Health hazard claims slammed

In its response to findings that printers may be a health hazard, HP says that based on its own work as well as what it saw in the report, the company did not believe there was a link between printer emissions and any public health risk, reports Information Week.

"Testing of ultra-fine particles is a very new scientific discipline," the company said in a statement. "There are no indications that ultra-fine particle emissions from laser printing systems are associated with special health risks.

But Professor Lidia Morawska, who led the study, told The Sydney Morning Herald that the study of ultra-fine particles was not based on a new science, pointing to such particulate research in vehicle emissions. One area in which HP and Morawska agreed was that more research on printer emissions was needed.

HP has developed a new technology which makes it possible to check whether a written document has been tampered with or not, reports Tech.co.uk.

HP Labs in Bangalore is testing the Trusted Hardcopy technology, which integrates two dimensional bar codes into the back of a paper document.

By scanning the bar code with a standard scanner with the help of HP-developed software, then sending the read information to the document's issuer, the document's integrity can be checked. The technology could be used on papers such a driving licences or degree certifications, for example.

Digital image provider Getty Images lowered its full-year profit estimates on Wednesday, pressured by competition from discount providers of stock photography, and its shares fell 10%, reports Reuters.

Getty also fell short of analysts' expectations with a second-quarter net income of $33.7 million, or 56 cents per diluted share, from $23.2 million, or 37 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue gained 6.5% to $218 million.

Digital photography companies have seen stock prices come down due to increasing pressure in the royalty-free photography business from discount Web sites offering pictures.