Apple co-founder Steve Jobs feels that Google "violated the alliance" it had with Apple when the search giant began producing cellphones that resemble the iPhone, according to a The New York Times piece that details the bitter rivalry between the two technology giants.

Apple said this week that it will offer a Battery Replacement Service for its new iPad tablet that is similar to the one offered for iPhones and iPods, only this time the company plans to replace the entire device rather than swap out its depleted battery.

P.A. Semi founder and chief executive Dan Dobberpuh, who joined Apple as part of the acquisition of his company two years ago, has since left the iPhone maker for a startup venture, according to a published report.

Although it's no secret that members of Microsoft's leadership frown upon employees who choose an Apple iPhone over one running the company's own Windows Mobile operating system, approximately 1 in 10 still veer towards the forbidden fruit and sometimes go to great lengths to conceal them on the job.

Apple said Friday that Chief Operating Office Tim Cook was awarded nearly 22 million in stock- and cash-based compensation for his performance running the company during Steve Jobs' absence last year.

The introduction of the iPad Friday morning sold an estimated 50,000 units in two hours, and also bumped Apple's "hobby," the Apple TV, from the front page of its online store. Also, a mysterious icon included in iPad promotional pictures gains attention, and Apple has expanded its site to explain features of the coming hardware in greater detail.

Business customers who preorder the iPad are also limited to two per person, suggesting Apple is facing a tight supply for the coming April 3 launch date.

Apple revealed a minor tweak to the iPad hardware when preorders began Friday morning, with a button previously designated for audio muting changed to a "screen rotation lock."

Analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company said Friday he believes the open source community, which has backed Google's Android mobile operating system against the iPhone, has the wrong take on Apple's patent lawsuit against rival handset maker HTC.

Apple on Friday began accepting preorders for its multimedia iPad -- both the Wi-Fi and 3G models -- with reservations limited to two per customer and free hardware delivery on the April 3 launch date.

The legal battle over mobile technology patents between handset makers Apple and Nokia will likely drag out for years, with both companies looking for a court hearing to be held in 2012.

Apple is set to take preorders for its highly anticipated iPad multimedia device Friday, and the company's Web site will begin accepting advance orders from customers at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, 5:30 a.m. Pacific.

Apple Thursday evening released a new update to Safari for Mac and Windows, with the latest browser version improving its performance, stability and security.

Music legends Pink Floyd won a lawsuit with their label EMI Thursday, with the band successfully defending its right to block the sale of individual songs on digital download services like iTunes.

Bookseller Barnes & Noble revealed Thursday its plans to release its bookstore and e-reading software for the iPad with an application that would compete with Apple's own iBookstore.

Apple has been making last-minute changes to its App Store and iBookstore leading up to the April 3 launch of the iPad, according to a new report.

Worldwide smartphone shipments stormed back last quarter with 37.2 percent in growth, and Apple's iPhone led the way with a 97.9 percent year-over-year surge in shipments. But the real coming battle in the mobile market, according to one analyst, lies between Microsoft and Google.

Apple this summer will go a long way towards silencing critics and catering to one of the most prevalent demands of its iPhone user base, when it introduces a multitasking solution through the handset's 4.0 software update that will finally allow several third party apps to run concurrently and in the background.

A new patent application from Apple describes an exercise motivation feature that presents a "virtual competitor," providing an "interactive and engaging experience" for fitness enthusiasts.

Intel this week previewed its forthcoming 32nm Core i7-980X processor, a six-core CPU codenamed "Gulftown," and a new rumor has suggested the chip could find its way into Apple's Mac Pro line as early as next Tuesday.

A comparison of streaming video via the Adobe Flash and HTML5 formats with numerous different browsers on both Mac and Windows produced wildly different results based on the operating system and browser, making neither a clear winner.

Similar to how Apple's iPod touch came from the development of the iPhone, Microsoft reportedly plans to base the follow-up to its Zune HD media player on the Windows Phone 7 Series mobile operating system.

Apple -- along with AT&T, Research in Motion and a number of other companies -- is the defendant in a new patent suit that covers a broad range of smartphone related technologies, including e-mail syncing and Bluetooth connectivity.

As HP attempts to push its own Flash-playing slate PC over the Apple iPad, one ARM executive said he expects more than 50 tablet-style devices to be introduced this year alone.

The announcement that the Steam gaming service and Valve's line of games -- including Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 -- are being ported to the Mac has convinced major developers like DICE and Gas Powered Games to consider the jump as well.

Though the iPad is only compatible with AT&T's 3G network in the U.S., that hasn't stopped Verizon from telling its employees to pitch its own data plans, shared via Wi-Fi, to prospective buyers of Apple's new hardware.

Former chief executive of Sun Jonathan Schwartz has accused Steve Jobs of threatening patent action against his company in 2003, related to desktop OS technologies, in a long blog post that highlights a series of tech patent squabbles.

Apple's orders to its Taiwanese manufacturing facilities call for the production of roughly 5 million iPads before the heart of summer rolls around, according to a new report which also praises the company for its iPhone, notebook and desktop secular growth trends.

The iTunes LP format introduced by Apple last year was the brainchild of record labels looking to increase sales of whole albums, but sales thus far have been soft, a new report alleges.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation took a critical stance against Apple on Tuesday, when the digital rights advocacy group posted in its entirety the confidential license agreement to which all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch developers must agree.

Before Apple publicly sued HTC, the iPhone maker has privately had "blunt conversations" with other smartphone companies that have proven disruptive to the roadmaps of would-be iPhone killers, according to a new report.

FileMaker Pro 11, the latest version of the Mac database software, was officially released Tuesday, packing in improved chart visuals, "on the fly" reporting, a new Quick Find capability, and a number of productivity tools that aim to make database creation simpler and quicker.

The sale of applications, e-books, newspapers and magazines for the iPad is predicted to equal nearly 30 percent of the revenue Apple will earn from selling the hardware by the end of 2011.

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer recently had positive words about Apple's success with the iPhone and its App Store, adding fuel to rumors of a potential alignment between Apple and Microsoft to bring Bing search to the iPhone.

In anticipation of Monday's official announcement regarding Steam for Mac, AppleInsider spoke with John Cook, director of Steam development at Valve, about the process of porting the online gaming system to the Mac, and the role Apple played in its development.

After the initial screengrabs of Mac user interface elements and the subsequent blatant teasers, we've known this was coming for quite awhile. Now a Mac version of Valve's Steam gaming platform is official with todays press release, below:
Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April
March 8, 2010 ? Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve?s gaming service, and Source, Valve?s gaming engine, to the Mac.
Steam and Valve?s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.
?As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,? said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. ?The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.?
?Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac,? said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. ?Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.?
?We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,? said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. ?The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.?
Portal 2 will be Valve?s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. ?Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,? said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. ?We?re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.?

Valve officially revealed Monday that its Steam online gaming service, along with the Source engine that powers titles such as Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, is coming to the Mac in April.