Tech giant Apple (AAPL) finds itself face to face with the $300 level as we approach the opening bell Wednesday. [UPDATE: Apple opened at $300.20.] Tuesday, the tech titan finished trading at $298.54 after hitting an intraday high of $299.50. I don't want to seem as if I am trivializing a major stock milestone, but $300 should fall by the wayside rather quickly -- especially with the help of its 20-month moving average (as can be seen on this chart).

Along with potential technical support, there is plenty of news from Apple. First the company is in talks with two Indian telecom operators about launching a CDMA (code division multiple access) iPhone in India. Reportedly, Apple is in discussions with Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices about bringing a CDMA iPhone to India. A CDMA-based iPhone is what Apple will allow Verizon Wireless (VZ) to sell early next year in the United States.

It seems excitement about Apple's (AAPL) iPhone is truly global, as demand for iPhone 4 handsets has outstripped supply, according to China Unicom (CHU). Sales of the popular smartphone, which launched in China Saturday, came at a faster pace than sales of previous versions.

More than 1,000 people waited, some for two days, outside the new Apple Store that opened in Xidan Joy City shopping mall on Saturday to get their hands on the new toy.

It's a forgone conclusion that Apple (AAPL) has been the savior of AT&T (T) for the past few years. Little did any of the wireless companies know that Apple's various iPhone models would change the face of the wireless phone industry and sell millions and millions.

And the thing just turned three years old. Is there pent-up demand, though, to use the iPhone on different networks than AT&T (at least, in the U.S.)?

Appple (AAPL) has never been worth more than rival Microsoft (MSFT). Although the brand equity in Apple is at an all-time high and it can't make its newer products fast enough, Microsoft's continuing bankroll every quarter from software licensing has trumped just about every other computer company (hardware and software) for years. Microsoft's consumer electronics products (except for maybe the Xbox 360) have never had the cache or consumer love factor as Apple's products. And, it finally happened: Apple's market cap bypassed Microsoft's this week.

It seems like the consumer electronics sector is intensely focused on Apple's (AAPL) impending fourth-generation iPhone release that is sure to come out of next month's Apple developer conference. There is only one problem: the unannounced iPhone has already been exposed to the world for quite a while now.

Will Apple see financial harm from what may be the biggest product leak in its history?

Last year, Twitter said it had two goals for 2010: generate revenue and make acquisitions. At the time, the company was still sitting on a significant portion of its last round of capital, and given the $20 million annual burn rate revealed late last year -- plus the revenue it's generating -- it's unlikely that Twitter has had to deplete its coffers. So, Twitter has cash to put to work, and now we're seeing what that means.

On its blog, Twitter announced Friday that it has entered into an agreement with Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, which is one of the top Twitter clients for the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. In addition to acquiring the application, Twitter is also picking up talent. Brichter's efforts were good for a 2009 Apple Design Award, and he'll be part of future efforts to get Twitter for the iPad off the ground.

The PC must be so boring right now. Almost all the noise from high-tech leaders Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) centers around the burgeoning fight the two have in the mobile handset space. Add Apple's (AAPL) iPhone dominance into the picture and mobile is quickly becoming the next battleground for ad-related search revenue, now that Google has effectively won the market for ad-based search revenue on the PC.

Even though the consumer electronics industry wants to have some company -- any company deliver an Apple (AAPL) iPhone killer, that company won't be Google (GOOG). Google, on the other hand, has become Apple's Microsoft (MSFT) from the late 1980s. What's that, you say?

Microsoft took the personal computer market by storm by not tightly controlling every piece of hardware and software that was used with its now-ubiquitous Windows operating system. Apple, on the other hard, guaranteed a solid user experience by tying its excellently-designed hardware with only its own operating system software. It's been said that Microsoft, more than any other company, enabled the PC era by not controlling the hardware it's software rode on top of. Google has the same goal in the mobile space, which is where the future of consumer computing is headed.

McDonald's (MCD) isn't the only company tapping into the "billions" game. In a bit of chest-thumping while Google (GOOG) announced its new cell phone, Apple (AAPL) let the world know that iPhone and iPod Touch users have pulled down 3 billion applications from the company's App Store since its launch a year and a half ago.

Steve Jobs, the company CEO, said, "This is like nothing we've ever seen before." He didn't reveal how many of these apps were free -- and whether billions and billions of downloads translate to billions and billions of dollars.

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone has reinvigorated the wireless handset industry. It was there first (in many ways) and it will be hard for any company without virtually unlimited resources to wrestle the golden crown from Apple. First movers generally don't relinquish their titles.

With Google (GOOG) set to announce the "Nexus One" handset tomorrow based on its own Android mobile operating system, does it want a piece of Apple's action? Is that its goal?

This little gem was perpetuated by tech guru and investor Roger McNamee. Of course, he is a member of the Palm (PALM) board of directors, and his firm is an investor in the company.

Did I mention that PALM shot up after his comment, before the mediocre and overpriced Pre hit the market? The company then issued shares a few days later? You and I would go to jail for doing this.

Palm Inc. (PALM) seemed like a company with a solid comeback plan last summer. After more than a year of downward spiraling, the company was on the verge of releasing its hottest product probably ever, the Palm Pre. This was supposed to be the wireless handset that would finally challenge the Apple (AAPL) iPhone with it's slick user interface and svelte design.

Sales of the Pre in recent quarters were indeed decent, although Palm's decision to choose Sprint Nextel (S) as its exclusive launch partner may have dampened things a bit. Although Sprint's network, at this time, fares way better than AT&T's (T) network that is constantly being made fun of, the Pre still didn't slow down iPhone purchases.

In just over 30 months, Apple's (AAPL) iPhone has taken over Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system in terms of smartphone market share in the U.S. -- this from metric firm comScore's latest measurement of operating systems actually in use by customers by sampling techniques, not overall device shipments or sales by wireless carriers.

Windows Mobile, which has been around for the better part of a decade in some form but has stagnated horribly in recent years as the competition has blown past it, will continue to falter with the Windows Mobile 7 operating system pegged for next year or should get out of the space entirely and cede to Apple, Google's (GOOG) Android devices and RIM's (RIMM) BlackBerry market -- which currently has the largest market share for smartphones in the U.S.

When Google (GOOG) released its Nexus One concept phone last weekend to some of its employees, the blogosphere and industry pundits went on a feeding frenzy: Would Google try and release its own wireless phone and compete directly with its existing carrier customers? Could a Google Phone give Google even more power of the information that controls our daily lives? Amol Sarva, founder of the Peek device that resembles a smartphone but only does email, chimed in on the Google Phone, which Google has coined the "Nexus One."

Sarva called Google's offering "every bit as good a piece of hardware as the Droid or the iPhone." To many, those are fighting words. Apple's (AAPL) phenomenal success with the entire iPhone ecosystem (iTunes and App Store) won't ever be matched, but Google has the best chance of anyone to get close. Indeed, the Google "Android Market," which offers applications for all the various Android-powered handsets, now has 20,000 programs available for download in just over a year. Apple had 50,000 in its first year.