Ever since the Apple iPhone arrived more than three years ago, gadget makers of all kinds got busy replacing real buttons with virtual ones on touchscreens. A gazillion gadgets conspicuously touting touch have emerged in recent months in an attempt to benefit from warm-and-fuzzy feelings consumers have developed for Apple multitouch devices.

Google is spending US$8.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed over the rollout of its Google Buzz social-networking service.

After recent settlements by Hewlett-Packard and EMC in a long-standing government contracting fraud case, three major IT and consulting companies are still embroiled in lawsuits brought by two former insiders.

When Mark Hurd resigned unexpectedly from Hewlett-Packard last month he found an outspoken supporter in the form of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. It appears now that Hurd may end up working for Ellison, according to a report Saturday in the Wall Street Journal.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt will deliver the closing keynote at the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) trade show, the organiser said on Tuesday. Schmidt will give his talk on September 7. IFA runs September 3 - 8.

PC shipments increased in Western Europe by 19.6 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2009, quickly recovering from the economic slowdown, according to analyst Gartner.

Facebook has blocked a marijuana legalisation campaign from displaying the image of a pot leaf in ads on the social networking giant's site, and that's making the normally mellow group upset. Facebook is censoring the Just Say Now campaign from using the pot leaf in its advertising, with the site's decision to block the leaf coming earlier this month without explanation, the group said Tuesday. Facebook first approved the ads August 7, then backtracked on the decision August 16, Just Say Now said.

It may seem like the iTunes Store is all about frivolity, but it turns out there’s plenty of learning too. Apple on Tuesday announced that iTunes U, the online educational catalogue it hosts, has topped over 300 million downloads in about three years. iTunes U began as a hosted content system for higher education institutions, but it wasn’t until 2007 that the catalogue was integrated into the iTunes Store, making content such as lectures and interviews available to the public.

Bing is now fully fuelling Yahoo search results in the US and Canada, Yahoo and Microsoft said on Tuesday. The announcement marks one of the first major milestones since the two companies signed a 10-year deal for Microsoft to power Yahoo search and for Yahoo to use Microsoft's AdCenter advertising platform. Authorities in the US and Europe approved the deal in February, and the companies have said they expect to take about two years to fully implement the agreement.

Intel, Nokia and Finland's University of Oulu announced today that they are developing a joint research centre to create software for 3D and virtual reality experiences for use on mobile devices. The software will be developed by about 24 engineers in Oulu using the open source MeeGo operating system, which was launched in February by Intel and Nokia.