Before Microsoft announced its intention to debut a mobile environment called Windows Phone 7 later this year, the company was already at work on slick new mobile devices under a separate initiative known internally as Project Pink. Pictures and other materials leaked to a popular tech blog this week appear to reveal new details about two phones Microsoft is known to be developing under the Pink line-the Pure and the Turtle.

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., expanding beyond the iPhone and Macintosh desktops and laptops, plans to start selling its iPad tablet computer in the U.S. on April 3 and will take preorders for the device next week.

The company will initially sell models that connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi networks, starting at $499. Versions that can also tap mobile-phone networks will be available in late April, Apple said today. When Apple introduced the iPad in January, the company said it would be available in March.

For the third year in a row, Apple has topped the list of Fortune's Most Admired Companies. The list was based on a poll of 4,200 executives across the world's top companies, and by the highest margin ever, they picked the Cupertino-based "mobile device company" as the world's most admired brand. Obviously the millions of MacBooks, iPhones, and iPods played a factor, but it sounds like the iPad sealed the deal this year. BMW's CEO is quoted waxing poetic about Apple's brand power: "The whole world held its breath before the iPad was announced. That's brand management at its very best."

While Apple's marketing machine generally downplays the threat to the iPhone posed by Google's new Nexus One mobile device, the company's lawyers see it differently.

The Nexus One, as well as other touch-screen phones manufactured by HTC for Google and other third parties, has caused "irreparable injury" to Apple's mobile franchise, according to court documents.

Apple claims HTC infringed on 20 patents governing a range of technologies. It filed legal actions against the Taiwanese company Tuesday with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court for Delaware.

Apple Inc. filed suit against HTC Corp., the maker of Google Inc.'s recently released Nexus One phone, saying the Taiwan-based mobile device maker is infringing on 20 patents related to its popular iPhone.

Apple didn't identify which HTC devices it claims infringe on its patents. The company said the patents involve the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The complaints ...

I caught this back when Steve Jobs said it on stage at the event a few weeks ago, and I was surprised that more people hadn't yet. Jobs called Apple "the largest mobile device company in the world," and I had to do a double-take. Mobile device company? But don't you sell computers? Aren't you the top premium PC brand in the world?

Pass, says Apple. Tim Cook confirmed at a Goldman Sachs press conference yesterday that Apple is calling themselves a "mobile device company" officially. The "traditional model" of having companies sell different things -- hardware.

Apple is showing its true mobile colors. The company is on the lookout for an engineer who can help get its mobile-phone software onto additional devices.

On Feb. 15, Apple (AAPL) posted an ad on its Web site for an engineering manager "to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS [operating system] on new platforms." Days later, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook called the company "a mobile device company," echoing remarks by Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who in January said "Apple is the largest mobile device company in the world."

Apple COO Tim Cook answered a round of questions during the annual Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference Tuesday and ended up discussing various aspects of Apple's business. A major thread throughout Cook's talk was the fact that Apple thinks of itself as a "mobile devices company," echoing Steve Jobs' comments at the recent iPad introduction that Apple competes with the likes of Nokia and Sony when it comes to revenue.

(Adds executive’s comment in sixth paragraph.)

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co. is putting William Shakespeare and Mark Twain alongside “Super Mario” with its new handheld game device.

The Kyoto-based maker of the top-selling Wii console introduced the DSi XL handheld video-game player in the U.S., adding a book-reader similar to products from Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp.. The device will be released on March 28 and cost $189.99, Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for North America, said today at an event in San Francisco.

Apple thinks of itself as a mobile device company. In January at the iPad launch event, Steve Jobs noted that 'Apple is the largest mobile devices company in the world now.' And responding to a direct question today at a Goldman Sachs conference, liveblogged by the WSJ, COO Tim Cook reiterated: 'Yes, you should definitely look at Apple as a mobile-device company.'

Cook also pointed out that the majority of Apple's revenues now comes from mobile devices (including laptops) or content for those devices. Indeed, if you look at the breakdown of Apple's fourth quarter revenues of $15.7 billion.

Apple's seamless integration of iPhone hardware and software shows that it's one of the few companies in the IT industry that can manage a mobile platform, according to Apple COO Tim Cook. In a Q&A Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, Cook was asked whether Apple considers itself a mobile device company. In light of the crucial role iPhone revenue has played in helping Apple to survive rough recessionary waters, it wasn't surprising to hear Cook embrace the mobile label.

The browser technology Microsoft incorporates into Windows Phone 7 could make or break the mobile device platform, according to an analyst at an influential IT research firm. "In a world today focused on native mobile apps, it would be easy to ignore the browser," said Gartner's David Smith, in a recent post. "But that would be very shortsighted," he added.

Apple built its iPod brand by developing an ecosystem that encouraged the external development of thousands of apps that run natively on the device, thus in many cases eliminating the need for users to access Web content through a browser (though the iPhone does include Apple's Safari browser).

SEATTLE - Alaska Airlines will begin offering electronic boarding passes to passengers in several of the cities it serves.

Alaska Airlines customers flying from Anchorage, Boise, Idaho, Denver, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Spokane, Wash. could begin receiving boarding information and check in with a mobile device starting on Thursday.

The new service also works on sister carrier Horizon Air. Both are units of Alaska Air Group.

In separate announcements from Barcelona today, three traditional powerhouses in computing and communications -- Microsoft, Intel and Nokia -- kick-started major revamps to their technology to adapt to a quick-changing smartphone and mobile device market that's increasingly dominated by Google and Apple. "Microsoft is in a bigger 'start over' penalty box than Intel and Nokia, but it really is a start over for all of them," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates about the announcements made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "Microsoft does have a much steeper road to climb to get back into the game than Nokia/Intel does."

Google Buzz continues to make waves as the Gmail- and mobile device-based social networking platform reaches the masses this week. Buzz takes one part Facebook, one part Twitter, one part YouTube and one part Flickr and blends it for a social networking platform lodged directly into Gmail. So far, Google Buzz has been receiving mixed praise. As with any new platform where people share information, however, privacy is a huge question. People post personal information, photos and other content to share with friends, not with the world. It's up to Google Buzz to keep that information to its intended recipients.

Google's latest social media experiment came to life on Tuesday in the form of Google Buzz: a social media sharing service built into your Gmail window. Buzz will let you share photos, links, videos, and status updates through your Gmail inbox or your mobile device's Web browser.

Google is still rolling out the service to all Gmail users, but if you can't wait, we have a couple of ways that you can try out Buzz right now on your desktop or smartphone.

In addition to ignoring support for Adobe Flash, multitasking, and a few other niceties in its new iPad, Apple seems to have ignored one other important detail: it doesn't own the name "iPad." Fujitsu says it does.

"It's our understanding that the name is ours," Fujitsu's PR director Masahiro Yamane told by The New York Times on Thursday.

Like the Apple iPad, the Fujitsu iPad (PDF) - which has been around since 2002 - is a mobile device with a touchscreen display. Fujisu's model, however, is part of that company's point-of-sale retail offerings.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the company's much-anticipated iPad tablet computer Wednesday, calling it a new third category of mobile device that is neither smart phone nor laptop, but something in between.

The iPad will start at $499, a price tag far below the $1,000 that some analysts were expecting. But Apple must still persuade recession-weary consumers who already have other devices to open their wallets yet again. Apple plans to begin selling the iPad in two months.

I've been checking out the new Google phone, the Nexus One, and I have to say I'm a bit heartsick about having to send back the loaner I got to review.

The hardware feels terrific. The Android operating system is polished. It has little surprises and hints of elegance that begin to make it feel like an Apple product.

Is it as good as the iPhone?

Is it as good as the BlackBerry?

Not for me and possibly not for you.