Microsoft And Apple Actually Don't Loathe Each Other, And Here Are Examples Of Them Working Together (AAPL, MSFT)

Microsoft and Apple have an interesting history that goes back to the early days of personal computing. 

At times, Microsoft and Apple have fought like parents at a Little League game, squabbling over who copied whose tech.

On other occasions—usually behind the scenes—they've worked together on tech projects with mutual benefits. 

Microsoft is still smarting from Apple's devilishly effective "Get A Mac" campaign with John Hodgman and Justin Long. 

But these days, there are signs that Microsoft and Apple are working closely to take on their mutual enemy, Google. 

Here's a look at the twists and turns of this love/hate relationship.  

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2013: iPhone app running on Windows Azure

At Microsoft's Build developer conference this week, Microsoft used a Mac for an onstage demo of how Windows Azure cloud services being added to an iOS app. 

Remember, Microsoft is company that pioneered the idea of using its own products, a concept known as "dogfooding." CEO Steve Ballmer is no big fan of Microsoft employees using Apple products, either. 

So this was a big deal. And it shows how Microsoft is more open to working with other vendors, including Apple. 

Box CEO Aaron Levie, who joined Microsoft Server and Tools chief Satya Nadella onstage, joked that Bill Gates was going to descend from the rafters to take away the Mac, as reported by ReadWrite's Owen Thomas. 

2013: Bing integration in iOS

Microsoft and Apple were talking about making Bing the default search engine on the iPhone back in 2010, according to Businessweek. 

Earlier this month at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple made Microsoft Bing the default search engine for Siri in iOS 7.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services made the announcement, the audience of developers gasped audibly in disbelief. 

In a blog post, Derrick Connell, Microsoft's VP of Bing, said the deal was "an exciting new chapter in Bing's collaboration with Apple."

Apple did this because of its intensifying animosity towards Google, but still, this sort of partnership would have seemed extremely unlikely five years ago. 

2012: Microsoft and Apple team up to buy Kodak's patents to keep Google from getting them

Microsoft and Apple both feel like Android is ripping them off. Microsoft thinks Android infringes on its Linux patents, while Apple thinks Android is a blatant copy of iOS. 

So, when struggling Kodak put its imaging patents up for sale, Microsoft and Apple teamed up to bid on them. 

Another group of companies bid on Kodak's patents, too. It included Google, Samsung, HTC and LG Electronics, The Wall Street Journal reported last June. 

Eventually, Microsoft, Apple and Google united into one group and paid $525 million for Kodak's patents, with each company getting certain ones they wanted, Bloomberg reported in December. 

Still, you'd have to think Microsoft and Apple would've preferred to keep the patents out of Google's hands.