TechBiz

In Apple's (AAPL) expansive catalog of products, one of the most glaring sore spots is its signature music application, iTunes. "Why does iTunes suck?" is a top search query on Google (GOOG), and users often complain about the application's maddening unresponsiveness, overcomplicated settings, propensity to freeze on a dime, and seemingly endless slew of time-consuming updates.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is finally preparing to overhaul the media application by the end of the year. What's supposedly in store?

Here, four rumored changes.

 

Google (GOOG) stormed into the low-priced tablet market this week with the introduction of the Nexus 7, a $199 device shipping in mid-July.

The 7-inch tablet poses little threat to Apple's (AAPL) dominant iPad, analysts say. Instead, it competes directly with Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle Fire and a host of other Android-based tablets. Google's got a pretty slick device in the Nexus 7, setting up the scene for a fierce battle in the $200-$250 range in the next few years. 

By Brad Moon

Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs announced the AppleTV when took the stage at Macworld 2007. And nearly 45 minutes after that announcement and demo, he presented the iPhone -- Apple's first real foray into the smartphone market (the Motorola ROKR "iTunes" phone doesn't really count).

Mobile changed from that moment on, though many of the players didn't realize it at the time.

Some competitors were in denial from day one and continued to be even as Apple went from a non-presence in the mobile space to an increasingly dominant player.

 

By Rocco Pendola

 

As Jerry told George on a classic episode of Seinfeld:

 

You know you really need some help. A regular psychiatrist couldn't even help you. You need to go to like Vienna or something ... You need to get involved at the University level. Like where Freud studied and have all those people looking at you and checking up on you. That's the kind of help you need. Not the once a week for eighty bucks. No. You need a team. A team of psychiatrists working round the clock thinking about you, having conferences, observing you, like the way they did with the Elephant Man. That's what I'm talking about because that's the only way you're going to get better.

 

Sirius XM (SIRI) permabulls have become the George Costanzas of the stock market.

 

By Chris Ciaccia

 

Europe's debt crisis is already casting a shadow on second-quarter reporting season and even Apple (AAPL) may not be immune.

 

JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz lowered price targets on 18 names in the information technology space on Thursday, citing concerns over slowing technology spending in the EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Asia] region as well as by the US government.