APPLE INC.

After the holiday party comes the hangover for retailers: handling millions of returns this week.

Apple Inc. has more than $81 billion of cash on its books with about one-third held in the U.S. This is because of its continuing success of products like iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac. So what will Apple do with all the cash hoard?

Barclays Capital believes Apple Inc. may launch two iPads in 2012 - one with better cameras, higher resolution display, an A5 processor and Siri in March and another, coming later in the year, perhaps incorporating a faster processor and 4G LTE.

Happy New Year! 2012 is almost upon us and we can only hope it will be as interesting and eventful as was 2011. There were several major events that happened in news, entertainment and technology throughout 2011. The U.S. captured and killed Osama Bin Laden, the iPhone 4S was released, Apple Inc. lost its CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs and the Iraq War ended.

As 2011 counts down to its last few hours, there will be a number of people working on Apple's forthcoming mobile operating system - the company themselves, the product users and, obviously, iOS hackers.

2011 has been a very exciting year for smartphones thanks to the number of devices that flooded the market, and the trend is expected to continue in 2012.

A new California law will force retailers and manufacturers to disclose from 2012 how they guard against slavery and human trafficking throughout their supply chains, ratcheting up scrutiny over some of the largest U.S. corporations.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Asset Acceptance Capital, Ryanair Holdings, LM Ericsson Telephone, Amazon.com, and Research In Motion. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: ASML Holding, James River Coal, Diamond Foods, and Apple.

The report from Taiwanese publication DigiTimes that claimed tech giants Apple Inc. would unveil two iPad models at the Macworld conference in January has been met with a storm of skeptical replies.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Fushi Copperweld, Yahoo, ARM Holdings, Research In Motion, Baidu, Apple, and Cisco Systems. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Amazon.com, Makita, OmniVision Technologies, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and LM Ericsson Telephone.

BMO Capital Markets has raised its profit estimates of Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saying the Cupertino, California-based technology giant would benefit from material upgrades of Sprint customers.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a $30 billion Chinese telecoms gear maker, has initiated a system this year to allow top executives to take turns acting as chief executive, its founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in a year-end message

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Pinnacle Financial Partners, ARM Holdings, Randgold Resources, Infosys, Research In Motion, Amazon.com, Google, and Apple. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Cavium, Sears Holdings, Windstream, and Cisco Systems.

Italy's antitrust body has fined units of U.S. technology group Apple Inc a total of 900,000 euros for failing to adequately inform customers about their rights to product guarantees and assistance.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market movers are: Parlux Fragrances, Makita, Siliconware Precision Industries, Amazon.com, and Apple. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Sears Holdings, RAM Energy Resources, ZAGG, QUALCOMM, and Research In Motion.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics aims to raise its global handset sales by 15 percent next year by boosting its smartphone sales, putting it in a closer race with bigger rival Nokia.

Computer maker ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime is expected to hit the U.S. market in 2012 but a rumor suggests the 32GB Amethyst Gray version could be made available to certain pre-ordered customers after Christmas.

Christmas may be over but never forget the shopping season is still going strong. There were Christmas deals until Dec. 25... now there are after-Christmas sales!

Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business.

Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to Samsung for $940 million, the Korean firm said on Monday, as Sony struggles to staunch red ink at its TV business.

Via Motors spokesman David West offers a bold comparison for his company's latest line of electric vehicles: the iPhone.