Apple

Facebook was supposed to soar. Instead, it plunged. After the social network's stock fizzled on Friday in its long-awaited debut, its stock fell 11 percent on Monday, even as the rest of the stock market rallied. The downward spiral has left some people sitting on big losses, and others scratching their heads. After all, nothing fundamental has changed at Facebook in the days since the much-hyped company came to the stock market — Facebook still has more than 900 million users, its 28-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg controls the company, and it is still one of the few...

Forget Facebook. This is still Apple's stock market. Apple — the world's most valuable company — climbed nearly 6 percent on Monday, helping propel major U.S. stock indexes to gains after a week of losses. The Standard & Poor's 500, where Apple accounts for 4 percent of the index, enjoyed its best day in nearly five weeks. The Nasdaq composite index, where Apple accounts for an even heftier 12 percent, notched its biggest gain of the year. And it was no thanks to Facebook.

A sleek new tablet computer recently landed on my desk. Alas, it's the wrong one. Which seems a mighty unfair thing to say about a machine as impressive as the new Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet computer from Samsung Corp. By any standard, this is a marvelous device. It's decisively the best minitablet I've tried. It's razor-thin, sleek, and light, with a gorgeous touchscreen capable of true high-definition video. But it's not the new iPad from Apple Inc., which goes on sale Friday.

Apple Inc. lost 2.9 percent, sending its market value to $495.7 billion. Its market capitalization had topped $500 billion in February, cementing its lead as the most valuable company. SAC Capital Advisors and Viking Global were among hedge funds that sold a net 6.1 million shares of Apple last quarter, taking advantage of a 48 percent jump in the stock.

Chinese workers who often spend more than 60 hours per week assembling iPhones and iPads will have their overtime hours curbed and their pay increased after a labor auditor hired by Apple Inc. inspected their factories. The Fair Labor Association says Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the Taiwanese company also known as Foxconn that runs the factories in China, is committing to a reduction of weekly work time to 49 hours, the legal Chinese maximum. That limit is routinely ignored in factories throughout China.

Little Duck Organics is a line of kids' snacks that offers Tiny Fruits in three flavors: blueberry and apple, strawberry and mango, and apple and bananas ($3.99 for a 1-ounce package of fruit, with 4 servings in each). Tiny Fruits are a 100 percent fruit, made into a freeze-dried snack with no added sugar, in cubes that toddlers and small children can easily pick up. They were developed by Zak Normandin, a young father of three kids, ages 5, 3, and 1. With bright colorful packaging and an iconic rubber ducky on the logo, the fruits come from farmers who have a...

Even a superpower couldn't take a bite out of the apple. Tech Superpowers, a boutique Apple Inc. reseller that made its home on Newbury Street about 15 years ago, has closed its cozy basement shop, unable to compete with the massive flagship store that Apple opened around the corner in 2008. "Apple is just an extremely powerful brand in the consumer space and no matter how hard we try to differentiate ourselves, they are the mothership and they have this big shiny store," said Michael Oh, founder and president of Tech Superpowers.

Apple fell 0.3 percent, trimming an earlier decline of 3.2 percent. The company is cutting orders to vendors in the supply chain for its iPad tablet computer, JPMorgan said. Several vendors indicated that Apple cut fourth-quarter iPad orders 25 percent.

To appreciate the scope of what Steve Jobs accomplished during his second stint as Apple's chief executive, you have to rewind the tape - or rather, spin back the iPod's wheel - to an August morning in Boston 14 years ago. More than 1,500 of the Apple faithful filled the Park Plaza Castle to hear Jobs deliver his first MacWorld Expo keynote since returning to the company the year before. I was in the front of the hall, covering the event for Wired magazine's website. It felt like a conclave of Shakers, devout but dwindling.

Shares of chip-maker Micron Technology Inc. rose Wednesday as investors hoped that the Japanese company Micron is in talks to buy recently received a big order from Apple Inc. Citing unnamed industry sources, Taiwan's technology news site Digitimes.com said Apple had recently placed a big order for chips used in its iPad and iPhone devices with an Elpida Memory Inc. plant in Japan. Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology said last week that it was in talks to buy Elpida. Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh said there's no way of knowing if the...

Aaron Sorkin is going from Facebook to Apple. Sony Pictures officials say the Oscar-winning writer will write a screenplay based on the Steve Jobs biography. Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal says Sorkin will make the film about the late Apple founder "everything that Jobs himself was: Captivating, entertaining and polarizing. " Sorkin won the adapted screenplay Academy Award for 2010's "The Social Network. " The 50-year-old writer was nominated in the same category for 2011's "Moneyball.

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. is preparing a new lineup of thinner MacBook laptops running on more powerful chips made by Intel Corp., people with knowledge of the plans said. The MacBook Pro machines, to be unveiled at Apple's annual developers conference starting June 11, also will feature high-definition screens like those on the iPhone and iPad, as well as flash memory to cut startup times and extend battery life, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans have not been made public.

Shares of chip-maker Micron Technology Inc. rose Wednesday as investors hoped that the Japanese company Micron is in talks to buy recently received a big order from Apple Inc. Citing unnamed industry sources, Taiwan's technology news site Digitimes.com said Apple had recently placed a big order for chips used in its iPad and iPhone devices with an Elpida Memory Inc. plant in Japan. Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology said last week that it was in talks to buy Elpida. Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh said there's no way of knowing if the Digitimes report is true.

A federal judge cited the confident voice of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs on Tuesday as she refused to toss out lawsuits alleging the company and various publishers conspired to drive up the price of electronic books. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote noted in her written ruling that Jobs had made statements that agreements between the publishers and Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, Calif., would cause consumers to "pay a little more" and that prices would "be the same" at Apple and Amazon.com.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Friday she is joining her counterparts in 32 other states in alleging that technology giant Apple Inc. engaged in the price-fixing of e-books with publishers Penguin Group and Macmillan . "We allege that through their actions, the defendants and their co-conspirators collected more than $100 million worth of overcharges from consumers across the country," Coakley said...

Apple is the world's most valuable company. The Dow Jones industrial average is probably the world's best-known stock index. So don't they deserve each other? Consider this: If Apple had been added to the Dow in June 2009, the last time there were serious rumors that it would happen, the average would be about 2,500 points higher than it is today and well above its all-time high. Paul Hickey of Bespoke Investment Group, which crunches numbers about the markets, says the Dow would be at 15,360, about 1,200 points above its record of 14,164, set in October 2007.

A mutual fund manager usually can count on having a good year if the largest investment in the portfolio is surging. But that's not the case for Tony Trzcinka. The largest holding in his Pax World Growth fund is Apple Inc., and shares of the technology icon are up 44 percent. That's four times more than the broader market. Yet Trzcinka is being questioned about the fund's 12.5 percent return. Although that's a strong result just four months into the year, it trails more than 80 percent of the fund's large-cap growth stock peers.

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it will open a store in The Shops at Prudential Center in Boston, as it tries to catch up with rival Apple Inc. in establishing a closer retail presences with consumers. The Redmond, Wash., computer giant has so far opened 15 retail stores in the US since 2009, with the one at the Pru its first in Massachusetts. The stores feature a selection of personal computers running the company's Windows 7 software, as well as smartphones running Windows Phone 7 software, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 videogame console.