Intellectual Ventures has filed patent lawsuits against nine tech companies. The first lawsuit targets software security vendors Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and Check Point. The second lawsuit targets DRAM and flash memory vendors Hynix and Elpida. The third names FPGA vendors Altera, Lattice and Microsemi, which recently acquired Actel and its FPGA business.

Nokia and HTC said they persuaded a court to void parts of a mobile phone patent that IP holding company IPCom GmbH claimed the two device makers infringed.

Jobs is recruiting lawyers who have fought for and against some of the world's largest companies, including Microsoft, Intel and Broadcom. Broadcom won a patent dispute with Qualcomm last year that ended with Qualcomm paying $891 million in cash over four years.

Dell has announced that it will be replacing 25,000 BlackBerry smartphones and instead provide its employees with Dell devices running Microsoft's operating system.

"initial supplies are tight", says Microsoft. Is demand really that strong or is the software holding back shipments artificially?

Motorola accused Microsoft of infringing 16 patents with its Xbox gaming console and in Windows for servers, PCs, and mobile devices, the company said.

Nokia reabsorbs Symbian, and Microsoft ships Windows Phone 7 -- two big yawns. How they became the mobile industry's elephants in the room.

So how does 40,000 Window 7 phones measure up? Google said last month that it was selling 200,000 Android phones a day. And Apple has said that its iPhone sales rate was 270,000 a day.

Canesta makes chips that, when coupled with a digital camera, give all manner of devices a sense of depth perception for the world around them, letting them "see" in three dimensions.

Microsoft deserves credit for doing some things that go against the prevailing smartphone norm. Instead of a screen covered with little app icons, users get a set of colorful rectangles that Microsoft calls "live tiles."

The new operating system is a refreshing and complete break from the Windows Mobile OS of the past - Microsoft's failed attempt to transpose key elements of its PC operating system on to a smaller screen.