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Microsoft is denying reports that it is working on a smartphone for Verizon Wireless to rival the Apple iPhone. “Microsoft is not going into the phone hardware business,” says a spokesman for the software giant. “We’re deepening our relationship with our hardware partners.” (Iwantmedia 4/30, http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217200733 4/29)

Good news, BlackBerry users! Never again will you need to kludge around in your browser just to dig up a number or determine who’s behind the number that just called. Following the success of their iPhone and Android applications, WhitePages will soon be announcing the upcoming availability of a native BlackBerry application. (http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/04/30/whitepages-bringing-their-mobile-app-to-blackberry-devices/ 4/30)

Yesterday, Techcrunch talked a bit about how some companies are clearly trying to capitalize on the Swine Flu craze that is sweeping the nation. Naturally, someone just had to make an iPhone app.  And the winner is IntuApps, which has Swine Flu Tracker, waiting for approval from Apple before it’s released into the App Store. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/want-to-avoid-swine-flu-theres-an-app-for-that-too/ 4/30)

We’ve reported in the past on how Apple has not only been late on payments to iPhone app developers, but has also neglected to pay some developers for their app sales at the store entirely. We thought that perhaps our post might call Apple’s attention to the problem. Apparently, developers complaints have gone unheard at Apple and now they are so upset that some of them are threatening to sue Apple for breach of contract. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/iphone-app-developers-threaten-to-sue-apple-over-late-payments/ 4/30)

Acer hopes to bring a smartphone to market this year, one of several devices the computer maker is building using Google’s Android open-source operating system, CEO Gianfranco Lanci said Wednesday. Lanci added that it was “too early to say” if Acer would install Android in a netbook, although he did term the software “very, very good for communication and Web access and so on.” PCWorld/IDG News Service (4/29)