Palo Alto

Facebook has found itself at the core of a heated controversy after the popular social-networking Web site removed photos of breast-feeding mothers. The company threatened to close the account of 23-year-old Heather Farley after she posted two photos of herself breast-feeding her infant daughter.

The move has launched protests by Facebook members and pro-breast-feeding groups. Facebook officials told The Washington Post they are not against breast-feeding and refer to it as "beautiful," but photos that show nipples violate its terms-of-use policy.

A start-up company called Tapulous has turned a simple game for the iPhone into an Internet-age mobile stage for musicians.

"Tap Tap Revenge," a free game that challenges players to keep up with catchy tunes by tapping in the right spots on the phone's screen, was available in Apple's iPhone application store when it opened in July.

It quickly climbed the store's charts. More than three million downloads later, Apple declared it the most popular free iPhone game of the year.

Hewlett-Packard Co. surprised Wall Street on Tuesday by saying its earnings will be slightly above analysts' expectations, going against the grain as other technology bellwethers have slashed forecasts and posted weak results in the sagging economy.

Its shares climbed more than 12 percent in morning trading.

Today's LCD monitors and plasma displays are a substantial evolution from the monochrome CRT relics of PC antiquity. High brightness, support for more than 1 billion colors and sharp resolution are just a few of the latest improvements.

Color-Critical LCD

If you ride around in the car on weekends trying to find open houses while balancing a map on your lap, it might be time to use your mobile phone instead. A display of properties for sale -- and even open houses -- could be as close as the screen on your wireless device.

Despite the housing market slowdown, many Americans are still house hunting, and they helped send sales of smart phones and wireless devices to nearly 21 million units in North America last year, according to research firm Canalys.

Despite tough conditions in the U.S. economy, which have decreased demand for everything from new homes to semiconductors, the market for computer data storage systems is going strong, and with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard among its leaders.

Sayonara, arrivederci, and adios to the old Facebook.

No matter which way you say it, Facebook's 100 million global users said good-bye Wednesday to the old version of Facebook and hello to the final version of the social-networking Web site's face-lift.

It was no secret that users would be switched to the new version. Last week Mark Slee, Facebook product manager, said the time was coming.

Hewlett-Packard, responding to a challenge by Wal-Mart Stores to offer more ecologically friendly products, said Wednesday that it was selling a new notebook computer in a fabric messenger bag instead of packaging it in a box.

The change reduced by 97 percent the foam, cardboard and plastic used in packaging, Hewlett-Packard, which is based in Palo Alto, California, said in a statement.

The new computer, the Pavilion PC, went on sale for $798 Wednesday at almost 1,700 Wal-Mart outlets and 594 Sam's Club stores in the United States.

Psystar, the plucky Mac cloner in Doral, Fla,, has thrown down the gauntlet and countersued Apple. At a small press conference in the office of Psystar's attorneys in Palo Alto, Calif., the lawyers said they have answered Apple's original lawsuit filed July 3 and upped the ante by filing one of their own in a Northern California federal court.

Psystar's View

Computers will outsmart humans some day, said some of the nation's most successful innovators at the Intel Developer Forum this week in San Francisco.

Intel's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, on Thursday led his keynote with the idea that advancements in technology have surpassed predictions and that in the not-so-distant future machines could surpass humans in intelligence.