HP Chairman, CEO and President Mark Hurd resigned from his positions in the company on Friday after sexual harassment claims were brought against him by a former HP contractor.

"As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career. After a number of discussions with members of the board, I will move aside and the board will search for new leadership." Hurd's official statement said Friday. "This is a painful decision for me to make after five years at HP, but I believe it would be difficult for me to continue as an effective leader at HP and I believe this is the only decision the board and I could make at this time. I want to stress that this in no way reflects on the operating performance or financial integrity of HP."

Continue reading →

Google on Friday officially announced it has acquired Slide Inc., confirming rumors circulating earlier in the week. Slide creates entertainment products that tie in with social networks and online communities such as SuperPoke! and its family of related games, Top Fish, and FunSpace.

"For Google, the Web is about people, and we're working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them," David Glazer, Engineering Director at Google said Friday.

Continue reading →

Real-time collaboration app Google Wave was officially added to the dead pool this week. Despite plenty of hype and excitement, it failed to attract the adoption that Google hoped for. The site itself is expected to stay up through the end of the year, but users are likely to already be wondering about where to turn next in Web-based collaborative software. Here's our list of a few of the most promising candidates for replacing Wave in your workflow.

The first alternative to get out of the way is, which we won't count in the 10, Google Apps. Many users simply went back to this suite when they discovered Wave would continue to be confusing and cut off from the rest of Google's products. Look for Google to try and integrate more bits and pieces of Wave's technology into Apps now that its demise is imminent.

Continue reading →

Just ahead of the August recess Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed a $600 million border security bill introduced by Senators Chuck Schumer (D- NY) and Claire McCaskill (D- MO). The bill, according to McCaskill's press office, will "raise fees on a handful of foreign corporations that exploit U.S. visa programs to import workers from abroad."

"What a relief that the Senate is still capable of passing measures that are really needed without playing political games," McCaskill said in a statement.  "America must do a better job of securing our borders. This bill will help in a big way."

Continue reading →

A month following the end of Microsoft's fiscal year and two weeks after announcement of record earnings, it's time to take a long look back at the company's FY2010 accomplishments. Some of these items will partially repeat from my calendar year 2009 list and early calendar 2010 list. Numbers 1 thru 6 are new; the others derive from the previous two lists. With that introduction, during fiscal 2010, Microsoft rightly:

1. Launched Azure. Microsoft's cloud platform debuted a month late but still early enough in FY2010 to be meaningful. Timing is right, particularly given the economy. Many businesses are struggling to budget for technology upgrades, to manage IT resources and to provide employees with anytime, anywhere, on-anything informational access.

Continue reading →

Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission said it had called off private discussions with network operators, service providers, and Internet lobbyists focused on network neutrality legislation. Participants included representatives from Google, AT&T, Verizon, Skype, NCTA, and the Open Internet Coalition.

"We have called off this round of stakeholder discussions," FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus said on Thursday. "It has been productive on several fronts, but has not generated a robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the Internet -- one that drives innovation, investment, free speech, and consumer choice.  All options remain on the table as we continue to seek broad input on this vital issue."

Continue reading →

Dish will allow free access to its programming on subscribers' mobile devices under plans first disclosed by the Associated Press on Thursday. The content will include live streaming as well as programming saved to the consumer's DVR. The offering requires either a Slingbox or a Slingbox-enabled DISH DVR.

The service will launch in October and be available to users of iOS devices as well as the BlackBerry. It was not immediately clear how the functionality would differ from the standard Slingbox offering.

Continue reading →

The first two "active content" apps for the Amazon Kindle e-reader have been released for download, consisting of the word games "Every Word," and "Shuffled Row."

In the first weeks of 2010, Web retailer Amazon released the Kindle Development Kit to partners to begin work on interactive applications for the popular e-reader. Formerly, the Kindle platform supported only a very limited amount of interactivity, which included note-taking, highlighting, and later, the ability to send clips and quotations to social networks Twitter and Facebook. Early attempts at games for the platform had to be corralled into the device's experimental browser, which made for a poor overall experience.

Continue reading →

Several news services including Bloomberg and Reuters are reporting that Google and Verizon have reached a deal which would regulate how Internet traffic would be handled. While generally upholding net neutrality principles, it does seem to offer Verizon considerable leeway.

Google defended itself on Thursday, claiming reports that it had paid Verizon for Internet priority were false, specifically the account provided by the New York Times was wrong. It did not refute reports that a deal had been reached, which was reported by other outlets.

Continue reading →

Wireless ISP Clear is the nation's biggest proponent of WiMAX. Along with majority shareholder Sprint, the two companies have repeatedly talked up the wireless technology as a solid option in the path to 4G.

That may now be in question. Clear said late Wednesday that it will be testing LTE in two different variations this fall in Phoenix, Arizona, with a decision to move forward coming by the end of the year. Given the company's massive spectrum holdings, it would be able to offer real world speeds far above any other LTE deployment.

Continue reading →

Just shy of one month before Internet Explorer 9 is expected to launch in beta, Microsoft Wednesday released the fourth and final IE9 platform preview. The release is meant to give developers and designers an opportunity to observe the enhancements to the Internet Explorer platform so they can adjust their sites to take advantage of the new technologies it uses.

Microsoft's strategy for IE9 has been to make it synonymous with the HTML5 standard, and to give the development community something new to work with about every eight weeks.

Continue reading →

The patent infringement cases between Microsoft and Salesforce in both the U.S. District Courts of the Western District of Washington and in Delaware have been settled, Microsoft announced today.

Last May, Microsoft sued CRM software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement, and Salesforce followed with its own countersuit a month later, saying Microsoft's .NET platform and SharePoint products violated five Salesforce patents.

Continue reading →

Google has officially announced that it will no longer be developing Wave as a standalone product, citing a lack of user adoption.

Google's real-time collaboration platform nearly drowned in hype even before it was opened up to beta testing. Once users got their hands on the platform, countless software products were declared to be dead by Google's hand.

Continue reading →

Rumors in recent months have pointed to Apple's next big music innovation being some cloud-based service. While nothing has appeared as of yet, its move to support streaming of music stored on a customers iDisk could be the beginning.

Users of Apple's iDisk app for iPhone can stream audio from their iDisk thanks to the latest update to the app shipped earlier last month. The functionality went all but unnoticed because Apple has done little if anything to promote its existence.

Continue reading →

Intel and the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement on Wednesday on charges that the chipmaker used its dominant market position to stifle competition. The case had originally been brought against Intel in December of last year.

As a result of the settlement, Intel will be barred from offering payments to customers that choose to buy its chips exclusively. It would also not be permitted to take negative action against those who may purchase chips from competitors, nor to modify their own chips to harm competitors.

Continue reading →