This week we turn our eyes to the world of Smartphones, in particular the battle between giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Sony:

Sony comes out swinging launching a new line of gadgets
     It appears that Sony is getting into the 'smart' arena with it's launch of it's own smart phone and rolling out a device that's said to be a combination netbook, e-reader, and psp handheld.  Things are a bit slow due to some financial concerns but it's clear that Sony is aiming at the iPhone and the recently announced iPad

Verizon courting Microsoft to release 'Microsoft Phones' this Spring
     Microsoft is reaching out to cell phone giant Verizon to aide it in deploying it's own brand of smartphones.  Taking lessons learned from watching Google try to handle it's own phone deployment AND the management of the DROID phone software, Microsoft has decided to focus on development of it's own Phone application and let someone else handle the dirty work.

Apple not taking things lightly
     Don't feel sorry for Apple just yet, a recent flurry of lawsuits may slow down the march of the Droid based phones launched by Google.  Apple has filed suit against one of Google's suppliers, HTC, for copywrite and patent infringement.   The debate is over whether or not Taiwanese company HTC stole ideas from the iPhone regarding its touch-screen, gesture recognition, and power management software.

That's it for today, check back next week for more news From the Industry!

     When you're the worlds most popular search engine you can create quite the buzz in the industry.  Google's recent announcement to cease support on IE6 (internet explorer 6) in March has some companies holding mock funerals for the aging browser:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9161718/Web_designers_announce_IE6_s_death_slate_party

     The bad thing is that when you're the largest search engine in the industry you can also draw a lot of attention to yourself and draw a lot of flak.  The essence of this court ruling is startling; while we cannot condone the actions of those who actually performed the act . . . holding Google liable because a user uploaded the video to the internet is akin to holding a car manufacturer liable for someones decision to drive through a crowded mall:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000092-264.html

     The competition can get fierce . . . and it's no surprise that the software giant Microsoft using the same tactics that brought it under the 'anti-trust' microscope to bear on it's competitors:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240004575085774210824454.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

     Neoteria Solutions & The Patchwork Peddler have announced their intent to formalize their partnership under the banner of geekFoundry.  A press release was posted on their respective sites earlier today.

NeoTeria

The Patchwork Peddler

A copy of the Press Release can be found here.