Apple’s lawyers have been getting very hot under their (turtleneck?) collars of late and I put the reason down to one thing – Android.

The big legal news out of Cupertino HQ is that Apple has decided to throw the rule book at rival phone handset maker HTC and see how much of a bruise it can create. Apple has accused the Taiwanese company of stealing its technology and using it to make phones such as the Google Nexus One.

Apparently Apple’s legal eagles have spotted 20 patents that they believe HTC has infringed, and they’re ready to hit the courtroom to prove it.

Meanwhile Google has waded into the growing brawl, backing its hardware partner HTC. It’s all starting to look like the kind of fight that could shape the booming phone market for years to come.

So why has Apple decided to take such action? Well, according to chief executive Steve Jobs, it’s because innovation is fine, but stealing other people’s technology is not.

Now, no one is going to argue against that logic, and a lot of patent lawyers are going to bill hundreds of expensive hours as they try to figure out if that's what’s happened in this case.

But it’s at a much higher level than patent law where the real battle is happening. Apple is scared stiff its iPhone is about to lose significant ground to handsets running the rival Android operating system, and its prepared to do anything it can to fight the trend.

The signs that the iPhone's heyday might soon be over are already appearing.

First there's the growing disquiet among software developers over the way in which Apple routinely bans certain iPhone apps from its online store for little or no good reason. What's the point in spending time and money developing something when Apple can ban it at a whim?

Then there's the growing chorus of approval for the flexibility and openness of the Android platform and the phones that run it. Such openness equals innovation and customer choice. Just look at the range of handsets already on the market, with dozens more in the wings.

While Apple is still ahead of Android when it comes to market share, the gap is closing. Recent research by advertising company Admob found that, in January, 47 per cent of download requests in the US came from iPhones while 37 per cent came from Android-powered devices. Expect to see those numbers change throughout this year.

So, what has Apple got to lose from its court actions? Nothing really, apart from some legal fees - and if it succeeds, it could put some serious brakes on the growth of Android.

Either way, it's a battle that's going to be very interesting to watch, and one that could influence what smartphone you have in your pocket as you head to work during the next couple of years.

Apple’s lawyers have been getting very hot under their (turtleneck?) collars of late and I put the reason down to one thing – Android.

The big legal news out of Cupertino HQ is that Apple has decided to throw the rule book at rival phone handset maker HTC and see how much of a bruise it can create. Apple has accused the Taiwanese company of stealing its technology and using it to make phones such as the Google Nexus One.

Apparently Apple’s legal eagles have spotted 20 patents that they believe HTC has infringed, and they’re ready to hit the courtroom to prove it.

Meanwhile Google has waded into the growing brawl, backing its hardware partner HTC. It’s all starting to look like the kind of fight that could shape the booming phone market for years to come.

So why has Apple decided to take such action? Well, according to chief executive Steve Jobs, it’s because innovation is fine, but stealing other people’s technology is not.

Now, no one is going to argue against that logic, and a lot of patent lawyers are going to bill hundreds of expensive hours as they try to figure out if that's what’s happened in this case.

But it’s at a much higher level than patent law where the real battle is happening. Apple is scared stiff its iPhone is about to lose significant ground to handsets running the rival Android operating system, and its prepared to do anything it can to fight the trend.

The signs that the iPhone's heyday might soon be over are already appearing.

First there's the growing disquiet among software developers over the way in which Apple routinely bans certain iPhone apps from its online store for little or no good reason. What's the point in spending time and money developing something when Apple can ban it at a whim?

Then there's the growing chorus of approval for the flexibility and openness of the Android platform and the phones that run it. Such openness equals innovation and customer choice. Just look at the range of handsets already on the market, with dozens more in the wings.

While Apple is still ahead of Android when it comes to market share, the gap is closing. Recent research by advertising company Admob found that, in January, 47 per cent of download requests in the US came from iPhones while 37 per cent came from Android-powered devices. Expect to see those numbers change throughout this year.

So, what has Apple got to lose from its court actions? Nothing really, apart from some legal fees - and if it succeeds, it could put some serious brakes on the growth of Android.

Either way, it's a battle that's going to be very interesting to watch, and one that could influence what smartphone you have in your pocket as you head to work during the next couple of years.

Apple’s lawyers have been getting very hot under their (turtleneck?) collars of late and I put the reason down to one thing – Android.

The big legal news out of Cupertino HQ is that Apple has decided to throw the rule book at rival phone handset maker HTC and see how much of a bruise it can create. Apple has accused the Taiwanese company of stealing its technology and using it to make phones such as the Google Nexus One.

Apparently Apple’s legal eagles have spotted 20 patents that they believe HTC has infringed, and they’re ready to hit the courtroom to prove it.

Meanwhile Google has waded into the growing brawl, backing its hardware partner HTC. It’s all starting to look like the kind of fight that could shape the booming phone market for years to come.

So why has Apple decided to take such action? Well, according to chief executive Steve Jobs, it’s because innovation is fine, but stealing other people’s technology is not.

Now, no one is going to argue against that logic, and a lot of patent lawyers are going to bill hundreds of expensive hours as they try to figure out if that's what’s happened in this case.

But it’s at a much higher level than patent law where the real battle is happening. Apple is scared stiff its iPhone is about to lose significant ground to handsets running the rival Android operating system, and its prepared to do anything it can to fight the trend.

The signs that the iPhone's heyday might soon be over are already appearing.

First there's the growing disquiet among software developers over the way in which Apple routinely bans certain iPhone apps from its online store for little or no good reason. What's the point in spending time and money developing something when Apple can ban it at a whim?

Then there's the growing chorus of approval for the flexibility and openness of the Android platform and the phones that run it. Such openness equals innovation and customer choice. Just look at the range of handsets already on the market, with dozens more in the wings.

While Apple is still ahead of Android when it comes to market share, the gap is closing. Recent research by advertising company Admob found that, in January, 47 per cent of download requests in the US came from iPhones while 37 per cent came from Android-powered devices. Expect to see those numbers change throughout this year.

So, what has Apple got to lose from its court actions? Nothing really, apart from some legal fees - and if it succeeds, it could put some serious brakes on the growth of Android.

Either way, it's a battle that's going to be very interesting to watch, and one that could influence what smartphone you have in your pocket as you head to work during the next couple of years.

As someone who's always on the lookout for ways to save money, I was pleased this week to come across a way to potentially shave some dollars off my phone bill - VoIP over 3G.

I've been a user of VoIP (Voice over IP) services for years and have enjoyed the way they've been able to get my fixed-line phone costs down to something that doesn't induce a nose bleed every time a new bill arrives.

I'd also toyed at times with using a VoIP client on my mobile phone, connecting via a WiFi network and avoiding the mobile network altogether. But while this works reasonable well on my home office wireless network, it was often problem plagued out in the real world.

Mobile VoIP quality was often patchy and the log-in requirements needed to access many public WiFi networks meant it was often just easier to make calls in the regular way.

But now the plummeting price of mobile data is changing things all over again. Where once you had to pay around $100 for a gigabyte of data, now the same can be had for around $15. With market competition rising, these costs are likely to fall even further.

So the question becomes, why not use that data for making VoIP calls? According to the chief executive of smartphone applications company Big Tin Can, David Keane, you can squeeze around 500 minutes of voice calls out of 1GB of data allowance. That equates to a call cost of 3 cents per minute - pretty attractive really!

Keane predicts we'll see a flood of calls away from traditional mobile connections and onto mobile data during the next 12 months.

That's not good news for the carriers, but certainly puts a smile on my face!

They live by the mantra 'don't be evil', but I'm starting to think the Google boys are so omnipotent we won't be able to stop them if they change their minds.

Consider what they've been up to recently:

This past week the company flicked the switch on a new social networking tool called Buzz. Similar in concept to Facebook and Twitter, it allows the exchange of information between you and contacts in your Google Gmail account.

While the launch generated a lot of angst among Gmail users concerned about their privacy, Buzz will doubtlessly become a popular service for millions of people.

Then, there was another announcement that Google has plans to roll out a high-speed fibre-optic network in selected US cities that will provide gigabit-per-second connection speeds to the internet. Impressive stuff.

Also, there was the launch of the Nexus One smartphone. Designed by Google and running its Android operating system, it represents the company's first foray into the hardware arena.

Meanwhile they've been trying to digitise every book ever written and make them instantly searchable. They're also offering themselves as an online storage service for our digital lives through an extension to Google Docs.

Naturally, we can't forget the Google Reader service that brings a tailored version of the web to you, as well as Google News that tells you what's happening around the planet.

But the announcement that finally had me wondering whether they might be getting just a little too big involved a decision to allow Google to become an electricity trader.

The decision by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows Google to buy and sell power as if it were a utility.

So, conceivably you'll be able to use Google-sold power to run a PC that's connected to a Google high-speed internet connection.

From there you'll be able to use Google Docs to write a novel that will then be scanned by Google and made available via its search engine.

Then you'll be able to use your Google phone to call your friends (who by then will have Google Voice services) and tell them about it. Suitably excited, they will discuss the book further using Buzz.

Is it just me or is Google getting just a tiny bit scary?