Responding to a shareholder lawsuit, Hewlett-Packard will begin an investigation into the departure of former Chairman, President, and CEO Mark Hurd. Hurd resigned from his positions in the company last August amid sexual harassment claims brought against him by a former HP contractor Jodie Fisher.

it is believed that Hurd's departure was the result of a failure to cooperate with HP's executive board as it investigated the incidents, and that Hurd offered Fisher a settlement before a full investigation could be conducted.

Windows Vista and 7 include valuable features carefully designed to optimize your Internet and network speeds. Do these work for you, though? It's hard to say, because they're so deeply buried that there's no obvious way to see how they're set, or turn them on or off -- and so many people don't realize the options even exist.

If you're looking at optimizing your network performance, then, you should probably start by seeing which of these technologies is enabled on your PC -- and this applies even if you think you know already, as there's no telling when a Windows tweaking tool or other package might have decided to "optimize" your connection without telling you exactly what it's doing.

Ten companies accounted for a third of semiconductor demand in 2010, according to data released today by Gartner. HP, Samsung and Apple topped the list. Gartner measures semiconductors on what it calls a design total available market, or TAM, basis. The leaders accounted for $104.3 billion revenue, which rose 33.7 percent year or year, or $26.3 billion.

"Semiconductor device vendors should closely monitor the changing competition structure of the target market," Masatsune Yamaji, Gartner senior research analyst, said in a statement "Do not just listen to the requirements of the current market leaders. Have a dedicated sales team, with business development sales metrics, looking for new market entrants who will be the next-generation market leaders."

The Web apps that are easiest to find happen to be the ones that duplicate the functionality of software packed into operating systems (clock, calculator, notepad, etc.), so they really don't have much to offer users in terms of value. But there are actually quite a few Web apps that approximate the functionality of some of the most-purchased third-party desktop software, and are free, to boot.

Here, we take a look at the Web's best alternatives to the most popular boxed software on Amazon.com.

Microsoft is using social media as foundation for a web-based reality show following the career quests of nine participants. You can follow their exploits online (e.g., at work when the boss isn't looking), no television required. The Career Factor website went live last week, but the nine participants only started updating their quests yesterday.

The website describes itself as an "online reality show based on the experiences of nine IT personalities. Each of our candidates have set a professional goal for themselves, and have invited you to follow their every step along the way." Each participant has a personal page where "you can explore their backgrounds, learn from their experiences and share your findings. You'll find videos, links to learning resources, tips and updates via their blog and various social media outlets."

Starbucks expanded its mobile payments program to more than 7,500 of its US stores on Wednesday, following a successful pilot program in 1,000 company-owed stores plus all of its Target in-store locations. The offering allows customers to use their smart phones to show a barcode that is linked to their Starbucks Card accounts without carrying the actual card.

The coffee retailer initially began offering the app last year as a method to check card balances, reload the card, and check previous transactions. A pilot program for the mobile payments system was later launched in all Target stores as well as select locations in New York, Seattle, and across northern California.

Deal site LivingSocial has got a helluva bargain today: A $20 Amazon gift card for 10 bucks. Who could resist that? I could. Should you?

LivingSocial specializes in half-price deals, typically specific to larger cities -- assuming you live there. I went to the site for the first time early this afternoon. By Internet magic, most likely IP address, LivingSocial correctly detected my city as San Diego. I clicked through to see the big deal, the aforementioned half-price Amazon gift card.

Silicon Valley startup Kno Inc. on Wednesday began accepting submissions to a new pilot program for its education-focused, dual touchscreen 14.1" tablet, also called the Kno. The program is open to qualified undergrad and graduate school students who have submitted a resumé and their list of required reading to Kno.

When accepted into the program, students don't get anything for free. But, they get a 50% discount on either a single-screen or dual-screen Kno tablet. And since these devices carry an MSRP of $600 and $900 respectively, a decent amount of money is saved.

Apple's record fiscal 2011 first quarter will be the Starbuck's coffee talk of Wall Street today. Apple beat analysts' revenue consensus by about $2.3 billion. Behind the numbers there are lessons to learn about the company and economic opportunities that competitors, non-competitors and partners should be aware.

I've chosen five things, which are presented in no order of importance. As usual, I expect to get whacked aside the head by Apple worshippers who balk at the slightest criticism. For some people, there's only one side to every argument.

Nintendo 3DS, which proved to be a real scene-stealer at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2010, will be launching in North America, Europe, and Australia on March 27, and will cost $249 at retail. It hits the market approximately one month after the device launches in Japan.

At a press event held by Nintendo on Wednesday, the company showed off a few more titles expected to be available when the console launches, including Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Kid Icarus Uprising, Pilotwings Resort, Nintendogs & Cats, Steel Diver, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D edition, Starfox64, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, Resident Evil: Mercenaries, Asphalt 3D, Combat of Giants: Dinsaurs 3D, Ridge Racer 3D, Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and a new Madden football title.

AMD Wednesday unveiled the newest member of its Fusion APU family called the G-Series, designed for use in embedded environments, and primed to be the eventual replacement to the long-running Geode line of embedded processors.

Like the Fusion APUs for consumer PCs that AMD unveiled just prior to CES 2011, the G-Series incorporates an x86 CPU with a DirectX 11 capable GPU and an integrated DDR3 memory controller all on the same die.

Adobe on Tuesday announced that it had acquired audience and data management company Demdex, growing Adobe's Web marketing platform further as the online advertising business continues its evolution.

Just over a year ago, Adobe acquired Omniture, a leader in web analytics and audience management that formerly acted as a partner for Adobe. Since the acqusition, the software formerly known as Omniture Online Marketing Suite has become Adobe Online Marketing Suite powered by Omniture.

[Editor's Note: This was a live document from 4:45 p.m. EDT through 6:35 p.m., following Apple's earnings call.]

This afternoon, Apple delivered record holiday sales results, reporting fiscal 2011 first quarter earnings after US stock markets closed. Investor anticipation about the quarter seemed to hold back a major stock sell off. Yesterday, when US markets were closed, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that he would be taking another medical leave -- for indeterminate amount of time. The sudden and open-ended medical leave raises concerns that Jobs might not return. What then for Apple?

Today, the Federal Communications Commission conditionally approved the license transfers to create the Comcast-NBCU joint venture that contains the media content from Comcast and NBCU's properties. The FCC voted 4-1 in favor of the transaction with Commissioner Michael Copps casting the only dissenting vote. Simultaneously, the Department of Justice has approved the FCC's proposed content licensing conditions, but the Antitrust division has not yet given clearance to the merger.

"This is the most intense review the FCC has ever run for a single transaction," FCC officials said today.

Huntington Beach city council members are considering a unique way to fight back against drunk driving: posting the photos of repeat offenders to the police department's Facebook page. The idea is actually a scaled-back version of one proposed in November by Councilman Devin Dwyer, who originally wanted the photos of every DUI offender posted.

The problem of drunk driving is a serious one for this resort city a hour south of Los Angeles: according to the Associated Press, some 1,700 DUI arrests were made in 2009, and 195 were either killed or injured as a result of drunk driving. Huntington Beach ranks first among cities of its size for alcohol-related causalities.