Apple 2.0

Man who doesn't work for Foxconn kills self. Apple's fault?

A suicide story that broke on Saturday had fallen apart by Monday.

FORTUNE -- The Agence France Press headline that moved over the business wires Saturday morning seemed like deja vu all over again:

Three new factory suicides at Apple supplier Foxconn

Citing only a statement issued by China Labor Watch in New York, the news agency reported that the deaths occurred at a Foxconn factory in the central city of Zhengzhou and MORE

An Apple bear calls a bottom

Sees the Inverse Head and Shoulders pattern he's been waiting for.

FORTUNE -- Gotta love these technical analysts.

As William Meade pointed out in Saturday's ETF Daily News post, he never once mentioned Apple's (AAPL) fundamentals during the three months that he was advising his readers -- mostly hedge fund managers -- to sell sell sell.

Now the president of Pure Alpha Research (and former research director at Zacks in Chicago) has changed his MORE

Charts of the day: Keep selling Apple and buying Google?

Eight months of what CNBC calls the Great Rotation has led to some odd imbalances.

FORTUNE -- Tuesday marks the eight month anniversary of Apple's (AAPL) all-time intraday high of $705.07 a share, set on Sept. 21, 2012.

Meanwhile, last Friday, Google (GOOG) hit its own all-time intraday high of $919.98 -- just a dinner for two at McDonalds from $925, Google's mean 12-month price target according to Thomson/First Call.

This coincidence may MORE

Contrasts: Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Lee Kun-hee

The U.S. is suing Apple. Lee's government pardoned him. Twice.

FORTUNE -- With Tim Cook scheduled to testify Tuesday before a hostile Senate subcommittee and the Department of Justice's antitrust trial against Apple (AAPL) set to begin the following week, this might be a good time to contrast how the U.S. and South Korean governments each treat their country's most valuable company.

Apple:

Cook is expected to be questioned sharply next week MORE

Photomontage of the day: The world of wearable computers

Forget those Galaxy S4 ads, says Credit Suisse, wearables are "the next big thing."

FORTUNE -- Computers one wears, rather than carries in a briefcase, backpack or pocket, are at an "inflection point" -- a market poised to explode from $3 billion to $5 billion today to as much as $30 billion to $50 billion in three to five years.

That's according to a Credit Suisse report snagged Friday by Barron's Tiernan Ray.

The theory is that MORE

How devoted are Apple users to the Apple ecosystem?

Very, according to a new Forrester survey. Microsoft and Google don't fare as well.

FORTUNE -- According to a Forrester survey released this week, the vast majority of computer users (85% worldwide, 88% in the U.S.) have little or no loyalty to a particular mobile computing ecosystem -- the nexus of devices, software, services and sheer muscle memory that tie a user to one vendor or another.

Among those users who show MORE

Galaxy S4: 10M in 4 weeks. iPhone 5: 5M in 3 days.

When Apple reported record iPhone 5 sales, the stock began a six-month free fall.

FORTUNE -- It's been years since Samsung reported any unit sales numbers at all for its mobile phones, so the tech press took notice Thursday when the South Korean manufacturing giant decided it had something to brag about.

Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told reporters at an industry forum in Seoul that he is confident shipments of the Galaxy S4 MORE

The big funds on Apple: Who bought and who sold last quarter

Total shares held fell 5.2%, but more funds increased than reduced their Apple holdings.

FORTUNE -- Any institution with more than $100 million in equities under management was required to file a Form 13f Wednesday telling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission what stocks they bought and sold last quarter, and once again Apple (AAPL) was the No. 1 equity in their portfolios.

Although several news sites -- including CNBC, CBS and MORE

Watch who Tim Cook talks to in the Washington press corps

In advance of next Tuesday's Senate testimony, he softened the ground with interviews at Politico and the Washington Post -- but not, pointedly, the New York Times.

FORTUNE -- Tim Cook is coming to Washington next week, summoned by the same Senate subcommittee that blasted Microsoft (MSFT) and Hewlett Packard (HPQ) last fall for funneling U.S. profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes on them.

But Apple's (AAPL) CEO -- whose company MORE

Tim Cook to testify on taxes: Did the N.Y. Times have it wrong?

Next week we'll find out what a Senate probe of Apple's taxes has uncovered.

FORTUNE -- According to the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning iEconomy series, Apple (AAPL) has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its fair share of taxes -- well beyond the usual tax reduction strategies U.S. corporations have long considered fair game.

"Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the 'Double Irish With a Dutch MORE