Apple invites press to 'latest creation'

E-mails were sent Monday for an unveiling in 10 days. Is this their long-awaited tablet?

Image: Apple Inc.

It's official now: Apple's (AAPL) newest product will be unveiled Wednesday, Jan. 27, in San Francisco.

The e-mail invitation, sent at noon on Monday, reads in full:

Please join us for an invitation-only event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on January 27 at 10:00 a.m. Registration begins at MORE

Ringtones' requiem

Customized cellphone rings are so 2004. But the music industry has a new source of revenue – it's all about the ringback tone.

Remember the ringtone? Just two years ago consumers were spending $1 billion a year on song snippets for their cellphones. Established musical acts recorded ringtone versions of their songs, and some composers set out to write tunes that had hooks and melodies that would lend themselves to tones. MORE

How big was Apple's biggest quarter?

The fourth in a series of previews of Apple's results for the first fiscal quarter of 2010

Click to enlarge. Sources: Apple, Bullish Cross, Thomson Financial, Apple 2.0

Two weeks ago we sampled analysts' expectations for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, iPod and Mac sales in the fiscal quarter that ended Dec. 26.

Today we look at the bottom line -- revenue and earnings per share -- for what Wall Street expects to be MORE

Digital health records: Putting privacy on par with efficiency

Modernizing health records and delivery means building a trustworthy digital network.

By Harriet P. Pearson, chief privacy officer, IBM

Pearson: Health records must be both transparent and secure. Photo: IBM.

Privacy is a key concern for many Americans as this country moves to modernize its health care system with electronic health records.  As we spend billions of dollars to go digital, are we putting privacy and security safeguards in place to MORE

(Screen) size does matter

The Jumbotron comes home --and the computer goes in the pocket.

Consumers want huge TVs and tiny computers like this Asus netbook. Photo: Asus.

Even before the recession began two years ago, people were talking about the need for Americans to downsize. What this means for the world of consumer electronics is unclear.

Our television screens just keep getting bigger and better. In 2009, the average screen size was 36 inches, MORE

AMD's marketing challenge

Hours before rival Intel turned in stellar quarterly results, I had breakfast this morning with John Taylor, a marketing guy at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), to talk about its prospects for 2010 and beyond. The underdog chipmaker has a good chance to mount a comeback after some damaging missteps over the past couple of years, and I wanted to know whether there's a plan to take on Intel.

Yet another new media model

Online publisher Stratfor provides news and information people are willing to pay for.

George Friedman is not in the business of journalism. He wants to make that clear. But while traditional media organizations are on the decline, Stratfor, the Austin, Tex.-based global intelligence company he started in 1996, is on the rise as readers look for alternatives to the ailing international sections of their daily papers.

Stratfor publishes online analysis of global MORE

US says smartphones are data-hogs

Google's gutsy move

Fortune's man in Shanghai offers perspective on the online ad giant's threat to end its China venture.

By Bill Powell, Senior writer

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Google's Drummond essentially tells China: Enough already. Photo: Google

You get used to seeing those words pop up MORE

A portrait of the artist as a technophile

The Internet has been an important distribution platform for artists, but piracy is having a chilling effect.

By Ted VanCleave, co-founder and executive vice president, ImageRights International.

VanCleave discusses the challenges artists face protecting their work online. Photo: Ted VanCleavel.

As a professional fine arts photographer, I depend on my website to market and sell my images. In fact, my site outsells galleries 10 to 1 for my work.

This is the MORE