AP - Hewlett-Packard Co.'s 19 percent drop in quarterly profit shows that the company still relies heavily on printer ink and the troubled personal computer market, despite the aggressive transformation it's undertaking to branch out and encroach more on rival IBM Corp.'s turf.

AFP - A 14-year-old boy was in critical condition in hospital with kidney failure after repeated beatings at an Internet rehabilitation camp in southwest China, state media said Wednesday.

PC World - An official Wikipedia application for the iPhone first saw the light of day today, giving users quick and easy access to oodles of information and hours of directionless fun.

Macworld.com - Logitech on Wednesday expanded the company's line of high-end mice with two models that offer enhanced scrolling capabilities.

InfoWorld - It's unclear exactly how the Sun will set this month or what Oracle will be doing with the hardware side of Sun. Will Sun servers soon get a coat of Oracle Red and an 'Unbreakable' stamp? Whatever happens, it seems that Oracle will be inheriting a hardware engineering group that's firing on all cylinders. The new Sun Fire X2270 and Sun Fire X4270 servers are the fastest x64 servers Sun has ever produced.

AP - Sony Corp. slashed the price of the PlayStation 3 around the world in a move that analysts said is likely to boost sales of the game console while not adding much to its money-losing earnings.

PC World - Garmin-Asus, the mobile phone joint venture between GPS device maker Garmin and electronics vendor Asustek Computer, launched its first smartphone with the Windows Mobile operating system on Wednesday in Taiwan.

AP - RadioShack Corp. said Wednesday that T-Mobile USA Inc.'s new 'Google phone' is now available in its stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

AP - What's a gamer to do in the summer, when so few high-profile retail titles are released? I look for new challenges to download � and most of those are going onto my Xbox 360. It remains the essential machine for gamers who don't want to leave home.

Reuters - Sony Corp will launch a slimmer, cheaper version of its PlayStation 3 game console next month, hoping to jumpstart sales and win back market share from rivals Microsoft and Nintendo.

PC World - What's better than a rumor about one Apple tablet? A rumor about two. That's right: not one, but two Apple tablets could come either this year or early next year. Market researcher Richard Doherty told BousinessWeek that Apple has developed two tablet computers prototypes: a 6-inch oversized-iPod version and another with a bigger display.

AP - Radisson Hotels & Resorts said Wednesday its computer systems have been accessed without authorization, affecting an unknown number of people.

Reuters - Record label SyCo and music trade body IFPI have called in the police to help them hunt down computer hackers who leaked a track by Leona Lewis and Justin Timberlake on the Internet.

Macworld.com - Apricorn has announced the availability of its Padlock Secure Hard Drive, a portable external hard drive equipped with a built-in keypad that prevents unauthorized access. It’s available in 250GB - 500GB capacities from $99 to $159.

AP - Shares of Chinese financial software developer Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd. dropped Wednesday morning after a narrow miss for the company on fiscal first-quarter profit.

AP - Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Henson goes out on patrol with a computer on his back and a joystick in his holster. He also carries a rifle, but the military is hoping he'll soon have less need for it.

PC World - Microsoft shared the stage with Chinese security researchers at a Beijing hacker conference on Wednesday, aiming to build ties in a country that produces a growing number of threats to Microsoft products.

Macworld.com - It used to be commonplace to carry pictures of loved ones in your wallet, but the iPhone makes showing off pictures even easier. Of course, you have to remember to sync the right photos to your device and, even with the iPhone’s capacious storage, there’s not always room for the massive number of digital pictures we shoot nowadays.

AFP - The head of Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, said Wednesday that the Finnish company aims to expand in India by offering lower-cost handsets.

PC World - Yesterday Sony trimmed both the size and the price of its PlayStation 3 console, hoping to energize a slumping market with a sexier product. But in the background of this announcement is the news that video game sales are rapidly declining, and the PlayStation 3 is at the bottom of the heap.

Reuters - Online video site YouTube said on Wednesday it signed a deal with Time Warner Inc to feature program clips from a range of its cable networks including CNN, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

AP - For years, I have tucked away recipe cards of all shapes and sizes in nooks and crannies of my kitchen, determined that one day I would actually use them. Sadly, for many recipes, that day never came, partly because they were so disorganized.

AP - MySpace says it will acquire iLike, the largest music application for social networks, confirming rumors that have been circulating this week. Terms were not immediately disclosed.

AP - An upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly's print edition will be embedded with a video player that will run ads for CBS shows and Pepsi.

Reuters - YouTube has signed a deal with Time Warner Inc to feature program clips from a range of its cable networks, including CNN, Cartoon Network and TNT, the online video site said on Wednesday.

PC World - Long an important product for Microsoft, Exchange Server going forward will play even more of a key role in the company's plan to extend its collaboration applications to mobile devices and other software platforms.

PC Magazine - Microsoft's entry-level consumer video editing software, Windows Live Movie Maker, finally exited beta today. Here's a look at what you can expect from this powerful free download.

PC World - The Creative Assembly guys chose the Cologne Games Developer Conference to announce Napoleon:

Macworld.com - One of Shakespeare’s most abused quotes comes from Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2), “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet was arguing that Romeo’s parentage (i.e. his name) shouldn’t matter in the face of their great love affair. We all know how well that turned out.

NewsFactor - The European Commission is looking into reports of overheated Apple iPhones and iPods causing damages. It has asked Apple to provide information on possible dangers from its popular products.

Macworld.com - We gave you a sneak peek at Twitterrific 2.1 for iPhone earlier this week, but you should be able to grab a copy for yourself today. The Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry tweeted (of course) that the new version was just approved, so it should appear in the App Store soon; possibly even by the time you read this.

NewsFactor - Sony unveiled a new PlayStation 3 video-game console Wednesday with a slimmer form factor, a 120GB hard drive and a price that's more competitive with the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360. The new model is called the PS3 Slim.

AP - Social networking hub MySpace said Wednesday it is acquiring iLike, a popular music application on rival Facebook, in the first move by new management to expand after a series of drastic cuts and writedowns.

AP - Unlimited domestic phone calls are nearly standard feature for landline plans these days. Now, Vonage Holdings Corp., which helped pioneer that feature with its Internet phone service, is expanding it to most international calls as well.

AFP - MySpace on Wednesday announced it is buying online music discovery hotspot iLike and plans to expand the service to other forms of entertainment such as games and films.

AFP - US media and entertainment giant Time Warner and YouTube announced an agreement Wednesday to show clips from news reports, television shows and movies on the popular video-sharing site.

InfoWorld - Despite current economic uncertainty across the globe, senior-level executives and software development professionals are seeing an increase in development budgets, according to a recent survey by software development outsourcer.

Reuters - News Corp's MySpace said on Thursday it has agreed to buy music recommendation service iLike, as the once-hot social networking site tries to reinvent itself as an entertainment portal.

AFP - The clock is ticking, people are dying and a flu virus is sweeping the globe -- that is the scenario of a new computer game designed to make people think about how to respond to the swine flu pandemic.

Macworld.com - Canon on Wednesday introduced new additions to its point-and-shoot family, including two megazooms and a touch-screen Digital Elph.

PC World - A mistaken offer in Apple's online store on Wednesday could signal that the company's latest Mac operating system, code-named Snow Leopard, is primed for launch as early as next week.

PC Magazine - Perhaps unsurprisingly to some parents, a survey by the Pew Internet & Life Project has concluded that more and more teens are using cell phones.

AFP - A Canadian model has won a landmark case in a New York court after Google was forced to disclose the online identity of a blogger who anonymously posted derogatory comments about the Vogue covergirl.

Macworld.com - On Wednesday, Apple released updates for users of its wireless mouse and keyboard, as well as for recent MacBook Pro owners.

AP - Synopsys Inc., which makes software to develop and test chips, said Wednesday its fiscal third-quarter profit declined 18 percent from a year-ago period helped by an income tax gain, but the results still beat Wall Street expectations.

AFP - Wikipedia said it has released an iPhone application as part of a drive to open the pages of its revered online encyclopedia to the booming ranks of smart phone users.

Macworld.com - There’s a little bit of confusion out there on the Web about what parts of Snow Leopard are running in 64-bit mode and what parts are running in 32-bit mode. A report by Thom Holwerda of OS News says that under Snow Leopard, most Macs will boot using a 32-bit kernel and drivers, not a 64-bit kernel and drivers. And Holwerda points out that many Mac models don’t have 64-bit EFI, either.

AP - Semiconductor maker Semtech Corp. on Wednesday forecast fiscal 2010 third-quarter earnings of 12 cents to 14 cents per share, including one-time items such as restructuring charges and other costs, and sequential sales growth of 6 to 10 percent.

Investor's Business Daily - Few firms sell as many types of chips to as many customers as TriQuint Semiconductor.

AP - Nestled near a row of sultry, silvery-green palm trees and a 205-foot-long infinity pool, room 1508 at the National Hotel on South Beach is a portrait of Art Deco luxury. It is also where, on May 7, 2008, federal agents seized two computers, $22,000 in cash and a Glock 9 gun from a man known on the Internet as 'soupnazi.'

Reuters - China's normally secretive Defense Ministry on Thursday launched a website (www.mod.gov.cn), in a new bid to allay overseas criticism over its military transparency and the build-up of its armed forces.