5 o’clock roundup: Mac fans try to hijack Windows, Emblaze unveils First Else smartphone

Here’s the latest action:
Mac fans try to hijack Microsoft window display — In a holiday-themed promotional effort, Microsoft set up Windows 7 displays in Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, displaying messages from Twitter with the hashtag “#holidaywindows.” Hoping to hijack the display, mischievous Apple fans started tweeting anti-Microsoft messages using that hashtag. Just one problem: Microsoft says it was filtering the tweets, so none of that anti-Windows propaganda made it to the display.
Emblaze announces First Else phone — The company (which has renamed itself Else) is trying to reinvent the user experience on smartphones, and Engadget sounds impressed: “Folks, today might be the day when you start to notice how ancient our smartphones have become, even if they only came out in last few months.” Features include a fan-like menu that eliminates the clutter of other phone menu screens and is controlled by your right thumb. Else plans to release the phone in the second quarter of 2010.
Yahoo BOSS engineer leaves for the venture world — Vik Singh reportedly came up with the bulk of the ideas behind BOSS, which allows developers to add Yahoo search technology to their websites and applications. Now he’s joining Sutter Hill Ventures as an entrepreneur in residence — Singh says the move was caused by “the entrepreneurial bug,” but it’s hard to imagine he’d be excited about staying at Yahoo as it adopts Bing search technology

Google to take over Times Square — Specifically, the Reuters and NASDAQ signs in Times Square will be controlled by Google Search by voice queries for 20 hours on Black Friday. When you call in and search for a location or business, the local search results of that business will be displayed. It’s part of promotional effort by Verizon for their Droid phone, powered by Google’s Android operating system.
Merril Lynch predicts cloud computing will become a $160 billion market — Merrill’s estimates, which say the cloud will reach this level by 2011, are even more optimistic than Gartner’s, which predict a $150 billion market by 2013. However, ReadWriteWeb warns that these predictions involve an broad definition of the cloud that’s “tied to anything connected to the Internet.”
Apple’s Black Friday sales starting early — A number of Apple resellers have kicked off their post-Thanksgiving sales a couple days early, as they did last year. Retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, as well as Apple-specific sites, are offering hundreds of dollars off numerous products.