Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Hurd resigned Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of a sexual-harassment investigation that revealed he filed "numerous" inaccurate expense reports. The abrupt resignation is an embarrassing end to a tumultuous reign by Hurd, marked by dramatic change and impressive growth. In his five years as H-P chief executive, Hurd took an iconic company known for its computers and printers and turned it into an information-technology services and software giant with shares worth twice as much as when Hurd started.

Total Telecom 

Wireless Logic, an M2M connectivity provider is releasing its latest vertical sector share analysis showing that, despite the economic downturn, vehicle tracking M2M deployments have recovered to pre-recession figures; remaining the biggest M2M sector with 60 per cent of the market. The sector analysis also shows that, whilst the established M2M sectors have remained healthy and continue to grow steadily (asset tracking, B2B smart-metering, alarming and monitoring) adoption is appearing in a number of other sectors notably healthcare, e-commerce and healthcare applications for remote patient monitoring.

The firm has admitted that it has been in talks with the US communications provider Verizon and even agreed an outline plan on how internet traffic should be carried over networks. However, many have already voiced fears that if the plan becomes public, it could serve as a blueprint for how to carve up the internet and sell the best performance to the highest bidder.

The venture capital fund’s high profile investment partners: Michael Birch, the co-founder of Bebo, Jonathan Goodwin, who sold media advisory firm Long Acre for £40m in 2007, and Peter Dubens, the man behind Pipex, along with Hoberman, have been scouring Europe during the last 12 months for the next dotcom stars. Hoberman and PROfounder's general partner, Angelini-Hurll, who formerly headed the Citi Pan European Media Research team, give us their choice of the 10 European tech firms you should be tracking, or even using, during the next year.

Men are rubbish at looking after themselves. If something's troubling them, most grin and bear it rather than see their GP, and that goes double if the problem's "personal". But what if it could be typed out online? Would they come out of their shells? That's the thinking behind Man MOT, a virtual surgery set up by the drugs company Pfizer with the support of various worthy organisations such as Heart UK and the National Obesity Forum, and where every Monday evening, shy or time-poor men can now chat with a doctor. Also on hand are non-medical experts, mostly specialising in sex or relationships.

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in people’s lives, with 56 per cent of Britons saying that they rely on technology while on the move, according to a survey from lifestyle and environments network Kinetic. This figure compares to 44 per cent a year ago. Of all age groups, it was 18-24 year olds who agreed most strongly with the statement: “Technology is important in my life when I’m out and about, on the move.” 45 per cent agreed in June 2010, compared to 26 per cent in August 2009. The most notable increase was seen, however, among 45-54 year olds, 32 per cent of whom agreed with the same statement, compared to 14 per cent 10 months previously.

Google has announced that its Nexus One smartphone will be its official phone for developers. Android developers will now be able to purchase an unlocked Nexus One direct from Google for $529, which is what it was previously offering the phone for to normal customers. Several weeks ago it received its final shipment of Nexus One phones from its partner HTC, stating that once the final batch is sold it will no longer offer it directly for sale. The device is still available through network carrier partners such as Vodafone and still receives full Google support, being the first Android phone to receive the 2.2 FroYo update. It will also be the first to receive the 3.0 update in October.

Tech Eye 

President Dmitry Medvedev disagrees with Russia's leading mobile operators that they alone should be allowed to develop a fourth-generation wireless Internet network, business daily Vedomosti reports Friday. He instructed the minister of communications and mass media, Igor Shchegolev, to decide on distributing "4G" frequencies on that basis, according to two sources in Medvedev's administration.

One of the operators of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks said its work will go on, despite pressure from the U.S military sources worried what can of worms the site will open up next. "I can assure you that we will keep publishing documents - that's what we do," a WikiLeaks spokesman, who goes by the name of Daniel Schmitt told The Associated Press in an interview. Schmitt claimed that WikiLeaks recent publication of classified documents about the Afghanistan war was adding to the general public's understanding of the conflict.

Nokia’s top brass has confirmed that the manufacturer will not be using Google’s Android Mobile OS. During a Q&A on Twitter, Nokia’s head of sales and marketing, Niklas Savander, put the Nokia-Android fantasies to bed, once and for all: “Our platform choices (Symbian and Meego) gives us the best [opportunities] to deliver value and of course QT will play key role.” So, any disaffected Nokia users that aren’t happy with the current version of Symbian would probably do best simply biting the bullet and jumping ship to Android.

In the south-western province of Nor Lipez in Bolivia lies the world's largest deposit of lithium. The vast and spectacular Uyuni salt flats sit 3,600 metres above sea level. They are shaped like an inverted cone, 400 metres deep, in which layers of salts have sedimented, interwoven between layers of mud and brine, in which the mineral salts have dissolved. In recent years, lithium's commercial value has risen astronomically. The development of laptops and mobile phones has depended on lithium batteries, and demand has grown to the point where it is now profitable to exploit the mineral even when it is found in a place as remote and inaccessible as this.