Playdom Chief Executive John Pleasants said in a phone interview that while the company's main goal is to develop its own titles, it will make acquisitions opportunistically. "We have ample cash to do deals on our own," he said.

Social gaming companies are suddenly on investor's radar screens. Earlier this week, Electronic Arts said it would pay $275 million in cash for Playfish, a Playdom rival, along with other consideration that could eventually lift the company's valuation to $400 million. Social gaming companies earn money by selling virtual goods to players.

Pleasants, the former COO of EA, said the Playfish deal was a validation of what his company is doing. "It certainly validates the credibility of the space," he said. "The valuation also was another statement of the value we can create."

Playdom's financing by a group of venture capital firms valued it at $260 million. Industry watchers say Zynga, the largest of the social gaming companies, could raise $1 billion to $1.2 billion in an initial public offering next year, if it decided to go that route.

Playdom, which has more than 28 million monthly active users and says it's profitable, will have around 200 employees following the acquisitions.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster called the China launch a "disappointment." He was expecting something in the range of 30,000 units. "We believe that eventually China will emerge as a major market for iPhone sales but it could take a year or two to gain meaningful unit traction as it did in the U.S.," he wrote in a research note Tuesday.

The iPhone is Apple's biggest growth story, with more than 30 million units sold worldwide since its launch in 2007. China represents a huge market opportunity for Apple, which is starting with about 1,000 places selling the iPhone.

In August, China Unicom signed a three-year non-exclusive deal to sell the iPhone in China, aiming to boost its launch of 3G services. However, some analysts say the handset -- which costs $700 to $1,000 -- will eventually require more subsidies to boost sales.

IPhone sales in the U.S. are heavily subsidized by exclusive carrier AT&T, enabling consumers to get the latest generation device for as little as $199.

So what was the deal with the iPhone? Unit shipments rose 7 percent to 7.4 million units, far from chopped liver but just below the consensus estimate. What? Apple missed? Well it wasn't quite that simple. Seems the company simply couldn't keep up with all the folks clamoring to get their hands on the latest model, the 3G S.

Apple COO TIm Cook called it "a nice problem to have in the scheme of things," and called 3G S demand "phenomenal." He said demand simply outstripped supply in most of the countries where it was selling the device.

"We did improve supply markedly in September, and supply and demand converged in the vast majority of countries, either in September or in early October...we now have about 2.4 million units in the channel and that's an additional 585,000 from the previous quarter end."

When asked whether he was comfortable with that level, given the upcoming China launch, Cook said "I would have liked to have had more, honestly, because we were still short in some countries at quarter end."

Cook was also asked about the wave of new smartphones that are coming onto the market. A new Android device from Verizon and Motorola has recently been taking shots at Apple in new ads.

"Frankly, I think that people are really just trying to catch up with the first iPhone that was announced two years ago, and we've long since moved beyond that," Cook replied.

The growing popularity of smartphones means people are much more comfortable computing via touch -- rather than typing -- and new devices are crowding into the market. Touchscreen computers also allow companies like HP to innovate on the traditional PC paradigm, offering fresh applications and stretching the limits of what a traditional PC can do.

"This is not just a gimmick, you have to make it something that's would be useful for people," said John Cook, vice president of marketing in HP's consumer PC unit.

HP's TouchSmart line was first introduced in 2007, and the company now sells a laptop model along with two all-in-one desktops. The TouchSmart tx2 laptop features a multi-touch screen that can swivel to lie flat. The company's latest desktops, a 20-inch and 23-inch model, will ship in the U.S. with a number of pre-installed apps--another smartphone feature that has migrated to PCs--including Hulu, Netflix and Twitter. Many people using the all-in-ones on the kitchen counter as an entertainment hub of sorts.

HP also unveiled traditional business laptops, the ProBook 6545b and 6445b, that may not be touch, but still offer users innovative features--namely a spill-resistant keyboard with a drain underneath. When liquid goes in, it comes spilling out a hole in the bottom, rather than sloshing around inside for weeks. The new ProBooks also feature HP Power Assistant, an intuitive program that helps a user to better manage power and extend battery life.

Apple became just the latest defection from the business lobbying group. And given that Apple's every move generates buckets of publicity, the action may serve to thrust the climate change issue into greater focus for the buying public.

Last month three big power utilities -- Exelon Corp, PG&E Corp and PNM Resources Inc -- said they were leaving the Chamber over its stance on global warming legislation. Nike last week resigned from the board of the Chamber, which has pushed for public hearings to challenge the scientific evidence of manmade climate change.

Apple made its resignation in a letter to Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue:

"As a company, we are working hard to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions ... We have undertaken this unilaterally and without government mandate, because we believe it is the right thing to do. For those companies who cannot or will not do the same, Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort."

"We would prefer that the Chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis. However, because the Chamber's position differs so sharply with Apple's, we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately."

The iPhone and Mac maker last month unveiled a new method for assessing its environmental impact. It now calculates what it calls its entire carbon footprint-–from design to production to the emissions generated by those who use it products.

The loose ends were tied together Wednesday in a Computerworld blog post.  When asked to confirm whether it had indeed purchased the company, an Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Word of the buy cropped up briefly back in July but failed to attract much notice. But Computerworld noted that the LinkedIn pages for both the founder and the CTO of Placebase now show them as Apple employees.

Placebase, which was said to have generated a few million dollars in revenue, designed a platform called PushPin that allowed users to build maps and customize them by adding layers and other data. It's product was a competitor to services such as Google Maps.

Given all the drama lately between Apple and Google, many in the blogosphere are speculating that Apple wants to use Placebase to supply mapping technology for the iPhone, a move that would supplant Google, which currently provides the technology.

The approach is different from that used by PC rivals HP and Dell. Apple puts its greenhouse gas emissions at 10.2 million metric tons--a total that includes energy used by folks typing away on on their Macs.

In fact, by Apple's calculations a majority of the company's environmental footprint -- 53 percent -- comes from users plugging in Apple devices and using them. An additional 38 percent comes from manufacturing, with 5 percent from transportation.

Given that half its carbon footprint comes from the juice used by its products, Apple is keying on energy efficiency as the main challenge. It touts innovations -- such as a Mac operating system that regulates the machine's processor between keystrokes, reducing power -- that Apple says separates it from Windows-based PCs.

Green has emerged as new area of competition among technology companies, particularly PC makers, and Apple's new approach adds an intriguing component to the rivalry.

Apple's Macintosh Plus

In what may just be a perfect storm of technology geek gadget lust, an auction house in Southern California is preparing to auction off the first Apple Macintosh Plus ever made--a computer that was owned by "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. The event promises to bring together two of the most famously devoted fan bases-- Apple buyers and Trekkies.

Profiles in History, an auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia, will offer the aging Mac at an auction scheduled for Oct. 8-9.  (For those keeping score at home, the device bears the serial number F4200NUM0001.)

The Macintosh Plus was launched in 1986 and featured a whopping 1 megabyte of RAM (today's comparable desktop computers come loaded with a base 1 gigabyte of RAM -- a 1,000 times more). It was the third model in the Mac line and cost $2,600, according to Wikipedia.  The very first Mac Plus to roll off an Apple assembly line was presented to Roddenberry as a gift. He died in 1991.

The auction house said It has an estimated sale price of $800-$1200.

Also on the auction list is Michael Jackson's white glove that he wore on the Victory Tour. One would expect a somewhat higher price for that cultural artifact.

(Photo source: Wikipedia)

Sales during the first two weeks of Snow Leopard's release "far exceed those of the last two Apple operating systems," market research company NPD said. The group tracks U.S. retail sales. Snow Leopard launched Aug. 28, available as an upgrade at an affordable price of $29.

According to NPD, Snow Leopard sales were more than two times higher than those for the initial release of Leopard back in 2007, and almost four times higher than the Tiger OS in 2005.

"Even though some considered Snow Leopard to be less feature-focused than the releases of Leopard or Tiger, the ease of upgrading to Snow Leopard and the affordable pricing made it a win-win for Apple computer owners - thus helping to push sales to record numbers" NPD's Stephen Baker said in a statement.

Apple is the No. 4 PC maker in the U.S., according to research group Gartner, with 8.7 percent of that market.

Arch foe Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system goes on sale October 22. It starts at $119.99.

Motorola, once a cellphone leader producing iconic products, has fallen well behind the competition as the smartphone market continues to sizzle and consumers flock to devices like the iPhone (which, incidentally, goes by the name "iPhone" everywhere it sells).

With so many new smartphones coming to the market, analysts say the key to success is differentiation -- which is often a software issue rather than a hardware one. Motorola hopes its MOTOBLUR software, based on Google's Android platform, will help it carve out a niche.

The company calls the Cliq/Dext "the first phone with social skills." It says MOTOBLUR integrates contacts, emails, texts, postings, photos and the like from sources like Facebook, Twitter and Gmail and makes them easier to manage.

Motorola has put all its eggs in Android's basket, reorganizing its handset unit around the platform, but it faces quite a challenge. Many of its rivals have already integrated social-networking function into their phones.

"Not only do you have to design and build interesting phones and get them into carriers, but also can you make money on it?" said Macquarie Research analyst Phil Cusick. "The smartphone landscape is exploding and there is tons of opportunity here for somebody who can build a great device, but you also have a ton of competition. Not only the traditional smartphone guys like Apple, Palm, and HTC, but LG and Samsung - who are phenomenal executors - getting into the smartphone space as well with Android."