The company said last September that its goal was to become “carbon neutral” by the end of 2008. The company said on Wednesday it had reached its goal five months ahead of schedule.

The Round Rock, Texas computer maker put in place a worldwide energy-efficiency campaign and boosted its purchases of green power, verified emission reduction and renewable energy certificates. Since 2004, the amount of electricity that Dell gets from utility providers including wind, solar and methane-gas sources has grown nearly nine-fold to 116 million kilowatt-hours from 12 million kilowatt-hours.

It’s also saving a pretty penny — more than $3 million yearly – and has avoided nearly 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide going up into the atmosphere through improvements at its plants and other offices and through what it says is a global power-management effort.

Dell isn’t alone in announcing green initiatives. A slew of companies, both inside and outside the technology business, has announced plans to boost energy efficiency and purchases of renewable energy. Investment banks, too, are seeking to capitalize on the trend.

Turned out that wasn’t exactly the case. By 11 a.m. California time it was clear things weren’t going as planned. Reports on the Web abounded that existing iPhone users and buyers of new ones couldn’t activate the phone once they downloaded the new software.

Some workers in Apple’s flagship Manhattan store told customers the problem was with wireless partner AT&T. But AT&T blamed iTunes. Apple has so far gone radio silent, though by late afternoon it looked like things were improving.

Some fans didn’t seem to mind that the shiny new iPhone they just bought would work as little else than an elegant paperweight until it could be activated.

Danny Fukuba, 17, a recent graduate of Palo Alto High School, was first in line at his local Apple store. He bought the first iPhone last year, and has been camping out since Wednesday night for the second.

“I couldn’t sleep at all for the past couple of nights. I am going to crash as soon as I get my phone,” he said. So why do it? “It’s fun. It’s exciting. This is the first time I’ve actually done anything like this.”

Second kid in line was Eric Vicente, 16, Danny’s friend who will get his old iPhone. “Being first is really cool,” he said. “Because I can’t afford one, I’m getting the hand me down.”

(Top photo: Apple wireless point-of-sale device. Reuters/Eric Auchard
Second photo: People wait in line outside an Apple store in New York. Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

So I made the drive to the Yahoo campus today to find out. Security at the main gate turned me away, but I managed to take cover behind a Yahoo sign and ask employees as they walked by if they would mind talking about the whole Microsoft thing.

Here’s what I got: No thank you, politely, from 40 people.

While I promised anonymity, Yahoos clearly aren’t in the mood to talk about their feelings publicly. At least not to a reporter at the company’s campus. Perhaps some of you out there would rather drop us a comment? Feel free. Fire away. Let us know how you feel.

After all, three months ago you didn’t shy from talking about the “big octopus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”

(Photo: Reuters)

Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Macbook Air , a 3-pound uber-thin notebook PC that fits inside an interoffice envelope. He also said iTunes is now offering online movie rentals, conceding that at least so far, neither Apple nor any other company has yet to come up a service that consumers are flocking to.

Both of the announcements had been expected, and investors sent shares of Apple down more than 5 percent during and after Jobs’ keynote presentation. There was no iPhone announcement at this year’s Macworld, though Jobs unveiled a software update to the iPhone that enables on-the-go locations while using the phone’s map function. He also said that the company has so far sold more than 4 million iPhone smartphones.

Spotted milling about this year at Macworld: Google Inc co-founder Sergey Brin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Academy-award and Grammy-award winner Randy Newman, who scored music for some Pixar films, came on stage at the end and performed a couple of songs.

Shortly after 9 a.m. California time, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld, the biggest conference of the year for the maker of the Macintosh computer and the iPod.

Expectations for announcements this year are for an uber-thin and uber-small notebook Mac and perhaps an online video rental service.

And, of course, perhaps there will be the usual, “Oh, and one more thing…” That last phrase is a vintage Jobs tactic for saving “the best” for last at Macworld. But nothing is likely to come close to last year’s Macworld, when Jobs unveiled the much-anticipated iPhone.

Spotted this year at Macworld milling about before the festivities began: Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

During his keynote, Jobs announced a wireless back-up device called Time Capsule and software updates to the iPhone, among them including local location mapping technology.