ABC News: Apple Shares Soar Above $100 Mark

"Shares of Apple Inc. soared above $100 for the first time after the company walloped Wall Street expectations with quarterly profits that jumped 88 percent on strong sales of its iPod players and Macintosh computers.
The shares gained more than 7 percent on the news in after-hours trading Wednesday.
Investor optimism in the trendsetting company may have also been bolstered by a vote of confidence the board of directors gave Apple's chief executive officer, Steve Jobs. The board on Wednesday defended the iconic CEO from new accusations by a former Apple executive who alleged Jobs may have had a more significant role in the company's backdating of stock options than previously stated.
For the first three months of the year, the Cupertino-based company said it earned $770 million, or 87 cents per share, up from $410 million, or 47 cents per share, in the year-ago period. "

Jim Cramer's Stop Trading! Eyeing Apple

"Cramer said the one tech stock he's looking at right now is Apple (AAPL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) ahead of Wednesday's postclose earnings report. Cramer said this is the last quarter before Apple's release of its much-anticipated iPhone, and buying the stock at a recent $90 is a good move considering the weakness of the competition. Cramer said Nokia (NOK - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) has tacked on 6 points from its January lows largely because Motorola (MOT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) is sputtering and misfiring. "

Apple iPod™ nano Second Gen. Black (8 GB) MP3 Player

PC World review: Apple has released iPod nano software 1.0.2 on 9/27/06, which fixes the bug (noted in my review) that cause

Tech Startups 3.0: Photos: Vegas machines' new jackpot? iPods | CNET News.com

"Architecture, entertainment and vice. Everything about this city is famous for being over the top. You can now add vending machines to the list. Can't sleep after bucking the roulette wheel? Forget the flat soda and stale chips. Patter downstairs and pick up an 80GB iPod for $349. Don't worry about scrounging for change. The machine only takes credit cards. This iPod dispenser from Zoom Systems resides in the lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton. The hotel is a stone's throw from where the National Association of Broadcasters is holding its annual conference this week."

Ipod for Every Student in Michigan

Press & Argus: "Of all the ludicrous ideas to come out of Lansing in recent years, this one has to rank right at the top. At a time when the state is staring at a massive budget deficit, two House Democratic leaders said last week that they wanted to spend $38 million on '21st Century Learning Environments.'
Part of the money, they said, would be used to buy an Apple iPod for every student in Michigan."

Apple might launch a Wi-Fi capable iPod later this year

"Apple might launch a Wi-Fi capable iPod later this year. Online tech site DigiTimes has reported that the iPod maker Apple is working on a Wi-Fi capable version of their Apple iPod digital media player.
Incidentally, the company is due to launch their iPhone in June this year which would come with Wi-Fi support. Microsoft’s own Zune player comes with some basic wireless capability which is limited to other Zune players in the surrounding.
DigiTimes in its report has suggested that for this upcoming product USI will be shipping the Wi-Fi component. Apple should be able to release the product by the third quarter of this year just in time for the holiday season in the United States."

YouTube - Conan Skit NBC - iPhone Commercial

YouTube - Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

DRM activists hail EMI Apple deal - vnunet.com

Digital rights groups have reacted with cautious optimism after EMI announced that it had struck a deal with Apple to distribute its titles in the iTunes Music Store without digital rights management (DRM) technology.
"Certainly this is a step in the right direction," Derek Slater, activism coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told vnunet.com. "It is long past time that the record labels opened up."
Under the deal, Apple will sell EMI titles free of Apple's FairPlay copy protection software for $1.29 (99p in the UK).
The DRM

MacNN | Apple lax in keeping Mac OS secure?

"Apple is falling behind in keeping Mac OS X as secure as it should be, according to InformationWeek. The author's latest article cites several sources as evidence, such as a recent Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec, which notes that it now takes an average of 66 days for Apple to patch a vulnerability; conversely, Microsoft is averaging three weeks. This is also substantially slower than what was noted in the last Threat Report issued six months ago, which gave Apple an average of 37 days. "

Real interview with Fake Steve Jobs - Engadget

"We got a precious few minutes to sit down and talk to the man himself. That's right, we landed a real interview with Fake Steve Jobs. In it, 'El Jobso' reminisces about his drug-addled youth, what he does to the traitorous wretches that leak Apple products before they're launched, the questions they ask you when you apply for a job at Apple, and even how he really feels about my girlfriend. Not to be missed!"

MacDailyNews | Jim Cramer: Michael Dell is no Steve Jobs

"The return of Michael Dell to his namesake company can't be compared to Steve Jobs' return to Apple, Jim Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV's Wall Street Confidential Web video Friday," TheStreet.com reports.

"'Jobs is a creative force,' he told Gregg Greenberg, the host of Wall St. Confidential. 'Dell is an efficiency of time and implementation and equipment force -- an operations guy.' Cramer said he fails to see how Dell is going to be able to maintain margins, especially with increased competition from Acer and Lenovo, two growing names in the PC market," TheStreet.com reports."