Microsoft's chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, made a concerted effort Thursday to persuade financial analysts that the world's largest software publisher will again become a growth stock.

Folks were saying years ago that Microsoft's business model effectively required them to keep growing and growing ...

Microsoft Makes Its Case That It Is a Growth Stock

Yet in a twist emblematic of the companies' shifting prospects, Sony has increasingly been looking to Samsung to revive its sagging fortunes. Samsung, long seen as a low-end electronics maker, is now being courted by Sony for its manufacturing prowess and innovative technology.

Samsung and Sony, the Clashing Titans, Try Teamwork

The technology giant has shelved a team based in Palo Alto focused on advanced software research led by Alan Kay, a respected computing pioneer, according to HP Labs spokesman Dave Berman.

I'm not sure I knew that Alan Kay was at HPL ... last I'd heard -- probably a number of years stale, now -- he was at Disney Imagineering.

HP drops 4 research groups in downsizing

A pear is just a pear, except when it is also a laser-coded information delivery system with advanced security clearance.

And that is what pears - not to mention organic apples, waxy cucumbers and delicate peaches - are becoming in some supermarkets around the country. A new technology being used by produce distributors employs lasers to tattoo fruits and vegetables with their names, identifying numbers, countries of origin and other information that helps speed distribution. The marks are burned onto the outer layer of the skin and are visible to discerning consumers and befuddled cashiers alike.

Tattooed Fruit Is on Way

The News Corporation, making one of its largest bets on the Internet, announced today that it is paying $580 million in cash to acquire Intermix Media Inc., a Los Angeles-based company whose chief asset is MySpace.com, a Web site that is enjoying surging popularity with young audiences.

News Corporation to Acquire Intermix for $580 Million - New York Times

AFTER giving its Internet competitors a huge head start, Clear Channel is ready to play catch-up.

The radio industry's dominant company, with more than 1,200 stations, has begun introducing its first meaningful online strategy after what could be the most protracted example of Internet indifference among major media businesses. At long last, Clear Channel is building more original programming and other features into its stations' Web sites to lure listeners and, it hopes, a new stable of advertisers.

As Clear Channel Enters the Fray, Online Radio Looks to Be Coming of Age

Don’t kid yourself. America’s property bubble didn’t just appear out of thin air. It is traceable directly to the equity bubble of the Roaring 1990s -- and to a central bank that remains steeped in denial. The real lesson of Japan is that there may well be no easy way out.

Morgan Stanley: Steve Roach on housing

At last month's D: All Things Digital technology conference, which I co-produce for The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said he was wary of producing an Apple cellphone because, instead of selling it directly to the public, he would have to offer it through what he called the "four orifices" -- the four big U.S. cellphone carriers.

This is the best Steve Jobs quote I've heard in awhile.

Mossberg is right on the money here with how assinine the situation with wireless carriers and cellphone hardware is.

Wireless Carriers' Veto Over How Phones Work Hampers Innovation

United Airlines plans to announce today that it is the first domestic airline to receive approval from regulators to install wireless Internet networks on its planes.

Yay ... about time!

United Airlines Approved for In-Flight Internet Service

] LOS ANGELES--Today saw the second of the big three
] console makers announce its next-generation platform. At
] its pre-E3 press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment
] gave the world its first look at the PlayStation 3, as it
] is now officially called. While the device's price has
] not yet been set, its release window--spring 2006--has.
] Flanked by Sony Computer Entertainment America President
] and CEO Kaz Hirai, SCE head Ken Kutaragi introduced it as
] a "supercomputer for computer entertainment."

They've all jumped the shark on the specs of these boxes ...

PlayStation 3 announced for 2006