Apple Store back up. No new Macs.

Apple watchers were hoping for a bigger pre-Macworld announcement

Image: Apple.com

[UPDATE: The Apple Store is back up with a new version of Aperture but no new MacBooks. Apple's press release introducing Aperture 3, the latest version of its high end photo editing and management software, crossed the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. ]

The yellow "We'll be back soon" sign -- the universal signal of an impending product release -- appeared MORE

Apple grabs 25% of smartphone market

The iPhone is looking pretty good in a pair of market snapshots

Click to enlarge. Source: comScore

In the past week, IDC and comScore have both issued reports of the fast-growing smartphone market that show Apple (AAPL) gaining share.

In the U.S., according to a comScore report published Monday, Apple's share grew to 25.3%, up more a point, in the fourth quarter of 2009, while Research in Motion's (RIMM) fell to 41.6%, MORE

Breaking up with the Nexus One

Was I fickle? Or was our relationship doomed from the start?

I just put my Nexus One "superphone" back in its box to send it home to Google (GOOG).  I taped the sides of the Googley-themed cardboard, lest I be tempted to exhume it before the FedEx guy came to pick it up. So far, it hasn't entered my mind to get the phone out of its package and fire it MORE

The Davos wrap

The World Economic Forum ended a week ago. That means the jet lag is gone, the expense reports are largely completed (if not yet reimbursed), and normal life has resumed.

Was it worth it? That's the question I posed at the outset, wondering if the substance could possibly outweigh the windbaggery. My unequivocal answer: Yes.

Toyota's low-risk dialogue on Digg

When U.S. Toyota executive Jim Lentz fields questions today on Digg, there probably won't be many surprises. Photo: Toyota.

If you're Toyota (TM) right now, the last thing you want is more surprises. That might explain why Jim Lentz, president of the U.S. sales division, will be fielding questions about the automaker's troubles on social media site Digg today at 2 p.m. PT, 5 p.m. ET; it actually looks to MORE

Could Apple iPad prices fall?

Management plans to stay "nimble" if sales are sluggish, says an analyst

iPad price grid. Photo: Michael Copeland

In a report to clients issued Sunday, Credit Suisse's Bill Shope shares the highlights of a recent meeting with Apple (AAPL) management.

The one getting the most play -- first in the Wall Street Journal's Market Beat blog -- is Apple's apparent (and surprising) willingness to talk about iPad pricing.

"While it remains to be MORE

In Obama's budget, it's techies vs. taxes

By Jia Lynn Yang, writer

There's a frequent line in President Obama's speeches that makes every U.S. tech executive cringe: his vow to cut tax breaks for "companies that ship our jobs overseas."

Obama's brushing over some details here. The U.S. tax code does not literally give a company a tax break every time it moves a job offshore. But it does allow companies to defer paying taxes on their overseas profits, MORE

Did Apple iPad hype turn off buyers?

There's more than one way to look at a before-and-after survey

Click to enalrge. Source: Retrevo

"The more people know about the iPad," writes David Coursey in PC World, "the less they want to buy one."

That's how Coursey interprets the results of a survey published Friday by Retrevo, an online electronics marketplace that polls its 4 million users from time to time on a variety of topical issues.

"There was too MORE

5 things to watch for at Macworld

Can Apple's premier trade show survive without Apple? We'll find out next week

Source: IDG

There'll be no Steve Jobs keynote, no gigantic Apple booth, and only about half as many exhibitors -- roughly 220 vs. nearly 500 last year, according to Ars Technica.

But IDG World Expo has determined that the show must go on -- at least for one more year -- and so from Tuesday Feb. 9 to Saturday MORE

Charlie Rose loves the Apple iPad

The PBS talk show devotes 23 minutes to singing the praises of Steve Jobs' latest creation

Rose (right) and Carr. Source: The Charlie Rose Show

In a segment that aired Thursday night, the Charlie Rose Show invited three A-list tech commentators -- the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, the New York Times' David Carr and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington -- to gush about (and find a few faults with) Apple's (AAPL) iPad.

[UPDATE: MORE