Adobe Systems posts drop in 2Q profit, sales NEW YORK — Adobe Systems Inc., the company whose software powers Flash animation and PDF documents, posted a sharp drop in its fiscal second-quarter profit and sales Tuesday amid weaker demand in the economic downturn. But the quarter's revenue inched past Wall Street's expectations, and adjusted earnings met those estimates as well as the company's own guidance.

Officials: Twitter stayed online for Iran chaos WASHINGTON — The State Department this week asked Twitter to postpone a scheduled maintenance shutdown of its service to keep information flowing from inside Iran amid the growing crisis over its disputed election, three U.S. officials said Tuesday. The officials said the department intervened with Twitter executives to urge them to delay a planned shutdown of the microblogging site that would have kept it offline for 90 minutes during what would have been daytime on Monday in Iran.

MySpace to cut 30 pct of jobs to boost efficiency LOS ANGELES — MySpace said Tuesday it is cutting nearly 30 percent of its work force in a bid to become more efficient, bringing its staffing level more in line with its more popular rival, Facebook. The move, the latest cost-cutting effort at the site, comes less than two months after the unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta, 39, as its new chief executive.

With IT giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo into cloud computing, Opera seems to follow the suite, but with a different approach. Opera Software ASA on Tuesday launched a new technology that would allow the Web browser to double up as a Web server. The new feature in the Internet browser will allow the users to share photos, music and files directly with one another, without accessing outside services such as Facebook and Flickr. The new feature would be a part of beta for Opera 10.

China backpedals on filtering software orderBEIJING — China's authoritarian government has backed away from an order to load Internet-filtering software on every new computer after a major outcry by citizens used to the relative freedom of online life.