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The battle between Apple and Google is heating up, with execs taking potshots at each other and Silicon Valley insiders choosing sides – some by getting new business cards.

“It’s World War III. Amazing animosity is motivating two of the most powerful people in the industry,” a “well-connected” investor told The New York Times, referring to Apple’s Steve Jobs and Google’s Eric Schmidt. “This is emotional. This is the biggest ego battle in history. It’s incendiary.”

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Microsoft, for its part, is being unusually cordial to its one-time bête noire. First, Steve Ballmer praised Apple’s App Store, and now The Seattle Times reports that Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith recently gave “a nod of support” for Apple’s patent-infringement lawsuit against Android-phone maker HTC.

And then there are the persistent rumors that Apple is in talks with Microsoft to dump Google from its privilged spot as the iPhone’s – and the iPad’s? – default search engine and instead promote Redmond’s Bing into that role.