Apple has been given a failing grade by Climate Counts, and was placed at the bottom of a list of 12 electronics companies also ranked by the organization. Climate Counts ranks companies on their practices to reduce global warming on a scale of zero to 100, and Apple was given a score of 11, some 66 points behind sector leader IBM, which scored a 77.

There are some games that play well when you are alone, and there are some that beg for another player before any fun can be had. EA Mobile's "Scrabble" nicely falls into the former category, while its version of "Yahtzee" for the iPod is smack in the middle of the latter. In "Yahtzee," you roll five dice up to three times and attempt to match one of 13 scoring categories.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have suggested building a supercomputer based on low-power embedded microprocessors to improve global climate change predictions. Using the embedded microprocessor technology used in mobile phones, iPods and other consumer electronic devices, the boffins propose a cost-effective machine for running complex computational models.

Three interesting topics were kicked around in Apple-minded blogs this week. Entirely unsurprisingly, survey results show that Apple tech support kicks butt in the PC industry at large. Also, AT&T is forbidding vacation time to hapless iPhone salespeople, and it appears Macs have gotten a foot in the door at work.

Microsoft's Zune and NBC's downloadable television shows stand at the center of the latest digital rights management dustup. On Wednesday, New York Times blogger Saul Hansell reported that Microsoft might build a copyright manager into every Zune player, ostensibly in response to an NBC demand for copyright protections of its downloadable content.

In another step in the worldwide march of Apple's iPhone, the top mobile phone operator in Latin America said Wednesday that it has inked a deal to bring the multimedia gadget to more than a dozen countries starting later this year. America Movil said it plans to bring the iPhone to all of its Latin American operations but didn't offer more details about the arrangement.

Shares of Synchronoss Technologies plummeted Wednesday morning after the company offered worrying guidance on its revenue related to Apple's iPhone. The stock fell $9.84, or 43 percent, to $13.06 in morning trading. The stock earlier hit a 52-week low of $12.72, far below a previous bottom of $15.15 set in early March.

One drawback to our portable-music revolution is space. At some point, even with a 160 gigabyte iPod, you run out. So, if you listen to a lot of music through headphones, as I do, there are times when you want fresh tunes. Now there's a new approach -- one I find appealing because it is customized to your musical tastes, and songs can be constantly refreshed.

From their hole-in-the-wall office in Doral, Fla., brothers Rudy and Robert Pedraza are waging war on Silicon Valley. The 24- and 22-year-old computer whiz kids are undercutting Apple by building "clone" computers with Mac software and selling them for less money than the tech behemoth. The daring move has sent shock waves through the techie world.

Microsoft's challenger in the digital media player market, the Zune, received a major update Tuesday. New features will bring a host of TV shows and other changes to the Zune online store and its music-sharing community, Zune Social, according to Microsoft. The update will give depth to the Zune's video offerings and also deepen the social components of its music sharing community.

Based on 10,099 notebook and desktop computer owners who contacted customer support between January 2006 and January 2006, Consumer Reports found Apple to be No. 1 in technical support. Lenovo came in second for notebook computers, and Dell was second for desktops.

Apple shares rose modestly Monday after an American Technology Research analyst raised his rating to "Buy" and an RBC Capital Markets analyst increased his price target for the computer and gadget maker's stock. Apple shares rose $3.57 to $184.51. Earlier, the shares traded as high as $185.31 -- their highest since early January.

Bioengineering professor Boris Rubinsky has what he hopes is the perfect antidote to bulky, expensive, hard-to-use medical machines: the mobile phone. The University of California professor says that by reducing a complex electromagnetic imaging machine to a portable electromagnetic scanner, he has essentially replicated a $10,000 piece of equipment for just hundreds of dollars.

I'm writing this from the Microsoft Management Summit at Interop with 5,000 of my closest friends in Las Vegas, and I'm still thinking about the book I brought up recently, titled Inside Steve's Brain. The result is, I think I've had an epiphany -- and no, I didn't call a doctor.

As the tech world gets ready for a new version of the iPhone this summer, the rumor mill is in full swing with a list of reported new features and programs that Apple -- if not secretly seeding -- has to be delighted about. It's like last year all over again, when the iPhone release was so hyped that lines across the country formed 24 hours in advance of its debut.

Despite myriad indications to the contrary, Psystar does appear to be an actual company offering a real -- but perhaps not entirely legal -- product. Psystar, of course, is the company that burst onto the national scene with news that it was offering a Mac clone, dubbed the "Open Computer," capable of running the Macintosh OS X Leopard operating system.

It's been a busy week for hot topics in the Apple world. Bloggers have been debating the likelihood of AT&T offering a $200 price break on the iPhone, bickering over whether the first shipping Psystar "Hackintosh" is a good deal, nodding at speed-bumped iMacs, and sharing the joy for Canadians who will finally -- sometime this year -- get official iPhones.

eBay's strange legal dispute with Craigslist just got weirder. The auction giant has disclosed the details of its lawsuit against the king of online classifieds, and here's what the dispute boils down to: eBay took a stake in Craigslist, agreeing to certain conditions regarding competitive behavior.

In a move that will surely please iTunes-using movie lovers, the Apple iTunes store has announced it will make movies available for download on the same day they are released on DVD. Previously, users had to wait 30 days to find a title on iTunes -- presumably a Hollywood studio requirement designed to give DVDs a chance to sell and to protect the traditional -- and lucrative -- DVD market.

While Apple's Time Machine and Time Capsule present a made-for-Mac backup solution designed and built by the company itself, it lacks one critical feature -- offsite backups. If a home is robbed, flooded or, worse yet, burned, some of a computer's most precious data can be lost with it. While the family budget is important enough, the real gold is family photos and movies that can never be recreated.

Status symbols in Russia never stay the same for very long. During the Soviet era, the holy grail was a pair of blue jeans. When runaway capitalism took hold in the post-Soviet 1990s, a BMW served as ample proof to fellow Muscovites that you had rocketed out of the days of government-decreed uniformity like a cosmonaut.

First eight-track players slid off into history. Then that unruly stack of cassette tapes disappeared from glove compartments. Now, car-stereo makers are marketing units that threaten to boot compact discs into the auto audio graveyard. Last Wednesday, Blaupunkt announced it's shipping a second-generation, $160 stereo and AM/FM radio that ditches the CD player in favor of ports for other digital music technologies.

All the Canadians who've held off driving down to America to buy a bootleg iPhone can rest assured that their wait is nearly over. Rogers Communications, Canada's leading wireless carrier, will bring the popular Apple device to the land up north later this year. Announced in conjunction with the release of Rogers' first quarter results Tuesday, the details are sparse.

iPod, therefore ... I run? A corny statement, for sure, but in the world of runners there is a culture clash surrounding this notion, between those who opt to run with their portable music players and those who prefer to be completely unplugged. iPods and other portable music players were initially banned for last weekend's Big Sur International Marathon in California.

The Apple- and Mac-focused blog world is all over the map this week, but three stories stand out: How much money Apple is making, what it's spending that money on, and what's going on in Italy. With a whopping 51 percent increase in Mac sales, Apple released its financial results for the second quarter fiscal year quarter in 2008. However, just before that, news broke of its purchase of semiconductor company P.A. Semi.

Soon after launching the set-top box known as "Apple TV" last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously downgraded it from a major new business line to a "hobby." Jobs and company recently tinkered with the device, making it a whole lot more compelling. But the company has more work to do before Apple TV's a bona-fide hit.

AT&T's wireless business unit was the main driver behind the telecom's eye-popping 22 percent increase in net income this past quarter. In line with analysts' expectations, AT&T registered $3.5 billion, or 57 cents a share, in Q1 earnings. An aggregate $1.2 billion of one-time costs shaved 17 cents a share from profits.

The Internet is a mirror of society -- both the good and bad. Children taking their first steps on the World Wide Web need protection from its ugliest side -- elements like violence, racism, and con games. Yet before you head to the store looking for software to help them in this quest, you should check out the computer's own integrated controls first.

The new Adobe Media Player 1.0 is a good first step into territory the company hadn't before ventured. Yet it's clearly a 1.0 version that needs some tender loving care to bring it up to 1.5 or 2.0. I don't say this lightly -- I started the free download process from Adobe with high hopes that I'd find a media player that fills in the gaps left by the likes of iTunes and Hulu.

While testing Ion Audio's new LP Dock -- a USB turntable and iPod dock -- I was quickly reminded why I hated LPs so much back in the day. Yes, the tactile feeling of holding a big record and album-cover art is cool. Yes, the analog sound might be "warmer" than today's digital ditties. And, well, blah, blah, blah. LPs are simply a pain.

The Jensen Banshee JiSS-550 Docking Speaker Station for iPod sports several desirable features and sounds better than most iPod speaker systems in its price range. It's a two-piece system with the iPod dock in a separate cup. While its specifications aren't spectacular, its 25 watt amplifier and five small speakers provide surprisingly rich and satisfying sound at most frequencies.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been meeting with vendors all over the country that range from those that build PCs to those that build tools and parts, to those that build back-end solutions. One common message has come through. They all are targeting Apple as the company whose performance they most want to beat.

Macolytes around the world were buzzing this week with news that an online hardware vendor called "Psystar.com" is selling a US$555 PC called the "Open Computer" that runs the Macintosh OS X Leopard operating system. In fact, for about the same price, you can buy the machine with Windows or Leopard installed -- or buy it for $400 with the open source Linux operating system.

Long ago and far away -- about 1982 or 1983 -- there was a database called "Nutshell" which used the simple metaphor of index cards to let you store and use information. I remember Nutshell fondly even if it and the MS-DOS platform that supported it are only fit for computer museums. A Macintosh version of Nutshell evolved into the successful software program FileMaker.

By far the biggest news this week has been the return of the Mac clones, courtesy of a tiny company in Florida doing business under the name "Psystar." While Psystar has sparked the imaginations -- and disdain -- of Mac lovers by offering a $399 PC capable of running Mac OS X, it hasn't been the only blog-worthy topic.

On any given Monday, a half a million new startups come into the world -- tiny, brand-new companies, sometimes operating out of a garage. Most of them have about as much funding as the CEO/CFO/janitor can ring up on the MasterCard. A few will grow into successful enterprises -- most will die within a year.

Apple issued four security updates Thursday for its Web browser Safari, one of which patches the highly publicized -- yet secret -- hole that let security expert Charlie Miller burrow his way into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference last month. The vulnerability was immediately disclosed to Apple from the conference, but today is the first time it's been widely identified.

Apple shares rose Wednesday as a Piper Jaffray analyst predicted promotional iPhone price cuts in the United Kingdom and Germany will pave the way for the release of a new iPhone model with 3G technology in June. Apple shares rose $4.69, or 3.2 percent, to $153.07. In the past year, the stock has traded between $89.60 and $202.96.

Sales of personal computers continued their growth trends in the first quarter despite the U.S. economic slowdown, according to studies released simultaneously by Gartner and IDC. Notebook sales are driving the PC market worldwide, according to the reports, and there are sharper PC sales in developing markets, such as India and the Asia-Pacific region, than in the U.S.

Here's why I can't have nice things: Sometimes I like to tinker, and when I do, I can't stop swimming out of my depth. Nothing in my home is safe from a screwdriver, or worse. Not my car, not the thermostat, not the guitar amp, nothing. My "nice" PC has seen its fair share of registry edits to the operating system -- don't even ask about the test mule.