Business Tech

Making good on a threat issued in a letter last week , Hewlett-Packard has filed a lawsuit against software giant Oracle, asking a court to require Oracle to meet what HP says are requirements that it continue to produce software that supports the Intel Itanium server processor.

In the suit, filed in a California Superior Court in Santa Clara, HP accuses Oracle of engaging in a "calculated effort to thwart competition from HP and harm its customers," and asks the court to force Oracle to live up to contractual commitments to support mutual customers by reversing a decision to stop building

The Google Chromebook has arrived at stores. You might call the timing uncanny. PC giant Lenovo signaled this week that it sees no future in a similar design--the Windows Netbook.

Samsung's Chromebook, now available at stores and sales sites like Best Buy and Amazon, runs Google's Chrome operating system on top of an Intel dual-core Atom processor. Like its cousin, the traditional 10-inch Netbook, it is light at just over 3 pounds and about three-quarters of an inch thick.

A Wi-Fi-only Chromebook costs $429, while the 3G version is priced at $499. Other hardware features include a 16GB solid-state drive and a 1,280x800 display (which Samsung states has a brightness of 300 cd/m2).

But as CNET Reviews points out, a slick design doesn't necessarily translate into an across-the-board great experience. The review cited problems with the minimalist Chrome operating environment when dealing with common file formats like ZIP and doing simple tasks like editing photos. And challenges when doing productivity work in the Chrome OS environment, which demands a connection to the Web.

Dolby has filed a lawsuit against Research In Motion for patent infringement, the audio technology company announced today.

Dolby is suing the maker of the BlackBerry in the U.S. and Germany for using "highly efficient digital audio compression technologies which allow manufacturers and consumers to provide and enjoy high quality audio while using extremely limited amounts of transmission and/or storage space for such audio."

Dolby asserts that it owns patents covering the technology used in RIM's BlackBerry smartphones and new tablet, the PlayBook, and claims "all other major" smartphone makers have agreed to licenses.

Dolby is asking more

Google, which has found Gmail to be a target of hacking attempts from China, has modified Chrome so the browser always encrypts connections with the e-mail service.

Google already changed Gmail to use encryption by default, a mode indicated by the "https" at the beginning of a browser address bar that means outsiders sniffing network traffic can't read your e-mail. People could still get to the unencrypted version by typing "http://gmail.com," but no more, for Chrome.

"As of Chromium 13, all connections to Gmail will be over HTTPS. This includes the initial navigation even if the user more

The U.S. government is failing to safeguard American businesses from persistent and widespread online attacks emanating from China, former U.S. national security official Richard Clarke argues in The Wall Street Journal today.

"In private, U.S. officials admit that the government has no strategy to stop the Chinese cyberassault," Clarke wrote in an op-ed piece. more

Security enhancements to stop drive-by downloads and a tweak to make "About Internet Explorer" more helpful landed in Internet Explorer 9.0.1 (download) today.

The update fixes seven vulnerabilities in IE9, and takes two steps to make the About box slightly more useful.

All seven security fixes in this version are marked "critical" because the vulnerabilities could lead to a remote code execution if you go to a malicious Web site designed to target Internet Explorer users.

The changes to the "About Internet Explorer" box, accessible from the Tools menu, call out the latest Internet Explorer update with a more

There should be little doubt that USB 3.0 technology has arrived on PCs after a report released today forecast that tens of millions of devices using the standard will ship in 2011.

"The primary story for USB in 2010 was the emergence of the SuperSpeed standard. 2011 should be a much bigger year for the technology, especially in mobile PCs," said market researcher In-Stat. "This has led In-Stat to forecast that nearly 80 million USB SuperSpeed-enabled devices will ship in 2011."

USB is one of the most widely used connection technologies in the world, found on everything from PCs more

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Tuesday, June 14.

Google announces host of search improvements
Google unveils several search improvements to both its Web-based and mobile search services at the Inside Search event in San Francisco. More

Cable fights to stay relevant
Executives from cable operators and video programmers say they plan to stay relevant by offering more content on more devices. But can they work out the business issues to get it done? More

Duke Nukem Forever (finally) available in the U.S.
The