Yet another Bay Area police department is facing scrutiny over its close ties to Apple's in-house investigations.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) has said it will conduct an internal investigation of a search on a home in the city's Bernal Heights district in July.

The search, which targeted 22 year-old Sergio Calderón, was originally believed to have been carried out by Apple's private investigators.

When reports surfaced alleging that the investigators had impersonated officers, the SFPD stepped forward and said that several plain clothes officers had assisted with the operation, although only Apple investigators had entered and searched the home.

The SFPD maintains that accompanying private investigators on searches is a standard procedure and safety measure, but the incident will no doubt draw close scrutiny, in large part because it is not the first time Apple has appeared to use local authorites as its private security force.

Last year, police in San Mateo county were investigated for their involvement in the loss of a prototype iPhone 4 which culminated in a raid on the home of a Gizmodo editor.

The incidents raise an interesting question for police departments. On one hand they are helping to retrieve stolen property and prevent the trafficking of valuable intellectual property, on the other they risk a mountain of bad publicity and backlash if they appear to be helping a multi-billion dollar corporation harass and violate the rights of the very citizens they are sworn to protect.

While police in the UK continue to make arrests of suspected Anonymous and LulzSec members, over on this side of the pond law enforcement groups don't seem to be faring as well.

First the group hit police agencies in Arizona, then turned their attention to the police who patrol the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Now, it seems that cops in Texas are the target of the hacktivist group.

Anonymous is currently taking aim at the Texas police chiefs association. The site was defaced by hackers not once, but twice on Thursday. Anonymous also says it has obtained information from police systems.

The group posted the following message on the defaced web site:

'For every defendant in the anonymous "conspiracy" we are attacking two top Texas police chiefs, leaking 3GB of their private emails and attachments. Mind you, we don't expect a sane response. Even a few insults would have been better than the way you cowards hide behind protocol, innuendo, and your badge.'

The attacks continue to focus on US law enforcement groups even as the Metropolitan Police is making arrests of Anonymous members in the UK.

So why are the US authorities still getting hacked? It could be the low-hanging fruit argument. There are more police groups in the US and more local and state agencies which are more likely to have poorly maintained servers and databases.

Or perhaps the arrests in the UK have skewed geography among those choosing the targets. With high-ranking members in the UK being chased by police, perhaps US members are now the only ones selecting the targets.

Either way, right now the men and women at Scotland Yard are looking far better than their American counterparts.

SAN FRANCISCO: Salesforce kicked off its annual Dreamforce customer event in San Francisco on Wednesday, boasting 45,000 attendees and, according to a tweet by Marc Benioff, another 35,000 customers watching online.

The number of attendees has jumped hugely over the past few years. Dreamforce 2010 had over 30,000 attendees, which itself was 70 per cent up on the 2009 event.

While previous Dreamforce events, and Oracle's competing OpenWorld, often make quite an imprint on downtown San Francisco, this week there is a visiting IT crowd like never before.

It seems as if the city has been turned into one giant party, as queues pile up outside drinks venues on Tuesday night, blocking the streets.

Salesforce is being a great host, while obviously basking in all the attention. Free hot dogs are being given out to those passing the vast Moscone Centre where the event is being held, while shops in the city are giving Salesforce attendees large discounts.

Salesforce has also invited more press, bloggers and analysts to the conference than ever before, with at least eight journalists flown out specially from the UK.

There are large pictures of Benioff dotted around the conference too, depicting him almost as some sort of god of the cloud.

Salesforce seems to be increasingly trying to present Dreamforce as the de facto industry event for the cloud, in a similar way that RSA/EMC positions the RSA Conference in the security space.

However, despite being marketed as 'The Cloud Computing Industry Event of the Year', Dreamforce remains very much a customer event, the keynote speaker roster consisting mainly of Salesforce and customer execs.

So is the size of this week's event down to genuine customer interest, or is it more due to Salesforce's marketing prowess?

The firm announced a 97 per cent dip in year-on-year profits in May, although many analysts at the time put this down to the company's rise in operating costs following seven acquisitions in the 12-month period.

At the same time as announcing the profit slump, the firm revealed that it had acquired 5,400 customers over the course of the year.

Whatever the reasons, V3 will bring you all the latest news and opinion from the event over the next few days, so stay tuned.

HP announced last week that it is seeking to spinoff its Personal Systems Group (PSG) in a move that will effectively put an end to its PC business.

This kicked off speculation that the days of the company's entire PC  line were numbered, and rival vendors even went as far as to euologise the PSG.

However, HP isn't going to let its PC business languish in the meantime, and has published an Answering your Questions blog post to reassure customers that the PSG will not disappear entirely.

HP explained that the company remains the world's top PC seller and that, whatever the outcome, the business will carry on.

"Whether the company is spun off, sold or kept in the HP portfolio, the team here remains committed to creating and supporting great products and services for customers like you all over the world," the post said.

"We are the world’s largest PC manufacturer and, whatever structure we ultimately take, we plan to continue delivering innovative products and to stand by you."

Customers are understandably worried, but it seems that HP has a point. Dell and others would love to believe that the PSG will soon be no more, but it isn't going to disappear overnight.

However, while we might not need to worry about the longevity of the PC we buy today, there remain some serious doubts about the long-term viability of the PSG. If HP is looking to spin the unit off, there are obviously some major concerns that will need to be addressed.

Google's recent $12.5bn deal to acquire Motorola Mobility will bring the Android maker a number of new properties, most notably an in-house handset and tablet maker with an extensive history in the hardware market.

But the acquisition may also yield valuable intellectual property which some believe will play a pivotal role in Google's legal feud over patents related to Android.

Patent lawyer David Mixon suggested in an interview with Bloomberg that the star of the Google/Motorola deal may be a collection of 18 Motorola patents which could put Google in a stronger position in its legal dealings with the likes of Apple and Microsoft.

Mixon suggested that the patents are of particular value because they cover core components such as touch-screen hardware and wireless antennas.

Google cited Motorola's patent holdings as a motivating factor in the deal. In an era when every major vendor seems to be taking the other to court, patent portfolios are considered as good as currency in helping to negotiate licensing settlements.

According to some in the industry, however, Motorola's patent holdings may be overstated. Intellectual property expert Florian Mueller has previously noted that Apple and Microsoft have filed their own patent suits against Motorola.

HP grabbed the headlines on Thursday when it announced a major corporate redesign which will include a spinoff of its PC division and the end of its smartphone and tablet lines.

The company admitted that a large factor in the decision was the failure of the TouchPad tablet, which has been a dud in the market. Reports indicate that retailers can't get their TouchPads back to HP fast enough.

But there might be a bit more at work here. And it may have to do with Google.

When HP announced that it was killing its webOS hardware division, the company also went out of its way to point out that the software itself is still alive, at least for the time being. Some industry watchers believe that HP could be looking to poach a few Android vendors.

Shortly after HP announced its new business plan, V3 spoke with analyst Rob Enderle who had an interesting take on the decision. Enderle suggested that the move may not be a death sentence for webOS, but rather a power play.

Enderle explained that, with Google getting its own hardware outfit in Motorola Mobility, Android handset makers suddenly find themselves with a new competitor that enjoys a significant advantage in developing the operating system as well.

With handset makers potentially souring on what they see as a stacked deck for Google, Enderle thinks HP could try to entice companies to webOS.

"They will also offer indemnification, something most of these vendors couldn't get from Google and desperately wanted thanks to the Apple litigation and Microsoft royalties," Enderle said.

"Suddenly we have a new major operating system player, and it couldn't have happened without Google buying Motorola."

There are other indications that HP could look to license webOS as well. Enderle noted that HP chief executive Léo Apotheker made his name in the software market, and HP made its software operations a big part of its planned rebuild.

So if HP is indeed planning to pitch webOS to third-party vendors, the big question may be just how solid is the platform? With the backing of companies experienced in building cutting-edge handsets and tablets, could webOS take off and perhaps even pose a threat to Android down the road?

We have assumed that Symbian's days were numbered ever since Nokia announced its intention to go with Windows Phone 7 for its smartphone line, and the end of the road is rapidly approaching in at least one part of the world, according to recent reports.

Chris Weber, head of Nokia's North American operations, told AllThingsD that the company will pull Symbian support in the US and Canada once it begins shipping Windows phone 7 devices.

Weber was quoted as saying that Nokia "will essentially be out of the Symbian business", at least in the US, when the Windows Phone devices launch.

Dropping from the North American market doesn't mean that Symbian is dead in the rest of the world, particularly in emerging markets, but the move sends a pretty clear message and could indicate similar plans for Europe.

That said, Nokia has just unveiled an entry-level Symbian model in Europe, so a complete shutdown of the operating system might not be coming so soon.

A man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after hacking his neighbour's home internet service and waging an online hate campaign after a disagreement when they moved in.

Barry Ardolf, 46, of Blaine, Minnesota, fell out with his neighbours Matt and Bethany Kostolnik in 2008 after they reported him to the police for kissing their four year-old son. The family had their car tyres slashed shortly afterwards but then Ardolf took his revenge online.

Using script kiddie hacking kits downloaded from the internet, Ardolf spent two weeks trying attacks against the Kostolnik's WEP-encrypted router before gaining access to their Qwest account. He then accessed Matt Kostolnik's Yahoo account and sent flirtatious emails to two of his co-workers and child pornography to his boss, as well as putting the images on a MySpace page.

He then set up a fake account for a local woman and sent another email to Kostolnik's bosses alleging a sexual attack. To send the email Ardolf hacked two more of his neighbour's Wi-Fi accounts, presumably to try to cover his tracks.

After Kostolnik's employers, legal firm Moss & Barnett, confronted him about the emails he asked for an investigation and a packet sniffer was installed on the family's home PC.

However, while this was ongoing US Secret Service agents showed up at Kostolnik's office wanting to question him about threatening emails sent to vice president Joe Biden, the Governor of Minnesota, and a senator from Minnesota.

"This is a terrorist threat! Take this seriously. I hate the way you people are spending money you don't have... I'm assigning myself to be judge, jury and executioner," the email stated, according to court documents.

"Since you folks have spent what you don't have, it's time to pay the ultimate price. Time for new officials after you all are put to death by us."

As numerous cases have shown, the Secret Service is one of the most tech-savvy law enforcement bodies out there and forensic investigators soon found details of Ardolf's activities and his Comcast account details.

A search of his home found hacking manuals and copies of the threatening correspondence on a thumb drive in Ardolf's bedroom, as well as plans to send emails to Bethany Kostolnik claiming her husband had got another woman pregnant.

Agents also found personal information on Ardolf's previous neighbours, including social security numbers. The neighbours said they had suffered multiple vandalism attacks since falling out with Ardolf, and police found evidence that he was still harassing them after they had moved.

Ardolf initially agreed to a plea bargain with a likely sentence of two years in jail, but then fired his lawyer and pleaded not guilty. Police also found evidence that he broke his bail conditions, tried to coach friends and family on evidence and contacted the press with misinformation.

In response the prosecutors added additional identify theft and child pornography charges to his docket, and requested he be sent down for nearly 25 years.

"Barry Ardolf is a dangerous man. As he has amply demonstrated, he uses his technical skills to cause harm and avoid getting caught," court documents state.

"Based on his actions, there is every reason to believe that when Barry Ardolf is released from prison at the end of his term of commitment, he will do something like this again to someone else who has angered him, only this time he will be even more careful. The only way to prevent that is to incarcerate the defendant for a very long time."

The court sent Ardolf down for 18 years and put him on the sex offenders register.