Five Companies That Dropped The Ball This Week

Nokia Issues Mea Culpa For Fake Lumia 920 Demo

Have you heard the joke about the tech company that faked a demo of a key product feature to make it seem more impressive? Oh wait, that actually happened this week when Nokia tried to hype up its new Lumia 920 smartphone.

Nokia acknowledged that the video footage showed during the Lumia 920 launch event came not from the phone's camera, but from a full-fledged video camera. Oops! Nokia apologized for the subterfuge, but this is exactly the sort of stunt the struggling mobile device maker should not be trying to pull.

Oracle Says It Will Obey Court-Ordered Itanium Development

Oracle is appealing the court order to keep developing software for HP Itanium servers but says it will abide by its terms. Seeing as how Oracle doesn't often get told what to do by anyone, especially not at the behest of a rival, this revelation probably has folks at HP snickering.

"Oracle will continue building the latest versions of its database and other software covered by the judge's ruling to HP Itanium computers," Oracle said in a statement issued late Tuesday. "Oracle software on HP's Itanium computers will be released on approximately the same schedule as Oracle software on IBM's Power systems."

Microsoft Taking Heat Over Slow Flash Update In Windows 8

Microsoft says it won't be able to update the version of Adobe Flash in Internet Explorer 10 until Windows 8 becomes generally available in late October, which means users running the Windows 8 RTM version are subject to security risks, Microsoft blogger Ed Bott reported this week. Adobe issued its own corresponding update for Flash on Aug. 21.

Samsung Faces Government Inquiry In Korea Over Apple Complaint

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission, an antitrust watchdog group, is investigating Samsung after Apple complained of unfair licensing terms for Samsung's wireless technologies, the South Korea Herald reported this week. Seeing as how Samsung is based in South Korea, this probe has some bizarre and interesting potential.

AMD Shares Drops After Latest Wall Street Downgrade

Things are not looking good for Advanced Micro Devices, whose shares dropped some 5 percent after a downgrade from UBS, which cited the dwindling PC market and growth of tablets and Ultrabooks in its assessment. UBS' Steven Eliscu slashed his target price for AMD shares from $6.25 to $4. Ouch.