Apple came out swinging Tuesday against smartphone maker HTC, filing a federal lawsuit and a complaint with the International Trade Commission, both alleging that HTC's phones violated numerous Apple patents. Some believe the suits are the beginning of a protracted legal battle against Google's Android OS, and analysis of the patents in question suggest Apple's two-pronged approach may be successful, though HTC says it's ready to fight back with its own patents and with Google in its corner.

The best analysis we have seen of the patents themselves comes from Engadget's Nilay Patel who, in a previous life, was an IP attorney. Patel notes that the older patents are more directly related to operating systems and only one could be said to apply to HTC's Windows Mobile devices while the rest are directed at Android. The patents referenced in the federal lawsuit are newer and have yet to be tested in court. Still, Patel believes that at least some of the claims of the various patents seem legitimate on the surface.

Viacom is unlikely to sue bloggers for posting their own clips of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, contrary to reports floating around on the Internet. The company clarified its position to Ars on Thursday, noting that it tries to be as permissive as possible when it comes to fair use and that individual bloggers have never been on the studio's radar.

The confusion began when the Hollywood Reporter ran a story on Wednesday titled "Viacom will sue bloggers who post unauthorized 'Daily Show' clips," quoting Viacom spokesperson Tony Fox. "Yes, we intend to do so," Fox was quoted saying. "My feeling is if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that is a problem."

We reached out to Viacom's VP of PR Jeremy Zweig to confirm whether this position was true. After all, as numerous parties have pointed out, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report make liberal use of clips from other networks that undoubtedly fall under fair use, and it seemed as if Viacom was willing to go after the little guy in order to ensure that no one got a single penny of revenue except for Viacom. This, however, was not the case.

Pink, the long rumored Microsoft-branded (but not Microsoft-manufactured) phone(s) that features premium mobile services (think Zune) and has also been referred to as Zune phone, is all but officially confirmed now, thanks to leaked third-party marketing materials obtained by Gizmodo. Microsoft did not announce anything regarding the device when it showed off Windows Phone 7 Series, but these documents lay out a promotional plan for Pink in detail, and while they don't talk about specs or software details, they do shed some light on the upcoming mobile phone.

Just as rumored in September 2009, Pink will arrive on Verizon. Furthermore, Verizon is a launch partner for Pink (a joint Microsoft/Verizon launch is possible), and while exclusivity is likely, another carrier isn't completely out of the question. Previous rumors talked about a codenamed Turtle and a codenamed Pure, but only the former is mentioned in the documents. Turtle (pictured above), is reportedly "squircle" in shape, and includes a microphone at the bottom of its slide-out keyboard, which is meant to be open when being used as a phone. Last but not least, social networking will play a big part on the phone, just as with Windows Phone 7 Series.

Remember the analyst who said earlier this year that a Zune Phone was coming soon? She predicted it would arrive this month, would have 720p HD video capabilities, at least a 5MP camera, and that it would run Windows Mobile 7.0. She also claimed that the next version of Microsoft's mobile OS would include premium mobile services, including a Zune video store and music subscription and purchasing services, an interface similar to the Zune HD UI, and could include social networking apps like Xbox Live, Facebook, and Twitter. She got the details about Windows Mobile 7.0 pretty darn close, so now let's see if she gets the Pink parts correct.

Gizmodo, however, says that it doesn't look like it has Windows Mobile 7.0 on it for two reasons: the interface looks different and Turtle doesn't look like it has the minimum hardware requirements to be part of the Windows Phone 7 Series. We're not so quick to rule out Windows Mobile 7.0 as Pink's mobile OS. Firstly, we've heard before that Pink would be built on top of Windows Mobile 7.0. Secondly, we still don't know the specs for the third chassis, so it's entirely possible that Turtle has those requirements and can still be under the Windows Phone 7 Series branding. It would be a huge shame—not to mention very stupid—if Microsoft decided its own phone wasn't a Windows Phone 7 device.

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The Call of Duty franchise is in turmoil. The founders of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, have been forced out of the developer they turned into a success. Activision has announced major changes in how the game is developed, and is hinting at changes in how it's sold. The latest news? West and Zampella are suing Activision for control of the Call of Duty name.

When you're programming for the iPhone, time plays an important role. The core NSDate class could be refined a little in how it approaches many common tasks. Did two time events happen within the same hour? Does a given date represent a time today, or yesterday? Ars looks at this problem by building out a set of classes inspired by work done on the by iPhone Developer Bryce Wolfson. Here, we build these ideas out, starting from scratch and pushing the concept even further, to provide a handy set of date methods and properties that you can use in your own application

The folks behind the scenes at MacHeist are , this time with a promotion they call the nanoBundle 2. The software bundle includes five Mac apps for $19.95 with the possibility of two more being unlocked if certain sales figures are met. The retail value of all the applications, including the two that are currently locked, is over $260. Once again, the team is giving a portion (25 percent) of all sales to a charity of your choice. You can choose from a list of 11 at checkout.

The bundle is what we have come to expect from the folks at MacHeist: a couple apps you may never use, one or two that you will use once, and two or three that may find their way into your everyday workflow. Included this time around are , , , , and .  will be unlocked when 50,000 bundles are ordered, and will be unlocked at an undisclosed number of sales (which will be revealed after ToMI is unlocked). Each one of the included applications retail for more than the $19.95 asking price for the bundle.

I don't have any firsthand experience with any of these applications, but I can say that at least one current and one one former colleague here at Ars swear by MacJournal for all of their writing needs. CoverScout seems like a useful utility that fills album artwork gaps in your iTunes library and, if you have been looking for an FTP client, it may be worth at least checking out Flow.

If you are worried about the unlockable applications, we should note that, in the history of MacHeist, the entire bundle has always been unlocked regardless of sales figures. The bundle will be on sale through March 9.