In a move to fend off competition from the likes of Apple and Motorola, Sunnyvale, Calif., smartphone maker Palm has hired one of the engineers behind the vaunted iPod to work on future products. Paul Mercer, whose start-up Pixo -- since acquired by Sun Microsystems -- helped create the original iPod operating system for Apple, joined Palm in February, according to a Palm spokesperson.

Palm Snags Former Apple Engineer