Hewlett-Packard reported quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations but the company's revenue and outlook fell short as the company grapples with weak PC and printer sales.

AP Hewlett Packard

Chief Executive Meg Whitman, a veteran Silicon Valley executive who took the top job last September after the firing of Leo Apotheker, has been trying to turn around HP's sprawling businesses.

In the conference call after the earnings report, Whitman said HP's costs are not in line with revenue.

"We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalize on emerging opportunities to reassert HP's technology leadership," Whitman said in the company statement.
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[HPQ  Loading...      ()   ] in after-hours trading on Wednesday. (Click here for the latest after-hours quote.)

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LinkedIn has acquired the email start-up company Rapportive, its CEO announced Wednesday in a blog post.  » Read More

Citing concerns that recent changes to Google's privacy policy heighten the risk of identity theft and fraud, 36 Attorneys General have sent the company's chief executive a letter outlining their issues with the new guidelines.

CNBC.com

"We are concerned that Google's

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[GOOG  Loading...      ()   ] new policy may threaten the ability of each user to keep certain aspects of their online history private," said Martha Coakley, Boston's Attorney General. "Today, the threat of identity theft is everywhere and we want to ensure that Google provides appropriate protection by giving consumers meaningful choices in determining how and when they share their personal information."

Google's new policy, which begins March 1, will allow the tech giant to combine users' personal information from services such as web history and YouTube with all other Google products. Existing users are not allowed to opt out of this change without exiting the whole Google system completely.

The Attorneys General have requested a meeting with Larry Page, Google's Chief Executive Officer, as soon as possible.

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Sony's PS Vita is the "ultimate portable gaming device" that will provide music, video, Internet access and, oh yes, 25 game titles to billions of gamers, Sony Consumer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton told CNBC Wednesday.

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"Gaming is bigger than it’s ever been," he said. "When I started it was considered a toy targeted to 12- to 17-year-old boys. Now we have a billion consumers worldwide considered gamers, 163 million in the United States alone."  » Read More

Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images Two women compare the new iPhone 4 (right) and an iPhone 3 in front of Manhattan's 5th Avenue Apple Store.

Nearly 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2011, an increase of 13 percent over 2010, according to a report released on Wednesday by the research firm Javelin Strategy & Research.

The rise in the use of smartphones and social media by incautious consumers fueled the increase in identity fraud, and 2011 was a year of several big data breaches too, Javelin said.

With the rise in credit card monitoring and more sophisticated policing by credit card companies, identity thieves are increasingly targeting users of smartphones and social media, where consumers have a tendency to be less cautious, experts say.

"The message is not that people should let their guard down," Javelin founder and President Jim Van Dyke said. "The challenge that we have is that criminals often change faster than everyday consumers or businesses."  » Read More

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The West Coast's Silicon Valley may be known as the birth-place of the American high-tech economy, but the East Coast is quickly becoming a hub for more and more would-be tech titans.

Joseph Cohen, a 20-year old college drop-out, is just one budding internet entrepreneur in New York City. He’s trying to revolutionize the classroom with a program called CourseKit.

“We are just bringing the notions of Facebook and social networking to the learning experience," says Cohen.  » Read More

Getty Images A sign with the 'like' symbol stands in front of the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

A series of technology companies, including security software maker Palo Alto Networks, are preparing to go public on the heels of Facebook's $5-billion filing, sensing a window of opportunity as the stock market rallies.

Technology management software maker ServiceNow, human resources software provider Workday, machine data software company Splunk and flash memory maker Violin Memory are also in various stages of planning public offerings this year, sources familiar with the matter said.  » Read More

Source: Google Google Goggles

People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.

According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.

The people familiar with the Google

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[GOOG  Loading...      ()   ] glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.  » Read More