News to know: Apple-Verizon; Microsoft patches; Rimini vs. Oracle

Microsoft's emergency patch, Rimini vs. Oracle, Apple's iPad, Facebook and code names lead today's themes. You can get the day’s rolling postsvia Twitter,RSS, oremail.

Here are the key themes for Tuesday, March 30, 2010:

Apple taking the iPhone to Verizon Wireless? According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is making a phone for Verizon Wireless. The move will be announced in the summer with mass production coming in September. The iPhone on Verizon Wireless may alter a few upgrade plans.

It's Patch Day---again. Microsoft has an out-of-band patch coming. Why? In the face of an uptick in hacker attacks targeting a zero-day flaw in its Internet Explorer browser. Meanwhile, Apple plugs 88 Mac OS X security holes. Rimini has responded to Oracle's lawsuit over third party support. This lawsuit is worth watching for IT buyers, who would love to have more support and maintenance options. The iPad is coming and Best Buy will play a big distribution role. Apple's iPad will be available at most Best Buy stores and the supplies will be tight. But let's think ahead. Once the supplies catch up to demand, Best Buy may be the most valuable reseller to Apple.

Also see:

Most anticipated smartphones of 2010 (photos) Mary Jo Foley's Codename Tracker is available for download. Registration is required, but it's worth the trip to get the lowdown on Microsoft's various projects. The March version includes a number of new Microsoft research projects, plus other codenames from other business units inside the company. If you’ve been consumed with trying to figure out the meaning of “Eaglestone,” “Miami” and “Rosetta,” your days of anguish are over.

TechCrunch has an interesting post on Elevation Partners---you know those guys that invested in Palm so heavily. Woops. But there's good news for Elevation: Facebook may save its returns.

And happy Passover...from a robot.