Today Apple’s new line of iPods hit retailers. Reviews of both the new iPod Nano and iPod Touch have been very positive. iTunes users shopping AAPL’s online music store on these machines will have to settle for 30-second previews of songs before they buy, though -- longer song samples on iTunes have been delayed by the National Music Publishers Association.

In a move that is either a strictly financial decision or a bid to lesson customer confusion while speeding up the wait time, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has erased the “tall” coffee choice from its drive-thru menu.

McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) is No. 1 on the worst-tasting burgers list, according to a new Consumer Reports ranking. But for a company whose stock is at an all-time high – with new deals and menu items that keep customers coming back – is that even a problem?

In 2000, British mobile phone company Vodafone Group plc (NASDAQ: VOD) bought a stake of slightly more than 2% in China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL), China's largest mobile network. Vodafone upped its stake to about 3.2% in 2002, and said that it might ultimately acquire as much as 15%-20% of China Mobile, depending on what regulators allowed them to do.

Remember, though tax day is in April your investments are considered on a calendar year basis so that means you only have until the end of December to get your portfolio in order and make the best investment decisions to reduce your tax load.

On the heels of the ever-expanding health services of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), CVS (NYSE: CVS) and Walgreens (NYSE: WAG), big box giant Target (NYSE: TGT) is today opening more of its clinic locations, expanding more of its services to entice more consumers to stores.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: APPL) has much to celebrate going into the Holiday 2010 season. Despite some serious PR issues during its launch window, the iPhone 4 had a tremendous release at the beginning of the summer, selling 1.5 million in its first 24 hours and doubling that number by the end of its two weeks.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) today announced the expected overseas expansion of its already popular VIA Ready Brew line of products, through international grocery channels in Japan, Canada and the U.K.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), already nipping at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) on multiple technology fronts, is prepping to take on the Cupertino, Calif., company in their strongest division: digital music and sales.

The Apple iTunes social network Ping is off to a healthy start with 1 million users signing up in the service's first 48 hours. Unfortunately, many were spammers. Speaking of numbers with lots of zeroes, Apple spent a hefty sum on online advertising through a major competitor's contextual ad service in the month of June.

It may sound like heresy to tell people they should not follow what Warren Buffett is doing, yet I am going to do exactly that. Note that I am not saying that long-term investing cannot work -- I believe it can -- but copying Warren Buffet can only be done one way: Buying Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B).

The headline on comments by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke at his Jackson Hole retreat in August focused on his comments that the economy is going to be just fine, now, don't you worry.

According to the August jobs report, the U.S. lost another 54,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 9.6%. The government claimed that the private sector added 67,000 jobs, although most of these jobs came from the Health Care and Social Assistance category and from Education, both of which are filled with government supported jobs.

Wall Street was abuzz last week with the news that Burger King Holdings (NYSE: BKC) is being purchased by private equity firm 3G Capital for a cool $3.2 billion. Now Main Street gets is serving of Burger King business news – this time with a sweeping plan at the Home of the Whopper to reinvent its breakfast menu.