General Motors plans to stop advertising on Facebook because the ad campaigns are not paying off in any measurable way. At $10 million, the company's ad spend on Facebook is relatively small. The reaction to GM's decision, however, has been disproportionately big. The timing of the news, of course, has much to do with the furor. Facebook is two days away from a blockbuster initial public offering whose projected $104 billion valuation is highly predicated on projected advertising revenue. GM's decision stirred debate because it highlights a nagging sense of uncertainty marketers have expressed about Facebook.

Two years after its initial attempt to sell Nexus smartphones directly to consumers flopped, Google is apparently trying to revive the strategy. This time, though, it's added a few new touches. It's going to work with up to five device manufacturers at a time to create a portfolio of Nexus-line devices that include smartphones and tablets, and it will sell direct both through its website and possibly through some retailers, according to a report.

After months of legal wrangling between technology titans Oracle and Google, phase two of the case has headed to the jury, where 11 good people will decide whether Google actually infringed on Java-related patents, and more importantly whether this was a threat to Oracle's business. The two patents in question were actually acquired by Oracle when it bought Java maker Sun Microsystems in January of 2010, more than a year after Google launched its first Android handset. Oracle subsequently sued Google, claiming both patent and copyright infringement. If infringement occurred, did it result in $6 billion in damages?

Apple computer users might soon have a thinner, lighter version of the MacBook, according to numerous reports. The new design will apparently still bear the "MacBook Pro" name but will more closely resemble an Ultrabook -- thin, light and affordable PC laptops. It will supposedly feature a high-definition screen similar to the ones found on iPhones and iPads. Perhaps most importantly, the new product wouldn't compromise battery life or memory for the sleeker design.

SugarCon, the SugarCRM user meeting held in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, did some important things for Sugar. It was a coming out party of sorts for a company with a distinct business model and strategy, namely open source. It was also validation of that strategy and, for many, a new realization of what open source means. In my discussions with CEO Larry Augustin and CTO and cofounder Clint Oram, I got a new sense of how pervasive open source really is in the software marketplace.