Intel Corporation Thursday morning announced that it will acquire security software and management company McAfee Inc. for $7.68 billion in cash. Intel says the move reflects the changing security climate as more non-PC devices connect to the Internet, like cars, TVs, and medical equipment.

"With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences."
Intel says there needs to be "a fundamentally new approach involving software, hardware and services," for the increasingly connected world.

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Leading social network Facebook Wednesday announced Facebook Places, a service which adds location awareness to the service's mobile experience.

The service launches tonight in the United States as a part of the Facebook application for iPhone, and on the HTML5 touch.facebook.com, and users will have the ability to "check in" to their locations similar to the way users on Foursquare, Gowalla, and Brightkite can, and likewise they can find out who and what is available around them.

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The Federal Communications Commission has said that ISPs are not truthful in advertising broadband speeds, often choosing to use maximum connection speeds in attracting customers. The finding came as part of a larger study on broadband performance released this week.

While the advertised speeds have averaged in the range of 7 to 8 Mbps, actual speeds are roughly half that. This gap was found to be about the same across all technologies, including cable, DSL, and fiber to the home. The FCC argued that the gap may cause confusion among consumers as the speeds determine the consumer experience.

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Google announced on Wednesday that it has expanded the bicycle mapping feature of Google Maps to include 80 new cities, thanks to an overwhelming response from its community of beta testers.

In March, Google introduced the beta of bike routes in Google Maps, a feature which lets users plan directions optimized for bicycle transportation. When we ran a story about this, it got a tremendous amount of traffic, beating nearly everything else the whole week in terms of unique reads.

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Mobile network operator T-Mobile today announced that the first smartphone capable of fully utilizing the company's HSPA+ network upgrade will be called the G2. Unfortunately, there were few details about the device, and the site announcing the G2 is currently unavailable.

The brief announcement on the vanity site said, "The T-Mobile G2 will deliver tight integration with Google services and break new ground as the first smartphone designed to run at 4G speeds on our new HSPA+ network. In the coming weeks, we'll share more details about the G2 and offer exclusive first access to current T-Mobile customers." instead of a photograph of the device, there is simply a white block suggesting the shape of a smartphone.

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At Gamescom, the annual video game tradeshow in Cologne, Germany, Sony Computer Entertainment unveiled a new PlayStation 3 bundle that includes not only the new PlayStation Move motion controller, but also the Playstation 3 with the largest hard drive ever.

In conjunction with the launch of Sony's PlayStation Move motion controller, the new 320GB PlayStation 3 slim will launch on September 19 for $399.99, and will include the PlayStation Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera, and a motion-based game entitled Sports Champions.

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Yahoo said Tuesday that it would begin to switch over its search backend to the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada, the cornerstone of an agreement reached between the two companies last July. A "Powered by Bing" graphic would appear at the bottom of its search pages after the transition, the company said.

It would still be some time yet before other markets worldwide transition to Bing, for which Yahoo gave no timeline, although it's expected the full transition wouldn't be complete until 2012. Of course, one notable example would be Japan: that division is switching to a Google backend pending regulatory approval and any legal challenges.

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Analysts and pundits have fiercely debated whether or not iPad would cannibalize Mac sales. Or netbooks, or Windows PCs or iPods. Or nothing at all. Cannibalization will happen now, if at all, which is what I predicted in April. Based on NPD July US retail sales data, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty asserted in a report yesterday: "iPad momentum is likely contributing to the moderation of both broader PC and Mac unit growth."

Oh yeah? I'm skeptical about iPad sapping PC growth, except for perhaps netbooks, but Macs make sense. It's about time a Wall Street analyst finally acknowledged the inevitable. In April I asked "Will iPad cannibalize Mac sales?" and answered: "The question isn't if iPad will cannibalize Mac sales but when. If the cannibals are coming, they'll first strike during back-to-school buying season."

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Citing manufacturer demand, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said Monday that Ubuntu 10.10 would include the beginnings of the company's UTouch multitouch framework.

"Rather than single, magic gestures, we're making it possible for basic gestures to be chained, or composed, into more sophisticated 'sentences,'" he said in a blog post. "The basic gestures, or primitives, are like individual verbs, and stringing them together allows for richer interactions."

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The music industry is looking for a way to save broadcast radio, and may have found it: a legislative mandate to carry FM radio in personal electronics. Like the net neutrality debate, this idea was born out of two sides disagreeing and attempting to come to a compromise.

RIAA and broadcasters are at odds over the payment for the right to play songs on the radio. While satellite and Internet broadcasts must pay this fee, radio is exempt under current copyright law. The labels want this changed, obviously the broadcasters do not.

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At MIX '10 Last March, Microsoft gave an impressive look at Xbox Live integration with the Windows Phone 7 platform. Today, it got even more impressive as Microsoft announced the upcoming lineup of more than 60 Xbox Live games on Windows Phone coming for the Holiday 2010 season.

"Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform for Microsoft," said Matt Booty, general manager of mobile gaming for MGS. "Just like we've done with Xbox 360, our charter is to push the envelope and deliver definitive games that maximize the platform. We will have an incredible lineup of MGS titles, and that's just the beginning."

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AT&T and Verizon's net neutrality deal became a political issue on Monday as four House Democrats voiced their opposition to the plan with the Federal Communications Commission. In a letter to the regulatory agency, the lawmakers said the proposal 'reinforces the need for resolution' to the debate.

"Formal FCC action is needed," they wrote. "The public interest is served by a free and open Internet than continues to be an indispensable platform for innovation, investment, entrepreneurship, and free speech." The four lawmakers calling for the changes were Reps. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Anna Eschoo of California, Jay Inslee of Washington, and Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania.

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A federal grand jury has indicted an Apple supply manager and an individual involved in the company's supply chain on 23 counts including money laundering, fraud, and kickbacks. The two individuals set up an elaborate scheme involving several of Apple's suppliers.

Paul Shin Devine used his clearances within Apple to obtain information that was then shared with suppliers. This information was then used to negotiate contracts, and upon their awarding a kickback was paid to Devine.

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Former HP CEO Mark Hurd's move to settle with Jodie Fisher contributed to his firing, those close to the company's board told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Sources say Hurd was told several times in the three weeks proceeding his ouster to settle Fisher's claims.

Board members felt that Hurd was not fully cooperating with their attempts to investigate the matter, and the settlement stopped their investigation prematurely. Fisher has said that there was no intimate relationship, however at the same time what exactly she had accused Hurd of has never been fully disclosed.

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Intel today announced its low-power Atom processor line has two new models designed to be used in network attached storage in the home or small business setting: the 1.8GHz single core D425, and and dual-core D525.

We first began seeing network storage devices built on Intel Atom chips in early 2009 with solutions like Asus' D200 mini-server/router/nettop, which utilized the Atom N270, a member of the first generation "Diamondville" platform.

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