites the standard bullet points. “I think there’s a lot that can make sense in terms of a search partnership, not an acquisition,” he says in a monotone. “Whether such a thing will happen I don’t know.”

Bloodied by Google, Microsoft Tries Again on Search -NYTimes

The stakes for Microsoft could not be higher. Search has become the central tool for navigating the Web, and ads tied to search results are becoming an ever more important piece of the advertising market.

Wired South Korea mourns ex-president online -Reuters

Online, many players and fans held their own ceremonies, dressing up their game characters in black and having them convene meetings instead of slaying the usual monsters.

HP chief cautious about return of pent-up demand -SFGate

Hurd said there is "a little more stability" in the market, particularly in China and U.S. consumer sales. That echoed his comments from HP's quarterly results last week, when the Palo Alto-based company reported a 17 percent drop in profit and a 3 percent decline in sales.

NBC’s Zucker on Hulu and iTunes -WSJ

The CEO of NBC Universal likes to point out, repeatedly, that his company boasts an array of cable channels, which make money from both advertising and subscriber fees. That dual income stream looks like the way of the future for big media companies (at least in the near term)

Startup banking on idea of air-powered cars -SFGate

Many of the specifications of ZPM's car are still speculative, but Vencat expects it to go about 20 miles on compressed air alone, and hundreds more after the engine kicks in, with a top speed of 96 mph.

Bing It Is: Microsoft Rolls Out Its New Search Engine -ReadWriteWeb

... a search engine that is only 'good enough' will not be enough to gain back any market share from Google, which now virtually controls the search engine market. Microsoft argues that this large amount of market share can make Google slow to innovate, but then, it remains to be seen if Bing can offer enough innovation to entice users to switch. Yahoo Search, after all, is also innovating furiously, but hasn't been able to capture any new market share lately.

New video cables will connect TVs to the Internet -AP

Devices with HDMI 1.4 ports could show up in small numbers before the holidays, and in larger volumes early next year, the group said. New cables will be needed to take advantage of the networking feature.

GigaOM Seeks Non-Ad Revenue -GigaOM

Om Malik, the founder of GigaOM Network, plans to sell in-depth research reports on technology sectors and shorter, timely reports on companies and news in those sectors to technology and business executive.

Google Showcases New Communication and Collaboration Tool -NYTimes

Google Wave is an application running in a Web browser that creates a shared online desktop where two or more users can interact easily. They can exchange messages like they would do in e-mail or instant messaging conversation. They can share and edit rich documents that include formatted text, images and graphics.

Music Labels Cut Friendlier Deals With Start-Ups -NYTimes

“There is an ongoing tension between what consumers want and what music labels want,” Mr. Partovi said. “It’s hard to know what model will satisfy both, and what will work over the long run.”