Andy Rubin (Google) and Dr. Sanjay K. Jha (Motorola) join Om Malik on stage at Mobilize 2009 in San Francisco.

Motorola is buying 280 North, a tiny software and web applications start-up started by ex-Apple employees, for $20 million. The company makes a web application framework called Cappuccino that allows anyone to build desktop-quality applications for the web. A good example is their 280 Slides offering, which allows users to create and view presentations on the web.

The acquisition is a pointer toward Motorola’s future plans, when its handset business (along with some other hardware product lines) is spun off into an independent company, Motorola Mobility. It is also Motorola’s attempt to capture the Apple magic.

Heating up today is a fresh serving of new gadget in the 'tablet space'. With quite a few companies having already indicated that products based on Google’s Android platform are in progress. Recent rumors have surfaced that indicate Google is working on not one, but two, tablets, one based on Android, and the other on the Chrome OS. The company is working directly with HTC and Motorola if the rumors are to be believed, with the goal to produce a flagship tablet for each platform.

It has been confirmed through a representative  for Warner Bros. that the American studio has indeed filed a motion to cancel the trademark given to a condom product called “Harry Popper.”, issued in Switzerland. Warner is suing the condom maker, Magic X, for copyright infringement of the “Harry Potter” character. A lawyer for the Hollywood studio was quoted by the U.K.’s Telegraph as saying that “everyone who sees the condoms automatically thinks of Harry Potter.”

 Intel finally decided last Thursday to buy security-software maker McAfee Corp. for $7.68 billion, in what looks like a major bet on the need for enhanced security at the hardware layer, as corporate computing becomes increasingly mobile and continues to move into the cloud. The acquisition will give the company a suite of products from software to services that it can tie to its hardware in order to appeal to corporate customers.

China has officially claimed the title as the world’s second-largest economy next to the United States after erstwhile no.2 Japan suffered a significant fall in gross domestic product in the second quarter compared to three months ago.

The Japanese government announced on Monday that the country’s annualized GDP growth in the second quarter was only 0.4 percent, a big drop compared to the first-quarter growth of 4.4 percent. Japan’s second-quarter numbers suggest that global recovery from recession is not yet in full swing despite the continuing surge of the Chinese economy.

Oracle Corp sued Google Inc, accusing the later of patent and copyright infringement in the development of the popular Android smartphone software. 

The case was filed last Thursday in California federal court, claims that Google "knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property" in developing Android, Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement.

Analysts said the suit against Google could signal that Oracle intends to be more aggressive in seeking licenses for Java, a technology that is used in many types of Internet-based products. Oracle acquired Java through its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year. Analysts say Google's Android operating system uses portions of Java technology.

About 200,000 smartphones and other devices based on the Android operating system are sold each day, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said at an August 4 conference.

The case is Oracle of America Inc v Google Inc, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California .