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Apple’s market value today rose above that of Google, whose CEO, Eric Schmidt, sits on Apple’s board of directors.

This makes Apple the third most valuable computer services out there behind IBM and the goliath Microsoft.

Check the numbers after the break.

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With Bill Gates’ departure from his everyday role at Microsoft having happened over a month ago now, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on what this means for Apple’s relationship with Microsoft, and vice versa.

I think that despite Bill’s obvious place in the Windows-based world, he still has and has always had a certain affinity for the Mac platform and many of Apple’s products. Let’s not forget that Bill was so very involved in software for the original Macintosh, and agreed to form probably Apple’s single most important partnership that, in my opinion, likely saved Apple from going under in the late 90s.

Video and more thoughts after the break.

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A couple weeks ago I reported that Apple was finally suing Psystar, the small Florida-based computer company that had been selling Mac-clone “Open Computers,” a practice Apple says is in direct violation of the Mac OS X software license agreement.

Psystar responded by saying that Apple was actually making money out of the deal because they purchase every copy of Leopard from the Apple Store at the full retail price.

Now, Psystar has hired a law firm that has beaten Apple before, Carr & Ferrell LLP. The Palo Alto, CA based law firm represented Burst.com in a patent infringement case that it filed against Apple in 2006. Apple ended up having to pay Burst $10 million in order to license its audio and video streaming patents.

Via [ComputerWorld]

• Mac cloner Psystar files for bankruptcy
• Apple wins summary judgments against Psystar
• Mac clones continue as German company joins the frenzy

David Pogue of The New York Times calls it “Apple’s MobileMess”. Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal says it is “far too flawed to be reliable.” When Apple is hearing these sorts of things about MobileMe from a usually unmistakable Apple fanboy (Pogue) and a man who has called the iMac “the best desktop PC on the market at many price” (Mossberg), in addition to thousands of unsatisfied customers, former .Mac members and new members of the bandwagon alike, I think it’s pretty clear that they have not “finally got it right” as far as their online services are concerned, as Steve Jobs said at WWDC.

MobileMe’s launch was, as the former .Mac members among us are well aware, a complete disaster that took days to finally get somewhat right. In fact, not all of the launch issues have been worked out even now, two weeks after MobileMe’s initial release.

Chaos and gripes after the break.

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Even though the iPhone 3G launch didn’t go as smoothly as Apple had hoped, they still managed to sell over 1 million of the phones. Now that most Apple and AT&T stores are currently out of stock (and have lines forming for what little they do have), some people are really cashing in for their iPhone 3Gs on eBay, generally at least quadrupling their money.

The average 8GB iPhone is going for about $800-$900, while most of the 16GB models are going for well over $1,000, with one even topping two grand. And, as if paying these outrageous prices is not enough for the buyers, they are going to have to hack them unless they found an “unlocked” version due to Apple and AT&T’s new in-store-only activation policy.

So my personal advice to you is that if you managed to get your hands on an iPhone 3G on launch weekend, sell it now and buy four or five of them when they come back into stock. I know that I won’t convince anybody to actually do that, but it is the smart thing to do if you’re willing to wait a little bit to get your new iPhone anyway. But I don’t blame you if you can’t tear yourself away. I doubt I would be able to.

Via [Macworld]

• Mac cloner Psystar files for bankruptcy
• Apple wins summary judgments against Psystar
• Mac clones continue as German company joins the frenzy

Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal recently wrote in his column about ten iPhone apps, in the new app store, that he feels are worth checking out. I think it’s a really great “getting started” guide for those who are overwhelmed or otherwise confused about where to start with the app store.

See Walt’s video commentary after the break.

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When Psystar started shipping their Open Computer in April, most in the tech industry thought it wasn’t a matter of if, but when, Apple would sue them. Apple has always been very protective of their license that only allows Mac OS X to be run on Apple hardware, and will argue in court that the Open Computer, which can run Mac OS X, is in direct violation of that license agreement.

Read the report after the break.

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With the recent release of Firefox 3, Safari finally is seeing some serious competition in the browser space.  Its reign as the fastest browser on the Mac seems to be over for the time being, and Firefox’s usage share continues to climb both on the Mac and on Windows.

Now, this isn’t to say I don’t like Safari; in fact, I use it as my everyday browser. It’s just that the competition is finally really heating up, and it’s about time Apple made some improvements to set Safari apart once again.

See what I think Safari should to to pull ahead of the competition again after the break.

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Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, has been called “the Kingmaker” by Wired because “few reviewers have held so much power to shape the industry’s success and failures.”

Walt aims his reviews at end users rather than techies, and while he always does his best to stay neutral and would never be called a “fanboy” of any particular technology company, his reviews of Apple products have been generally positive, and one of his reviews, where he called the iMac “the finest desktop PC on the market at any price,” was featured in one of Apple’s famous “Get a Mac” ads.

So, what does Walt think of Apple’s new iPhone 3G? Check out his video review after the break.

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New York Times personal technology columnist David Pogue is well known in the tech world for bringing a good deal of humor and satire to his work, and this recent video the did at the Apple Store in Manhattan in anticipation of the iPhone 3G launch has to be one of his best.

In the video, Pogue does a skit where he interviews a crazed Apple fanboy who has supposedly been waiting in line for the iPhone 3G for more than a year. The point of this is clearly to poke fun at the, uh, interesting people who started the line for Apple’s improved smartphone a full week in advance, in hopes of breaking a world record.

Via [The New York Times]

• Mac cloner Psystar files for bankruptcy
• Apple wins summary judgments against Psystar
• Mac clones continue as German company joins the frenzy