And if the government expands its reported antitrust inquiry into Apple's new developer agreement banning the use of non-approved tools like Flash in applications, it could end up hampering its iAd initiative, which is geared to in-app ads. The reported demands of $1 million or $10 million annual commitments from advertisers for iAd could also soften after the platform's initial launch period this summer. Not exactly.

Mac tops PC, again. True to their human avatars in the long-running Apple campaign, Apple this week casually bested Microsoft to become the world's most valuable tech company, at least judged by the size of its market cap.

Android may have edged out Apple's iPhone operating system in the U.S. smartphone market in the last quarter, but it's still far from conquering the world.

If TechCrunch's Michael Arrington had his way, Google would be selling cheap Android-powered cell phones with Google Voice out of 7-Eleven stores around the country. With the company's high-end Nexus One failing to find a sizeable customer base at $530 a pop, bring on the Google phone for the masses!

It looks as if AT&T is daring the Federal Communications Commission to take stronger action on early-termination fees. In a letter to customers dated May 21, the carrier said it planned to raise the ETF on smartphones and netbooks from $175 to $325 starting June 1.

Following a vaguely worded invite to a press conference sent out by Yahoo Thursday, word leaked out via Kara Swisher's BoomTown blog that the company is planning to announce a broad partnership with Nokia. The alliance is expected to entail Yahoo building email, search and other applications and services into a variety of Nokia devices.

A new online ad forecast from market research firm IDC predicts mobile advertising will grow nearly 10-fold in the next 10 years, to $1.8 billion from $220 million this year. That's strong growth, but such forecasts don't necessarily capture the full amount of investment going into mobile.

With the iPhone playing such a crucial role in the growth of AT&T wireless business in recent years, the question of what will happen when, and if, the company loses its exclusive deal for the signature Apple device has always loomed ominously in the background. The Verizon iPhone rumors have kicked up again lately, with speculation the fabled pairing will finally appear this fall.

For the first time, Verizon Wireless became the world leader in mobile data revenue in the first quarter, with $4.5 billion in sales. That total might've been even higher had the company collected an $18,000 cell-phone bill from a Boston-area man whose son had racked up that amount in charges over six weeks by tethering the phone to a PC to connect to the Web.

Banking a huge $20 million funding round, mobile social gaming company Booyah has raced ahead of rivals like Foursquare and Gowalla in venture capital-raising.