IPAD

Asian stocks rose on Wednesday as investors cheered Apple's strong earnings and on optimism that China may roll back policy tightening measures later this year, while the euro firmed ahead of euro zone's bank stress test results late in the week.

Apple Inc gave an unusually upbeat revenue forecast that trounced Wall Street's expectations and eased fears that the Antennagate controversy around its iPhone 4's reception would hurt sales, boosting its shares 3 percent.

(Corrects iPhone 4 launch date to June 24 from June 28 in paragraph 8.)

Apple Inc reported results that blew past Wall Street's expectations, boosted by robust sales of Mac computers, sending its shares 3 percent higher.

Apple Inc reported results that blew past Wall Street's expectations, boosted by robust sales of Mac computers, sending its shares 3 percent higher.

U.S. stocks rose for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, led by gains in shares of Goldman Sachs and strength in beaten-down homebuilders and raw materials companies.

Penguin launched on Tuesday the first electronic book with a video tie-in, as the embattled book publishing industry bets on multimedia ebooks to revive flagging growth and boost readership.

Japan's Sharp Corp said on Tuesday it would enter the electronic reader and book markets, hoping to grab a slice of the hot but increasingly crowded sector popularized by Apple Inc and Amazon.com.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc said on Monday that the recent price cut to its Kindle electronic reader has spurred sales of both the device and e-books.

Apple Inc plans to start selling the iPad tablet PC, its latest hit product, in nine new international markets on Friday, making the device available in a total of 19 countries.

Apple Inc is likely to announce a fix for the iPhone 4's reception problems, rather than a recall, at a surprise press conference on the device on Friday, analysts said.

Apple Inc has already sold more than three million of its iPad tablet computers in just over three months, but there is still more demand out there, a new survey showed on Thursday.

Apple Inc finds itself on unfamiliar ground heading into its earnings report next week: on the defensive.

Shares of Apple Inc slid more than 4 percent on Tuesday after a poor review for its iPhone 4 from an influential consumer guide underpinned mounting complaints about the hot-selling device's reception and spurred speculation about a product recall.

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer touted new tablet-style devices running the Windows 7 operating system from about 20 manufacturers at a conference on Monday, underlining the giant software company's eagerness to counter the explosion of interest in Apple Inc's iPad.

Some investors are betting on major technology stocks ahead of the earnings season kicking off next week, seeing them as oversold on fears about the slowing U.S. and European economies.

Apple Inc boss Steve Jobs was a no-show at an annual pow-wow of media and technology moguls in Sun Valley. But he was far from forgotten.

Apple Inc will open its second flagship store in China, in the heart of Shanghai's financial district on Saturday, the company said on Thursday.

Borders Group Inc's electronic bookstore went live on Wednesday, and the company set an ambitious target to secure 17 percent of the digital book market in one year, sending its shares up more than 9percent.

Borders electronic bookstore went live on Wednesday, and the head of the company's bookselling business predicted that it would quickly win a sizable piece of the fast-growing sector.

Borders Group Inc launched its long awaited electronic bookstore on Wednesday, along with applications for the store on several leading smartphones in a bid to catch up to rival booksellers and generate sales in the fast growing e-book segment.