Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) did it. The world's most valuable tech company managed to pack nearly every piece of rumor-mill chatter into the new iPad that it unveiled on Wednesday.

Yes, it has 4G LTE -- opening the door for the iPhone 5 to follow suit later this year. Yes, it has killer graphics. We're talking about 3.1 million pixels now and Apple's crisp Retina Display standard. Yes, it has the quad-core processor that fans want. This tablet is going to be a workhorse. It can also double as a mobile hotspot, connecting as many as five Wi-Fi devices at the same time. There's even a voice-dictation feature, but no Siri digital assistant.

Along the way, Apple also decided to keep selling the entry-level iPad 2, slashing its price to $399 to help it compete with some of the cheap Androids on the market.

Apple's taking orders now for delivery this upcoming Friday, and already some of the models are starting to sell out.

Well done, Apple.

Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

  • Monter Worldwide (NYSE: MWW), the parent company of Monster.com, hired financial advisors as it explores its strategic alternatives. I wonder whether potential buyers will look over its resume and conclude that it's overqualified.
  • Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) cut its near-term guidance, arguing that demand is soft for its wireless products. Deep down inside, doesn't every tech company wish that it was Apple?
  • The three-year freeze ended for Liberty Media (Nasdaq: LMCA) as it pertains to increasing its stake in Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI), but there was no action taken on the satellite-radio giant.

Moving on
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