The chief information security officer for the state of Pennsylvania was sacked this week, shortly after revealing that its IT systems had recently been hacked while on a discussion panel at a security conference.

NewsFactor – Verizon Wireless hopes to debut its first 4G smartphone in the middle of next year, months earlier than planned, a company executive revealed Wednesday.

Macworld.com – Students of the hadouken have a new venue to test their fighting mettle: Street Fighter IV launched Wednesday for the iPhone and iPod touch. This seminal arcade fighter brings high-end graphics, complex combos, and a memorable cast of characters to the mobile platform.

NewsFactor – As Internet and television continue to converge, Google is actively testing a new television-programming search service with Dish Network, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The service reportedly runs on TV set-top boxes that host Google software and enable viewers to find shows on Dish and video on web sites like YouTube. The Journal cited people familiar with the matter who said the service will allow viewers to personalize a lineup of shows.

Search engine colossus Google has moved to expand its online business tools offering with the acquisition of DocVerse, a start-up that has developed a cloud-based collaboration platform based around Microsoft Office. DocVerse, which was founded three years ago by two ex-Microsoft staffers, allows users to add real-time collaboration functionality to projects created in Microsoft Office, including documents, spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations. The acquisition could allow Google to provide interoperable collaboration between both Microsoft Office and its own cloud-based Google Docs application package, which would improve the latter’s position as a competitor for both Office, and Microsoft’s own collaboration suite, Sharepoint.