Business - NewsFactor

Is an iPhone an acceptable device for business users? Verizon Wireless and AT&T have been involved in a public multimillion-dollar spat over the question with dueling television advertising campaigns -- and a lawsuit to boot. Now Apple is stepping into the fray with its own ads.

Things are changing in the world of smartphones, according to the October Mobile Metrics Report from AdMob. The organization, which is in the process of being acquired by Google, traced the operating systems and handsets running on devices served by its network, said Nicole Leverich, the company's director of corporate communications.

On Monday, Google announced it plans to acquire yet another advertising company. The search giant has targeted Teracent, a San Mateo, Calif., startup that customizes display ads for different situations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Verizon Wireless said Monday that it will begin shipping Samsung's Omnia II smartphone on Dec. 2. The new handset features Samsung's TouchWiz 2.0 user interface, which provides users with the ability to customize and personalize their devices in a number of different ways.

While Apple's App Store has been king of its particular hill, there are indications that at least some developers are getting annoyed at its policies -- and are increasingly developing for other platforms, such as Google's Android. Now Apple is beginning to push back.

Just two weeks after Apple iPhone users in Australia reported jailbroken iPhones came under siege by attackers, a new version of the iPhone worm is posing a threat. Symantec reports the new worm targets jailbroken iPhones running SSH that are still using the default password. The worm can reportedly steal data stored on the iPhone as well as connect back to the attacker, giving them control of the phone.

California's plan to require the sale of energy-efficient televisions to reduce energy consumption could cost as much as $50 million per year in sales taxes because consumers are free to buy less-efficient sets online or in other states, the Consumer Electronics Association says. "At a time when the state of California is facing its worst money crisis in history, this is going to be disastrous," said Jennifer Bemisderfer, a spokesperson for the CEA, which lobbied against the ban.

In what may remind many consumers of the Amazon Kindle's early days, Barnes & Noble expects shipments of its nook e-book reader to be delayed. On Friday, the giant book retailer said it has sold out its first batch of nooks amid high demand -- and new shipments won't be available until after the holiday shopping season ends.

Dell's earnings are up and expectations are solid, but the company's stock still took a hit Friday afternoon after analysts signaled the company isn't playing a key role in the PC market recovery. Dell's shipments were flat in the third quarter and down five percent from the year-ago period despite improvements in the large-enterprise and small-and-midsize business segments and increased demand and revenue from business customers.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer isn't talking turkey when it comes to the software giant's newest operating system. At a shareholder meeting Thursday in Bellevue, Wash., Ballmer told investors that Windows 7 sold double the number of copies in one month as its previous Windows Vista operating system.

On Friday, Cloud Engines released its newest version of the Pogoplug, a small "multimedia sharing device" that connects hard drives to the Internet and allows a user to access the files remotely. The company described Pogoplug as "your own personal cloud that broadcasts safely from your home."

Google is showcasing how its Chrome OS will change the user experience when it launches before next year's holiday season. The new operating system will initially appear on netbook-style devices that will feature bigger keyboards than today's netbooks offer, the company said.

AT&T isn't holding back in responding to attacks from Verizon Wireless. After losing a court fight to stop Verizon from airing commercials that pointed out holes in AT&T's 3G service, AT&T is responding with its own commercial.

In a move to make YouTube's massive inventory more accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google announced plans to add automatic captioning technology to the video site. Google has combined its automatic speech-recognition technology with the existing YouTube caption system. Called auto-caps for short, the captions rely on the same voice-recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for YouTube videos.

With the public beta of Office 2010, Microsoft is offering an intriguing future for the world's most popular productivity suite. The new version features integration with web-based, lightweight versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint; a mobile version; and social-networking features bolted onto Outlook.

Google sketched out more details Thursday about its Chrome operating system, which is slated to become available before the end of next year. Google said the project's initial target is to get Chrome OS up and running on the computing devices that depend most on Internet connectivity.

After announcing a spin-off from parent company Time Warner on Monday, AOL is moving to reduce its head count about one-third. AOL is looking for employees who are willing to resign from their jobs at the once-dominant Internet firm.

Like Elvis, there have been so many sightings and rumors of an upcoming, groundbreaking Apple tablet that it has taken on legendary status. But now the legend is undergoing revisions, with new reports that the tablet will be delayed and that a major publisher is getting ready -- and still no word from Apple.

Apple will soon begin offering its iPhones through carriers in South Korea. On Wednesday, Apple jumped its last hurdle in getting the iPhone into the hands of mobile-phone users in South Korea.