News in Short: Groupon partners with Ebay; Windows announces details for Windows 8 OS

Groupon partners with Ebay

Groupon, famously touted on a Forbes magazine cover as the fastest-growing company of all time, has partnered with another venerable internet beast, Ebay. 

The partnership seems fitting, if not symbolic, but isn't anything groundbreaking: it's basically a co-marketing incentive in which American eBay customers can sign up for Groupon deals (groupon.ebay.com) and earn 5 percent "cashback" in eBay Bucks, the auction site's rewards program currency.

Windows announces details for Windows 8 OS

In a blog post, Microsoft stated that the next version of its Windows operating system, the boringly titled Windows 8, is in the works. But it's a good two years from a market launch.

This news follows Windows 7’s one-year anniversary. This three-year gap between operating systems is a stretch, considering Apple will be launching its OS X Lion much sooner than that, and could in fact time a second OS launch to coincide with Windows 8 - so major pressure is on Microsoft to develop some highly competitive features in this time frame.

Keep in mind, though, that Microsoft has a bit of a rep for going slow and steady like the tortoise - yet still not winning the race. Anyone remember the five years between XP and Vista (which was a flop even so)? Yeah... we'll see.