Munster: An Apple TV set by 2011

Gene Munster has seen the future of television and it has an Apple (AAPL) logo on it.

In a note to clients Thursday, Piper Jaffray's senior analyst offered a scenario by which Apple would enter the cut-throat TV market by 2011 with an Apple-branded television set with digital video recording and home media functions (music, movies, games, interactive TV) built-in.

"Yes, TV hardware is a challenging business if you don't change the MORE

The end of the phone as we know it

Startups and disruptors (yes, Google) seek to rethink voice calling.

Andy Jagoe is zigging while the rest of the mobile world zags. Let everyone else chase the next hot iPhone app. He's betting the next big thing is a twist on the same old thing: making calls.

He may be right. Jagoe, CEO and co-founder of startup 3jam, is one of several Silicon Valley dreamers who thinks he can reinvent the MORE

Steve Jobs to Ed Colligan: Dear sir, let's collude

Jon Rubinstein. Photo: Palm, Inc.

"We must do whatever we can to stop this."

That's how Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs is reported to have asked then Palm (PALM) CEO Ed Colligan to enter into a possibly illegal agreement to stop trying to hire away each others' top engineering talent.

If accurate, it may be one of the most stilted attempts to collude ever recorded.

Colligan's answer, according to Bloomberg's Connie Guglielmo, who MORE

Return rates: Palm Pre 11%. Apple iPhone 3GS 7%.

iPhone and Pre. Photos: Apple, Palm

How often does the Palm (PALM) Pre break down and have to be returned and exchanged for a new one?

That question came up a few weeks after the Pre's June 6 launch when Jesup and Lamont analyst Kevin Dede, citing a decidedly unscientific online survey, reported that the Pre's return rate was a shocking 40%.

Pre Central, the site that conducted the poll, promptly disputed MORE

Dancing on AT&T's grave in the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board and I disagree about almost everything, including the legacy of the late Robert Novak.

The op-ed page, however, is a different matter. And on Tuesday the Journal ran a guest commentary by Andy Kessler that says what many of us have been thinking about AT&T's (T) role in Apple's (AAPL) rejection of Google's (GOOG) Google Voice app -- the universal telephone number and voice mail MORE

How the Beatles became a video game

Image: MTV Networks via Apple Corps

Leave aside for the moment the rumors that Apple Inc. (AAPL) has invited a number of music industry professionals and press to an iPod/iTunes special event on Sept. 9.

We know for a fact that Apple Corps and EMI have scheduled the worldwide release of the original Beatles catalog -- digitally remastered for the first time -- in compact disc format on 09/09/09, an event MORE

Sacconaghi: How Apple sells 50 million iPhones in 2011

Apple Inc.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster -- an Apple optimist -- took a lot of heat when he predicted two years ago that Apple (AAPL) would sell 45 million iPhones in 2009. Unfortunately for him, the deal he expected Apple to strike in China still hasn't materialized, and he's since cut his 2009 expectations back to 25 million.

Now comes Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi -- usually considered an Apple pessimist -- MORE

Apple's growing slice of the music business - in pie charts

Source: NPD Group

The NPD Group on Tuesday issued what at first appears to be a pair of contradictory facts:

Apple (AAPL) now controls the largest share of the music business, its iTunes Store accounting for 25% of unit sales in the first half of 2009, up from 14% in 2007.
Compact discs are still the most popular format for paid music, accounting for 65% of unit sales.

How can this be? The MORE

Staying ahead of the hackers

As three suspected hackers face federal charges in connection with the largest identity theft case ever to reach America's courts, personal identity theft is once again thrown into sharp relief as a major challenge to businesses. The men, which include 28 year-old Miami resident Albert Gonzalez, are now are accused of hacking into the computer systems of five companies, including credit-card processing company Heartland Payment Systems Inc., Hannaford Bros. supermarkets, and 7-Eleven to steal more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers.

Gonzalez's name may ring a bell because he has been affiliated with similar cases in the past: he has been tied to other large data theft cases including the theft of more than 40 million credit card numbers from TJX cos (TJ Maxx), OfficeMax, Barnes & Nobles and other companies last summer as well as the theft of thousands of cards from Dave & Busters in 2007. Gonzalez is currently in jail awaiting trial, according to news reports.

This case may be far more massive than any that have come before it, but unfortunately for both businesses and consumers, it is not unusual in its charges.

Abramsky: Apple, RIM could triple revenues by 2012

Images: Apple Inc., RIM

In a report to clients Tuesday, RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky takes a long (92 page) look at the "huge, nascent and underpenetrated" smartphone market and concludes that the emergence of devices like the BlackBerry and iPhone represents the next wave of computing -- "as profound as the historic technology shift from mainframes to PCs."

Among his predictions:

Smartphone penetration is likely to grow three fold over the next MORE