Steve Jobs: America's Greatest Failure

Japanese electronics giant Sony is developing a new lineup of handheld products to counter Apple's stable of portable devices, according to The Wall Street Journal.The newspaper, citing "people familiar with the matter," said the products under development include a smartphone capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games being developed with Swedish cellphone partner Ericsson.Another project is a portable device that the Journal said blurs the distinctions between a netbook computer, an electronic book reader and a PlayStation Portable, or PSP.

Human beings may be destined to do everything the hard way. Consider teaching kids about money. Parents can do this quite simply, following a few guidelines. Yet few make any real effort, and we ask schoolteachers to fill the gap. Parents are hands-down the most influential force in any child’s life, and studies show that this extends to money management. Yet the money talk still doesn’t happen in about half of all households. Meanwhile, we have a global movement to bring financial education into the classroom. This effort has been clumsy at times though sorely needed.

Human beings may be destined to do everything the hard way. Consider teaching kids about money. Parents can do this quite simply, following a few guidelines. Yet few make any real effort, and we ask schoolteachers to fill the gap. Parents are hands-down the most influential force in any child’s life, and studies show that this extends to money management. Yet the money talk still doesn’t happen in about half of all households. Meanwhile, we have a global movement to bring financial education into the classroom. This effort has been clumsy at times though sorely needed.

Starbucks recently announced plans to open 3,000 new outlets in the Americas — 1,500 of them in the U.S. — and more in China. That may seem like business as usual for the world’s largest coffeehouse chain, which already has more than 18,000 locations around the globe. But just a few of years ago, Starbucks closed hundreds of stores – and it wasn’t just the burgeoning economic crisis that forced the coffee chain to retrench.

Angry Birds — a mobile phone game in which players use a slingshot to propel birds at tiny little green pigs — has been a runaway hit since its 2009 release, with more than 700 million downloads, a TV show and a feature film in the works. It isn't alone. A New York Times Magazine piece by critic-at-large Sam Anderson looks at people's fascination with — and addiction to — what Anderson calls "stupid games."

And Rovio gave us the slingshot, and Rovio furnished us with birds. And Rovio said: go forth and be angry, for the pigs hath absconded with thy eggs and hidden themselves away in curiously arranged fortresses of stone and wood furnished with many glittering jewels and succulent hams. Plus some of them have hats. For ...