Google launched the latest salvo in the cellphone wars Tuesday with the unveiling of the newest handset to carry its Android platform. Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Vodafone's HTC Magic smartphone will make its European bow in the UK, Spain, France and Germany in the coming months. In Italy it will be available under a non-exclusive contract. The Google-run handsets are regarded as the chief rivals to Apple's iPhones in the battle for the next generation of ...

Cell phone makers Tuesday pledged to end one of modern life's chief frustrations --- and introduce a universal charger for handsets by 2012. The GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), which represents more than 750 of the world's cell phone operators, made the announcement at its annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Tuesday. Under the scheme, phone makers have pledged that a majority of new handset models will include the universal charger by January 1 2012. The planned device will use ...

Top Republican lawmakers Sunday called on President Obama to change his political strategy, arguing that the passage of a massive stimulus bill on a party-line vote showed he has failed to deliver the "change" he promised. "If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told ABC's "This Week." "I know bipartisanship when I see it." Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Obama was off to "a bad beginning," out of step with the vow ...

Facebook is five. Maybe you didn't get it in your news feed, but it was in February 2004 that Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, along with some classmates, launched the social network that ate the world. Did he realize back then in his dorm that he was witnessing merely the larval stage of his creation? For what began with college students has found its fullest, richest expression with us, the middle-aged. Here are 10 reasons Facebook is for old fogies: ...

Don't spend more than you make. Don't buy things you don't need. Save for a rainy day. If Americans had followed these simple rules over the past decade, there would be no financial crisis, no worst-since-the-1930s recession, no acrimonious Washington debate over what to do about it. Now we seem to be starting to rediscover thrift. Debt levels are falling. Consumer spending is down. The savings rate is on the rise. Great, right Not exactly. The sudden sobering up ...

How should NASCAR rev up its popularity during a recession? Maybe Bruton Smith has the answer. Smith, the chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, which owns seven racetracks on the Sprint Cup circuit, recently ruminated about three-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson at a media event. "Great guy," he said. "He's a neighbor. I like him a lot. I like his wife. But if Jimmie would just get out of his car and go over and slap somebody one time, that ...

Long, long ago, in a very different economy, there were people called shopaholics. They wielded credit cards and wore shoes so ugly that they came to be considered beautiful. A few of these creatures can still be found toting small dogs in Los Angeles or being led around New York City by Tom Cruise, but their ranks are presumably diminishing at the same rate as your 401. Perhaps, then, it's a good thing they have been commemorated in Confessions ...

Congress, well-fed and self-satisfied, can catch its wind now. It has put together a $789 billion stimulus package to get the economy on the road again. The most interesting and obtuse comment about the new plan came from Senator Harry Reid, who said the legislation would create 3.5 million jobs. The 3.5 million jobs forecast has always been a mysterious subject. The language used in the original House stimulus bill indicated that the programs in the legislation would create ...

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, except that right now everyone wants a little piece of it. The mob has been chanting for months, ever since former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson arrived in late September on Capitol Hill to warn of disaster, pass around his three-page plan and demand $700 billion to fix the problem. Most members of Congress were so spooked they were ready to write a check, until their phone lines started melting with the angry voices of ...

It hardly bears pointing out that during these days of 7.6% unemployment, when the business pages of the local newspaper look more like the obituaries, no industry is doing well — and that includes green business. Wind and solar manufacturers, starved for credit, are cutting back on projects and laying off workers. Whole Foods, the organic food superstore, has seen its stock price drop more than 70% over the past year, and has cut back on planned expansions. Companies — ...