Several technology goliaths, including Apple, Intel, and Google, are being accused of high-tech hijinks in a California class action lawsuit. The suit accuses the firms of running afoul of antitrust laws by allegedly conspiring to fix employee pay. The lawsuit also accuses the technology firms of entering into "No Solicitation" agreements with one another. The complaint, which was filed on behalf of Siddharth Hariharan, a former software engineer at Lucasfilm and founder and CEO of InEarth, seeks restitution for lost compensation and treble damages.

Adobe on Thursday began serving up security updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat slightly ahead of schedule, but not a moment too soon. The out-of-cycle updates address critical vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited in the wild, enough so that it's drawn the attention of the Department of Homeland Security/US-CERT. Left unpatched, it's possible for remote attackers to execute arbitrary code and take control of an infected system, giving them unfettered access to user data, as well as being able to crash their machine.

The decision to rent/lease or buy presents itself at every turn. You'll face this decision when shopping a new car, relocating to a new home or apartment, and even when it comes to picking out movies. But what about software? Part of the reason why open-source programs like GIMP exist is because the average user is either unable or unwilling for fork over several hundred dollars for a legitimate copy of Photoshop. What if you could rent a license instead? That's the question Adobe hopes to answer with the release of its new Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 product line.

Adobe said it discovered a critical vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player that could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. Reports have already surfaced that the security flaw is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks through a Flash (.swf) file embedded in a Microsoft Excel (.xls) file delivered as an email attachment. A fix is on the way, but it won't arrive until next week Adobe says.