Business & Tech

TECH ROUNDUP: Hewlett-Packard Announces its Rival to the iPad, Facebook Facial Recognition Prompts FTC Complaint

A look at some of the top stories in Palo Alto technology news this week.

Palo Alto is swimming in a virtual sea of technology companies. Here is a look at how some of them made it into the news this week.

* Hewlett-Packard (H-P) announced this week it will start selling its rival version of the iPad, called the TouchPad, in July. The TouchPad will sell for between $500 and $600, based on storage capacity. The initial model to be released will have WiFi capability, and planned future models will be able to connect to AT&T Inc.’s wireless networks.

 * A group known as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), based in Washington, plans to file a complaint against Facebook with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding the company’s facial recognition feature used for tagging photos. The feature kicks in whenever someone adds a new photo to Facebook, and makes suggestions of friends to tag based on previous photo tags. Since gradually rolling out the feature in countries around the world in late 2010, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said millions of people have used the feature to tag photos. EPIC spokespersons say other privacy and consumer groups plan to sign on to the complaint, which will likely be filed within the next few days, as well.

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* Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, made a surprise visit to the Cupertino City Council on Monday to announce the company’s plan to build a new Apple headquarters on the Cupertino property of Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard (H-P), which H-P will soon be vacating. Jobs says the plan has a short timeline—Apple would like to break ground next year and be fully moved in by 2015.

 * Palo Alto-based Essex Woodlands Health Ventures closed a deal this week to lead a round of financing worth $45 million for the Newark-based Revance Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing cutting-edged technology for skin care products.

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