Amazon.com, Inc.

Twitter works great for the "twitterati," but in many ways it has failed to penetrate the mainstream web. For many people who aren't attached to their phones 24/7 or aren't multitasking between work and a stream of micro-thoughts of questionable depth, Twitter is a buzzword, something the media loves to chatter about but signifying nothing.

How has a country with just 16 million inhabitants become the 15th-largest economy in the world? Answer: through a combination of resourcefulness, hard work, and acute foresight for what might make the nation rich. Since the 14th century, the Netherlands has played a major role in shaping the world economy. Now the country that brought us such major innovations as the stock exchange and the insurance industry has identified another big opportunity: the services sector.

Nintendo on Thursday revealed its next wave of products. The video-game maker is also planning to release Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M in the first half of 2010, but Nintendo DSi XL is taking the spotlight -- and entering the e-reader market.

The new DSi XL handheld system launches March 28 and will retail for $189.99. There are plenty of improvements, beginning with screen size. The screens are 93 percent larger than the Nintendo DS Lite and feature a wider viewing angle so friends and family can share the experience.

Larry Tohter in the New York Times Book Review:

From The New York Times:

With the introduction of the iPad, Apple's status as a cultural icon reached new heights. Based on an unscientific survey of newspapers archived by The Newseum, pictures of or stories about the tablet-style computer appeared on front pages in at least 47 states and the District of Columbia and no fewer than 24 countries on six continents -- in places as varied as Bulgaria, Uruguay, Turkey, and Portugal.

The Department of Justice believes significant antitrust, class certification, and copyright issues remain in the amended book settlement proposed by Google and publishing industry representatives in September. However,the government attorneys also said Thursday that the U.S. believes the parties have approached the effort in good faith.

If you talked to portfolio managers at any time in 2009, chances were good that they would extol the virtues of technology stocks. The information technology sector of the Standard & Poor's index of 500 stocks rocketed 59 percent higher last year, beating every other sector and doubling the broad index's 23.5 percent advance in 2009.

How quickly fashions change on Wall Street. A month into 2010, tech is down 8.2 percent, more than any sector but telecommunications, itself off 8.9 percent this year. The S&P 500 has dropped 2.3 percent.

Google Inc.'s bid to secure the digital rights to millions of books remains under attack from rivals and other critics trying to block a revised legal settlement that would unlock a vast electronic library.

The opposition fired its latest salvo Thursday, the deadline for filing objections with U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York.

With Apple's new iPad acting as a big rock thrown into the e-book pond, Kindle maker Amazon.com has given in to the pricing demands of publisher Macmillan. The move could mean fewer under-$10 prices for new e-books.

Amazon, whose Kindle is currently the front-running e-book reader and which offers a large inventory of e-books, had been resisting Macmillan's requirement of a pricing hike. New e-books on Amazon have been priced at $9.99, but Apple is reportedly offering higher prices to publishers for iPad content.

'We Will Have To Capitulate'