A round-up of the companies, deals, and trends that made headlines.

Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

• Oracle (ORCL) co-president Mark Hurd unveiled the latest in its line of high-performance data processing systems, the Exadata Database Machine X2-8, which includes "smart storage" software and features like 5-plus TB of flash cache that provide substantial performance gains over previous Exadata configurations. (New York Times)
• HP (HPQ) has dropped its lawsuit against Hurd intended to stop him from joining rival Oracle. As part of the settlement, the former CEO forfeited roughly $13.6 million worth of HP stock options. (All Things D)
• Investors believe a rival bid for analytics company Netezza is inevitable. (Dealbook)
• More than 100,000 Germans have registered with Google (GOOG) to have their homes effectively blocked from Google Street View, launching later this year, due to privacy concerns. (Minyanville)
• Despite rampant speculation, Facebook denies development of a "Facebook phone" (for now). (PCMag) More