Oracle profit up but shares tumble on sales miss

By Michal Lev-Ram

Business software giant Oracle reported quarterly earnings Wednesday that met Wall Street's expectations, but company shares slipped almost 9% in after-hours trading on news that third-quarter sales came in slightly below the Street estimates.

Net income for the third quarter rose 30% to $1.3 billion, or 26 cents per share.

Excluding certain one-time items, the company's net income came in at $1.34 billion, or 30 cents a share, in line MORE

Million of households unprepared for digital TV

By Michal Lev-Ram

Couch potatoes, listen up: If you're still using an analog TV, you might find static instead of "American Idol" on your screen come Feb. 18, 2009. That's when the Federal Communications Commission plans to end a half-century of analog broadcasting.

This is the final step in switching to digital television broadcasting, which takes up less bandwidth and allows for high-definition pictures. With the government's auction of the old analog MORE

Al Gore gets 10,000 Apple options

Former vice president Al Gore, who sits on Apple's compensation committee and supervised the company's internal investigation of its option backdating case, has been granted options to buy 10,000 shares of Apple (AAPL) at the strike price of $129.67, according to Jonny Evans at Macworld UK.

With Apple shares closing at $140.98 Tuesday night, the options would be worth $113,100 if exercised today. Should Apple reach its 2007 high of 202.96 MORE

Microsoft Surface: consumer version in 2011?

Microsoft Surface is a tabletop computer that's controlled by physical touch instead of a mouse or keyboard. Image: Microsoft

Microsoft's tabletop computer could appear in homes in three years or less, the executive in charge of its development said this week.

Since unveiling the Microsoft Surface product last year, the company has gotten plenty of feedback from businesses and enthusiasts who want to get their hands on the technology, said Tom Gibbons, MORE

Apple settles "millions of colors" lawsuit

When you're a company as high profile and as rich as Apple, you get sued for a lot things, from patent infringement (eight cases since January alone, according to Barron's) to "sexual harassments with Apple gadgets" (see here). But one suit that was widely derided as frivolous when it was filed last year has been quietly settled out of court, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The terms were not disclosed, and Apple MORE