IT Buoy

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said he expects Apple’s iPhone to be an important part of its line-up for “quite some time” despite speculation that the company could lose its exclusive deal to carry the phone in the U.S. in coming months. Associated Press Mr. Stephenson, speaking at a conference Tuesday, didn’t specify whether AT&T would remain the exclusive U.S. carrier. One of the issues AT&T faces is the large amount of wireless traffic the iPhone generates. Mr.

With the announcement that Apple is suing HTC , the maker of Google’s Nexus One, Digits takes a look at some of the more important — or just quirky — legal actions that have involved Apple recently. Associated Press The Nokia Saga: For much of 2009, Nokia and Apple have been feuding over phone patents. In October, Nokia sued , saying the iPhone infringed on 10 of its patents. In December , Apple one-upped Nokia (well, three-upped Nokia) by alleging that the company had infringed on 13 Apple patents. Nokia responded by filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that “Apple infringes Nokia patents in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players and computers.” Kodak: The ITC is investigating allegations by Kodak against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion that center on phones with built-in digital cameras. A timeline for the investigation is expected this spring. ‘Knock-Off’ Power Adapters: Media Solutions Holdings, a maker of adapters that can be used with Macs, was sued by Apple in November over its products, which Apple says violate patents that describe the specific look of its power adapters

All of you folks who have been around a while will enjoy the delicious irony in this.

As Palm’s stock tumbles, a new report by mobile advertising firm AdMob sheds some light on the phone company’s troubles. AdMob The report details a survey conducted this month of how people use mobile applications and shows that 69% of people who use phones with Palm’s webOS would be likely to recommend their device to a friend or colleague, compared with 91% of iPhone users and 84% of Android users. WebOS users were also less likely to download apps to their phone, averaging 5.7 downloads per month compared with 8.8 for the iPhone and 8.7 for Android. Palm stocks fell Thursday after the company said its revenue for the fiscal year will be “well below” what it had hoped, because of weak sales of its new Pre and Pixi phones. The Journal described the news as a “blow to one of the company’s last chances to show it can compete in the brutal market it helped pioneer.” Palm’s phones have been well reviewed but have not caught on with consumers. AdMob, which is being bought by Google, also regularly gives data on the number of ad hits it gets from different devices. Its report showed that 1.7% of these ad requests in January of this year came from Palm phones, compared with 43.8% from Apple, 14.7% from Samsung and 14.4% from Motorola.

Tech Today gathers all the biggest technology news of the morning’s Wall Street Journal into one place for your reading pleasure. The Unused Cellphone App: ‘Calling’: We follow a group of Harvard students and glimpse into the future of consumer technology. Hint: They call themselves Rover because they’re plugged in while on-the-go. EU Opens Google Antitrust Probe: European antitrust authorities have opened a preliminary inquiry into complaints made against Google by three European Internet companies, including a Microsoft subsidiary. Xerox Sues Yahoo, Google for Patent Infringement: Xerox is suing Yahoo, Google and Google’s YouTube video site for alleged infringement of its patents on Internet search and e-commerce technology. Intel Says It Was Target of Attack: Intel said it was hit by a “sophisticated” cyber attack in January, though it doesn’t know if there is a connection to the incident reported by Google. Get Your Storage Out of the Cloud: The Pogoplug is a $129 solution that lets people back up their digital files and access them via a Web browser, or mobile devices.