Google has successfully wooed Apple’s Simon Prakash come work for it, marking the highest level Apple employee to leave to work for Google yet. Prakash was Apple senior director for project integrity and at this point, it’s not clear exactly what he will be doing for Google.

If you ever wondered what hard-core Android geek would think if he had to switch from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the iPhone 4S SlashGear/Android Community’s Chris Burns is doing just that. Check out what he thinks about the move here.

I would assume that Apple and Android will have their own ratings system. Apple already puts apps into categories and if the app is too mature in theme, it simply won’t allow the app on the site. In other news, the sales ban that Apple has had on Samsung tablets in Australia has come to an end.

The sales injunction in Australia has been overthrown in appeal. The court went so far to call the original sales ban “clearly wrong.” I wonder if Samsung will sue Apple for lost sales at this point.

AT&T has said that the iPhone was the most popular smartphone on its network in Q3. However, Android made the biggest growth on the network.

Sources inside Samsung are claiming that the company shipped 20 million smartphones in Q3 putting it ahead of Apple. Apple has already said rumors of the iPhone 4 hurt sales of the iPhone 4.

HTC has purchased S3 Graphics from VIA and its partner. The interesting part is that Apple was recently found to be infringing on patents held by S3 meaning HTC has some leverage over Apple once the deal is done.

ComScore has reported that Android is still tops in mobile market share. However, the iPhone is still growing. Google has 38.1% of the smartphone market and apple has 26.6%.

Starbucks has launched its official iPhone mobile payments app. The app lets users buy coffee in the store by scanning a bar code on the iPhone screen at checkout.

Verizon is offering customers that bought a new device on the network from late November 2010 to early January 2011 a $200 rebate if they upgrade to an iPhone 4. The catch is that the people will have to return their existing phones, pay full retail for the iPhone 4, and get the $200 back on a Visa gift card.

If you found yourself still asleep when you should have been up over the weekend, you can blame the clock on your iPhone. The issue was only for non-repeating alarms apparently so if you have an alarm set to repeat I guess you were fine.

CBS News reckons that the iPhone Os is going to be just like the Mac Os in the years to come. CBS thinks with Apple not licensing the OS to other handset builders the iPhone will drown in sea of Android devices as Mac OS did in the Windows world. It’s hard to argue with the sales of the iPhone though.

According to the latest survey from Nielsen that looked at the smartphone market, the iPhone and Android devices are tied for most desirable. The iPhone and Blackberry devices are in a statistical tie for OS share as well.

According to a new report from StatCounter Blackberry users are consuming more data than iPhone and Android users. That blows a hole in some of the reasoning for AT&T’s network woes.

Apple’s Steve Wozniak has stated that he believes Android will eventually win the smartphone OS wars. He says the iPhone is great, but Android quality is improving and offers more choices to more people.

Apple has debuted its iAd advertising network in Europe. The first companies to use the network are LG, Nespresso, and several others.

I mentioned this week that scalpers in China were the only way to get an iPhone 4 for most shoppers. The flagship Beijing Apple store has been forced to close due to scalpers that purchased all of the devices. There were no limits set on how many iPhones people could buy and some took as many as 30 phones out of the store.

New market research from ChangeWave has surfaced that shows the popularity of the iPhone fell in September. At the time when the iPhone popularity slipped, Android popularity grew according to the research.

JP Morgan is currently using the Blackberry as its mobile smartphone for workers, but the Blackberry is losing some of its appeal. Reports claim that JP Morgan is testing the use of the iPhone and Android to replace the Blackberry for its workers.

A rumor has surfaced that Apple is getting Face Time apps ready for Mac and PCs. That would presumably mean that iPhone users could have Face Time chats with computer users in addition to other iPhone 4 users.

ZDNet reports that Android is starting to overtake the iPhone in market share. Android phones reportedly sold faster than the iPhone in Q2 2010. The big problem for the iPhone continues to be that it is tied to AT&T.

Regulators in Korea have approved the iPhone 4 for sale within the country. The exclusive provider within the country will be KT Corp and the company has stated it could be two months before the iPhone 4 is available for customers to buy.

I mentioned that the documents pertaining to the reason the warrant to search the Gizmodo editor’s home over the iPhone 4G prototype was being secreted away by the judge in the case. The judge has now denied a request to turn the search warrant documents over to media outlets.

Many have been expecting the iPhone to land on Verizon this year. One analyst has now decided that the iPhone will stay locked to AT&T because he figures the cheap data plans for the iPad 3G would have come with an extension on iPhone exclusivity.

PCMag reports that the police now know who it was that found the iPhone HD prototype that was later sold to Gizmodo. However, the police don’t know if the person who found the device is the one who sold it.

AdMob has reported that devices running Android have beat the iPhone OS in mobile traffic numbers. It still amazes me that with one official carrier and one device (or three if you count old models) the iPhone generates the kind of traffic it does.

A jailbroken iPhone has been hacked to run Android. The Android OS is said to run slowly, but it works for SMS, voice, and web surfing.

Reports are coming in that claim the sources have told Daring Fireball’s John Gruber that the iPhone Gizmodo bought is “very similar” to the read deal. I still want to know if that engineer that lost the thing was canned or not.

At the beginning of the week, we found out that the home activation available for the first-generation iPhone would be reinstated, at least in part, for iPhone 3G purchases. And then, we got the details of the new purchasing system Apple has put in place so you can buy the iPhone 3G from your home, input all of your information and simply go to your local Apple retail store to pick it up and have it activated.

We also learned that the iPhone 3G could reach sales of 5 million in Q4, which is exciting news. And an unlocked version of the phone is now available in Hong Kong, though at a significantly higher price than if purchased through a carrier. To continue Apple’s plan for rolling out the iPhone 3G across the world, Russia will be getting the device on October 3rd.

iPhone Firmware version 2.2 entered Beta 1 for developers only this week and while details were a bit sketchy at first, we eventually learned that MobileSafari would be getting a bit of a facelift. App Store rejections letters are also apparently under the NDA developers sign to upload their apps to the store. Whether this was also a stipulation or a recent addendum in response to the frequent posting of these letters on online forums is unknown.

And last but not least we had a comparison of the iPhone 3G and the recently announced T-Mobile G1. Even though I would have loved to pick a clear cut winner, I found the playing field uneven, especially when you consider that Apple is bringing their own hardware and software to the table and the T-Mobile G1 features hardware and software from different makers.