TECH ROUNDUP: New Apple Store in Construction; Facebook's Move to Menlo Park

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.

• Apple is constructing a new store just down the street from its original one in Palo Alto. The $3.5 million construction will borrow designs from its other stores, and occupy two stories over 15,000 square feet. The city issued a building permit for the store, and construction is to begin “any day now.”

• Jacob Goldman, who helped found the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as Xerox’s chief scientist in 1970, passed away Tuesday from congestive heart failure. PARC was the birthplace of many technologies, namely graphical use interface, Ethernet, the laser printer, and object-oriented programming. 

• Facebook this week from Palo Alto to Menlo Park, where its official new headquarters are located. The move started in August with the first relocation of 5,000 employees to the new office, located at 1601 Willow Road. Formerly the home to Sun Microsystems, the new HQ features 10 offices buildings spanning two campuses. 

• After an audit at its international headquarters in Dublin on Wednesday, Facebook agreed to make several changes to better shield the personal data of its users outside of the U.S. The changes include asking its European users if they want to partake in facial recognition and altering its policies about retaining private data.

• On Friday, Hewlett-Packard released a firmware update to stop hackers from remotely taking control of their LaserJet devises. The move followed a report by Columbia University researchers, who stated that the printers were not secure and could be commanded to perform several dangerous tasks from afar. 

• Tibco Software Inc., a business software provider, announced some good news Wednesday: fourth quarter profit rose 38 percent due to higher sales. They were able to boast a profit of $51.9 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $37.5 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier.