Have you been following the Verizon/Apple/Microsoft/AT&T rumors? Frankly, it's hard to keep track of the players without a program. But here's how it seems to be shaping up: Verizon and AT&T, in their on-again/off-again partnership negotiations, seem to be flirting with other again. Meanwhile, Verizon has been trying to get Apple's attention, in hopes of landing the iPhone contract once Apple burns through all of the available AT&T customers. Now it appears that Verizon has raised the stakes by quietly (actually, not so-quietly) negotiating with Microsoft to be the service provider of its rumored "Pink" sorta smart phone. Is this an attempt by Verizon to blackmail Apple into paying it attention? Probably. Is the Microsoft "Pink" phone even real? Maybe. When asked about it, Microsoft was pretty cagey in its answers -- so maybe it has something in the works out there at another manufacturer and plans to slap its logo on the result . . .i.e., Son of Zune. Bottom line? Unless you are a serious smartphone geek, don't spend another second worrying about this until one of the players makes a real move.

Apparently being acquired means never having to say you're sorry. That appears to be the best explanation for why Sun Microsystems decided NOT to hold its usual conference call today after formally announcing that it had suffered a devastating 20 percent drop in revenues in its recently completed third quarter. Those losses reached across both products and services, with the only bright light being a positive cash flow (at least Oracle will get something for its money). Servers crashed, memory crashed, but at least software (which is likely what Larry Ellison is looking for) saw revenues jump by 27 percent. How does Sun Microsystems plan to deal with these ugly financials? Who knows? After all, the company wasn't talking. . .

AN eBAY FOR JOBS?  by Scott Budman

It's an astounding number: one BILLION iPhone apps have now been downloaded by users -- less than two years after the landmark smartphone's introduction. Meanwhile, thousands of new apps are being added to the list every week by motivated entrepreneurs. To celebrate this milestone, NBC-KNTV tech reporter and regular Edgelings contributor Scott Budman paid a visit to one such start-up team to see their latest addition to the iPhone app roster. Commentary and video.

Assuming that Washington ever lets us out of this current economic recession, somewhere in the future lies the next great high tech boom. When it finally arrives, which companies and technologies are likely to be the winners of that up cycle, which ones are iffy, and which seemed destined to fail? Place your bets now. Some predictions by Edgelings.com editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone.

Got a jones for a little White Line Fever in your leathers on a big motorcycle hog -- but feel guilty about not being green in the process? Zero Motorcycles, based in the hills above Silicon Valley, has got just the bike for you. It's an electric motorcycle that'll run with any Harley. All that's missing is the roar and the smell of exhaust. An appraisal and video by NBC-KNTV reporter and regular Edgelings contributor Scott Budman.

Don't look now, but almost all of the important economic indicators are finally starting to look up . . .except one: CEO confidence. Faced with the prospect of an Administration and Congree apparently willing to do anything -- including fire corporate executives, nationalize industries, and bury healthy industries under a mountain of regulation -- corporate CEOs are acting like the kid in class who doesn't want to get called upon by the teacher: ducking and weaving, trying not be noticed, and expecting the worst. And who can blame them? But until these CEOs show some optimism, we'll never get out of this recession. A commentary by Forbes publisher and regular Edgelings.com contributor Rich Karlgaard.

A few years back, software giant Infosys took a lot of flak for taking U.S. jobs that were being outsourced to India. But no one has seemed to notice that in recent years, Infosys has been moving a lot of its work to the United States -- and hiring American talent here. That shrewd move can be credited to Infosys' founder, perhaps the most influential figure in the Indian technology world, Nandan Nilekani. When Nilekani speaks, the tech industry listens . . .and most recently he was speaking to NBC-KNTV technology reporter and regular Edgelings contributor, Scott Budman.

Just as shareholders were sharpening their knives, their attorneys rubbing their hands with glee, and employees lighting candles, Sun Microsystems yesterday announced its sale to Oracle Corporation for $7.4 billion, or $9.50 in cash. As Therese Poletti of the Wall Street Journal notes in the linked story, in making the move, Sun managed to spare itself the fate of Yahoo! -- i.e. turning down a sweet deal in hopes of getting something better . . .and then finding no interested buyers. Apparently, it was Sun co-founder and chairman Scott McNealy who was behind the Oracle deal -- one Silicon Valley character to another, Larry Ellison -- just as he led the fight against the IBM deal. For McNealy, the deal-breaker with Big Blue was apparently the latter's unwillingness to fight any potential anti-trust battles that might arise from such a deal. Meanwhile, event though it was made in haste, the Sun-Oracle deal is a much more appealing one: the two companies have teamed together for years, there are no product line compatability problems, and Oracle has made a science of mergers and acquisitions over the last fe years.

An economic collapse, threats of inflation and stagnation, a restive electorate, an inexperienced president who blames America for its moral failings, a growing distrust of capitalism and markets. . .it sounds familiar, doesn't it? The Aughts aren't exactly like the Seventies, but there's enough similarities to suggest that a good study of that forgettable decade might be long overdue. That's the suggestion of Forbes Magazine publisher and regular Edgelings.com contributor Rich Karlgaard.

Working on an feature interview for the Wall Street Journal on Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, Edgelings Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Malone found what he expected: the hottest new tech company on the planet; but also something he didn't expect: a start-up team keeping its head in the middle of the ultimate business whirlwind.

You can make a strong case that mating up with the Apple for the iPhone is just about the smartest business decision AT&T has made in the last quarter century. After all, in less than 2 years, Apple has sold nearly 20 million of those landmark devices -- with almost every one of them resulting in a two year AT&T contract. And a lot of those customers --more than 4 million in the second half of last year -- are first-timers to AT&T. That's not to say there hasn't been some bumping around between the two companies -- from the dismay of Apple users about having to deal with an outfit as retrograde as the Phone Company, to some recent price competition between AT&T's and Apple's retail stores. Still, it's hard to see a downside for AT&T, which is why it renewed the contract in 2008 and its CEO is apparently in negotiations with Apple right now to renew it again through 2011. The real question is whether Apple feels the need to stick with its boring old spouse -- or is ready to get a divorce and play the field again. You can be certain that a lot of other Telcos would love to hook up with Apple right now, and might even be willing to offer a deal even more crazily beneficial to Apple than the one it has with AT&T. On the other hand, from Apple's point of view, despite early predictions that the AT&T partnership would hurt the iPhone, that never happened . . .and with its genius chairman out of action, why take the risk and change partners now?

One of the coolest new computer interface applications was 'BumpTop', a touch screen app that was one of the most popular recent presentations at the annual TED Conference. Now, creator Anand Agarawala has introduced a consumer version of BumpTop and believes he can convince the world to touch their computer screens as often as they do their cellphone screens. Is he right? Commentary and video by NBC-KNTV tech reporter and regular Edgelings contributor Scott Budman.

There's been a lot of talk recently about what is being lost with the death of newspapers. But less discussed is what is being GAINED. And that is that the Web is a much more interactive, participatory medium that a newspaper can ever be. One controversial or memorable blog entry can attract more comments than entire career as a newspaper reporter. Just as important, there is no filter -- no copy editor -- to get between you and those armies of commentors out there. And those commentors come in many forms -- more than most of us ever imagined. Here's a first attempt to create a taxonomy -- a bestiary -- of the many types of commentors who inhabit the Web . . .a list that includes us as well. A commentary by Edgelings.com editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone.

Forty year-old chip giant Intel Corp. is serving up a lesson to all those whippersnapper tech companies out there about how to innovate during a downturn and position yourself for the next boom. Yesterday, the company announced yet another in what has been a string of new processor announcements over the last eighteen months. This one is code-named Jasper Forest and Intel gave it sneak peek at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing. Jasper Forest is basically a souped up version of its Nehalem server chip designed for storage products and embedded applications. This company is going to be tough to catch when the tech world catches fire again. Meanwhile, systems designers everywhere are thanking their lucky stars.

These days it may be tough to be a high tech entrepreneur, but don't tell that to the MBA students at the world's most famous university, Oxford. This week, a dozen Oxford business grad students travelled - with their own money -- for a pilgrimage to the Canterbury of tech start-ups: Silicon Valley. Yesterday, even jet lag couldn't dampen their thrill as they spent a morning at the hottest company on the planet today, Twitter, and met with its co-founder Biz Stone. Commentary and video by NBC-KNTV reporter and regular Edgelings contributor Scott Budman.

The negotiations for the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by IBM Corporation -- for a reported $7 billion -- have broken down according to insiders to the deal, says Bloomberg News. Sun’s board, headed by co-founder Scott McNealy, reportedly notified Big Blue on Saturday that it was breaking off exclusive negotiations after rejecting an offer of about $9.40 a share. That's pretty good money for a Dead Company Walking like Sun -- so either McNealy & Co. think they can get IBM back to the table with a better offer or they already have a better offer waiting from one of the other two potential suitors, Cisco or Hewlett-Packard. Sun better be right or shareholders, looking at probably their last chance to get out of Sun alive, are going to be very unhappy . . .and litigious.

The world of high technology is so huge, and so fast moving, that it's hard just to keep up with the players, much less understand the big picture. And yet, since tech is the nation's largest creator of new jobs and new wealth, it's also vitally important that we all understand just what's going on out there in places like Silicon Valley. So here's a quick primer and the latest industry overview from one of tech's most distinguished -- and veteran -- journalists, Edgelings.com editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone. You'll want to save this one as reference.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board today reversed itself and relaxed the rules regarding Mark-to-Market accounting -- the FASB regulatory move from last September that many analysts believe played a central role in crashing the stock markets. And, as one would predict, the markets responded with a strong uptick. Any chance Congress and the Administration can learn something from this about the power of DE-regulation? An analysis by Edgelings editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone.

Fifteen years ago, Silicon Graphics Inc. was one of the coolest companies on the planet, the Google of special effects, the Apple of workstations. But those days are long gone -- and despite at least one attempt by the fading company to revive itself, SGI finally gave up the ghost yesterday, selling its remaining remnants to a competitor for a shockingly tiny $25 million. That's less than what the annual travel expenses were for SGI in its multi-billion dollar halcyon days. The story of the decline and death of Silicon Graphics is of special interest to us here at Edgelings.com. Editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone notoriously wrote, for Fortune Magazine, the very first story that punctured the until-then perfect image the world (and the media) had of SGI. Needless to say, his words proved prophetic. And, for KNTV-NBC technology reporter and regular Edgelings contributor Scott Budman, Silicon Graphics wasn't just a major company on his Silicon Valley beat -- it was also his very first story as a tech reporter. His remembrance of SGI in its prime follows at the link.