The 5 worst cell phone designs of all time

Though critics made a bloodsport out of bashing the iPhone 4, these fatally-flawed offenders serve as reminders that good design is hard to come by. Four short weeks since it crashed Apple and AT&T's servers, the iPhone 4 has broken records, surpassed analyst expectations and invoked the kind of ire and controversy usually reserved for political elections. Just as quickly, Apple's once-sterling reputation for cutting-edge design became a potential liability.

But as MORE

Apple's Earnings: Antennagate Schmantennagate

The analysts this morning were piling on superlatives. Will the market follow their lead?

Apple's (AAPL) record quarter inspired a flurry of glowing reviews and rising price targets. Here's a sample; more as they come in:

Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner: Antennagate Schmantennagate. "We were expecting Apple to deliver a strong F3Q10. But we hadn't girded ourselves for a mammoth revenue forecast, and neither, we believe, had the Street. To those (like us) MORE

Earnings Smackdown: The best and worst Apple analysts

The bloggers beat the pros once again this quarter, but not quite as handily as before

Bloggers: Green. Pros: Pink. Click to enlarge.

The professional analysts who track Apple (AAPL) for banks and brokerage houses may have been surprised by the $15.7 billion in revenue the company reported Tuesday -- an all-time record for Apple in what is traditionally one of its weakest quarters.

But the blogger-analysts we polled in advance of MORE

Apple blow-out: Profits up nearly 78%

Earnings up 77.6% on all-time record sales of $15.7 billion

Click to enlarge. Source: Company reports

Apple (AAPL) blew past all but the most optimistic estimates Tuesday, reporting third-quarter earnings of $3.51 per share on a record $15.7 billion in revenue.

That Apple was able to top sales for even its Christmas quarter -- traditionally its strongest -- was remarkable. Apple executives attributed it to the addition of a new product line MORE

Google event: Revamped Image search

Marissa Mayer Google VP of Search Products and User Experience and (monetization man)Ben Ling today announced a new Google Image search page.

Update: Google has a posted to its blog on the subject and a video embedded below:

Notes:

Apple's earnings: 5 numbers to watch

A big Q3 is a given. That makes it especially hard to predict which way the stock will jump.

Assuming Apple (AAPL) reports record third quarter revenue and earnings  this afternoon -- the Street is looking for year-over-year increases of 51% and 54%, respectively, according to Thomson Financial -- what else is there to say?

Like Kaufman Bros.'s Shaw Wu, who issued yet another note to clients this morning, we're expecting Apple MORE

Google search for 'Vatican' yields pedophile site

A likely Google Bomb leaves Europeans wondering if a hacker is making a statement.

Internet users over the weekend were delivered to an empty site called pedofilo.com when doing a search for "Vatican." Pedofilo is the Italian world for pedophile.  As the AP states:

The Vatican is battling allegations of abuse by paedophile priests and allegations of high-level cover-ups in several European countries, after similar scandals swept Australia and the United States MORE

The Street awaits Apple's Q3 earnings

Analysts issue a flurry of last-minute adjustments in advance of Tuesday's quarterly report

Apple's (AAPL) one-two punch -- Steve Jobs' "Antennagate" press conference Friday and the company's Q3 earnings report scheduled for Tuesday -- left analysts struggling to stay on top of two competing narratives.

On one hand they had the firestorm of negative press coverage that helped carve nearly $30 billion out of Apple's market cap over the past three weeks MORE

The Facebook movie spoofs: 'Like' them or loathe them?

After The Social Network trailer went live last week, several readers were quick to pass judgment on the 2-minute and 27-second clip. One found it "hysterical." Another, like Tony, from Boston, dubbed it a flop-in-the-making.

"Ben Mezrich's last book that got adapted [21] ... ended up sucking really, really hard," he wrote. "I expect The Social Network to be equally as bad."

Still other media-savvy-types, probably moved to act by that female MORE

How Steve Jobs turned a finger spot into a death grip

The PR magician has done it again, dumbfounding both the media and rival companies.  I'm in awe.

If anyone can somehow remember last week (I think maybe Consumer Reports might be the only one who can), the issue with the iPhone 4 was that when you connected the two antennas with your flesh, the signal dropped.  I've posted a few of the hundreds of YouTubes below showing this (watch them quick MORE