Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf has upgraded Apple to "Strong Buy" in a research note, basing his optimism "chiefly on the prospect that the current migration of Windows users to the Mac platform is likely to accelerate over the next several years." His target for the stock is $235, nearly $100 above today's closing price of $139. We wonder if Charlie's feelings were enhanced by sitting next to Forbes editor Dan Lyons, the Fake Steve Jobs blog rogue, at the Macworld keynote? Wolf told us he was a big fan of Fake Steve Jobs — so are we, Charlie.

Frank Shaw runs Microsoft PR at Waggener Edstrom. And he's got some fighting words in reaction to Apple CEO Steve Jobs's Macworld keynote. "The event and news today made me wonder if the Apple PR model of hold and surprise was wearing thin," Shaw wrote on his blog. Oh no he didn't? Oh yes he did.

"It is a sad day for sure," Wall Street blogger and Wallstrip.com creator Howard Lindzon writes on his blog. "I still love Apple, but the stock no more." Here's why. As of 8:49 Pacific time, Apple's share price is down over 16 percent on the day. "Apple is in no man's land now," Lindzon writes. "It will take time for the stock to heal no matter how well the company does." Apple share prices dropped most precipitously after yesterday's market close, but the stock continues to sink this morning. Pundits blame recession fears and Apple's underwhelming forecast for the months ahead.(Photo by rore)

Apple beat the street with its 2008 first-quarter earnings, but the company is pitching a low forecast for the coming months. It's expecting earnings of 94 cents a share on $6.8 billion in revenues for the second quarter. We're liveblogging the conference call as Apple explains that one to investors.

Apple reported record earnings today for the quarter ending December 31. The company had a net profit of $1.6 billion or $1.76/share on $9.6 billion in sales compared to $1 billion profit on $7.1 billion last year. Gross margin rose to 34.7 percent from 31.2 percent last year. Apple sold more than 2.3 million Macs representing 44 percent unit growth year over year. The company also sold 22.1 million iPods and 2.3 million iPhones. The forecast, however, was unsettling: Apple projects earnings of 94 cents a share on $6.8 billion in revenues. While sales grew 35 percent year-over-year in the December quarter, the company's projection for March shows only a 29 percent increase.

The Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 works "perfectly well" on a Mac as is, Ina Fried notes on Beyond Binary. But Microsoft marketers have learned their lesson. They no longer expect Mac users to pick up a package marked "Certified for Windows Vista," with a jumble of specs on the front. Here's how Microsoft renamed and repackaged the same mouse for Mac users.

Last week, after the Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld, my iPhone stopped downloading Web pages and sending text messages. I thought it was just a temporary glitch, but after two days, I realized there was a serious problem. I tracked down a thread on AT&T's help forums, and learned that the problem was my prepaid plan:

"We've said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple," NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said in the Financial Times this morning. Of course you have, Jeff. Except for maybe that time last fall when you told an audience at Syracuse University that "Apple has destroyed the music business ... If we don't take control on the video side, they'll do the same [there]." What does Zucker's pirouette mean?

Time Warner Cable's new billing scheme, a test to charge users by bandwidth consumption, could crush Steve Jobs's hopes and dreams for Apple TV.

The iPhone's text-message storage capacity has been increased from 1,000 to 75,000. If you get anywhere near that limit, either you're texting way too much or you're subscribed to egoblogger Robert Scoble's Twitter feed. Actually, this is good news. I recently hit this limit on my iPhone — I had some messages from September stored on there. Here's my question: why is there a limit at all?

Our gadget-obsessed colleagues at Gizmodo say that slaves to The Man will soon be able to add the iPhone to their corporate accounts.

Oh, if only Apple would release its own version of Amazon's Kindle, a lightweight book-reader with a high-definition screen, access to all the world's literature and the magic design sensibility of the company's founder, Steve Jobs. For anyone in publishing who hopes that technology, embodied by the Apple founder, can rescue the book, here's some bad news. "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore." [John Markoff via Galleycat]

Can't get enough of John Hodgman, the Daily Show correspondent and Apple anti-pitchman? As "PC," he's ubiquitous today on NYTimes.com, where Apple has taken over the whole site with this supersweet ad. Sadly, Hodgman will not be coming to San Francisco for a show anytime soon, he told Valleywag. "I hope you enjoy the sound of geek-tech-folk-rock that is COULTON." Whatever you say, PC.

Apple and China's largest mobile provider China Mobile have called off discussions for now. No. 2 carrier China Unicom, with one-third the customers of China Mobile, will be next in line for Apple talks. As a smaller company, the thinking goes, China Unicom will have more to gain from the iPhone and thus be more willing to bend to Apple's financial and technical requirements. China Mobile recently agreed to become the Chinese distributor for RIM's BlackBerry. [The Motley Fool]

Remember the comparisons between Amazon's Kindle and the iPod? Don't try them on Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The Kindle was a bad idea, Jobs told the New York Times after yesterday's Macworld keynote. "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore." Mmhmm, Mr. Jobs. And whose fault is that?

Google's mobile operating system Android is a bad idea, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the New York Times after yesterday's keynote at Macworld. "Having created a phone, it's a lot harder than it looks," he said. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt should be happy with the apps they've created for the iPhone. "I actually think Google has achieved their goal without Android, and I now think Android hurts them more than it helps them. It's just going to divide them and people who want to be their partners."

Apple products: Designed well, marketed better. And it starts from the top. After yesterday's MacWorld keynote Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the New York Times: "I'm going to be the first one in line to buy one of these," he said. Right. Not if this guy has anything to say about it, Mr. Jobs. And besides, we have it on good authority, Mr. Jobs, that you're running Leopard on a 40-foot projection screen.