NEW YORK -- Apple's gadget fans got plenty of new toys recently, with the launch of the iPad and iPhone 4. Now, it's the power users' turn. Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new Mac Pro model, adding quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors to the line of high-end desktop machines that Apple last refreshed in early 2009. Designed to be extensively customizable, the new Mac Pros can be configured wi.. more

NEW YORK -- At first blush, there's not a lot for an investor to love about Sprint Nextel. It is a lot smaller than AT&T and Verizon. Customers have been leaving the company for years, and Sprint Nextel lost another 75,000 net subscribers in the first quarter. Analysts expect Sprint Nextel to report a financial loss for its second quarter on Wednesday morning. That would be the company's eleven.. more

NEW YORK -- Uncertainty about the economy continued to shake consumer confidence in July, pushing a key measure of morale to the lowest level since February. The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped for a second straight month, to 50.4 in July from June's upwardly revised level of 54.3. July's reading was lower than expected... more

NEW YORK -- Landlords who won't exterminate roach-infested apartments. Debt collectors' harassing phone calls. Companies that sell timeshares for a fee -- then disappear with the money. These are just a few of consumers' biggest complaints, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America. To come up with .. more

NEW YORK -- Stocks churned Tuesday, struggling to push higher for 2010, after a big drop in consumer confidence offset better-than-expected profit growth from DuPont, UBS and others. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 12 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 (SPX) inched lower. The Nasdaq (COMP) composite lost 9 points, or 0.4%. Consumer confidence declined in July, according to the Conferenc.. more

NEW YORK -- General Motors announced the final price of its Chevrolet Volt electric car Tuesday afternoon, but it's the lease rate that will probably be most interesting to consumers. The purchase price for a Volt will start at $41,000. The vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit, for an effective price of about $33,500. GM will lease the Volt for about $350 a month for 36 months with.. more

FORTUNE -- Back in the day, the knock on Hollywood was that it produced too many two-dimensional characters. Now moviegoers are beginning to grumble about paying up to see them in the third dimension as well. While premium pricing for 3-D movie tickets has lined studio pockets over the last few years, it hasn't translated into throngs of new moviegoers at the theater. Movie admissions have been i.. more

NEW YORK -- For years, Ask.com has basically been roadkill in the search-engine wars. Trailing way behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing, it has a market share online data tracker ComScore estimates at just 3.6%. But the search market is so vast that a teeny sliver of it is still enough to make Ask.com the sixth-largest Web property in the world. The site draws more than 90 million unique vi.. more

NEW YORK -- For 12 years, Andrea Herrera played it safe and stayed out of debt. The Chicago catering business she opened in 1995, Amazing Edibles, grew slowly but steadily; 10 years after launching, the business had annual sales of $650,000 and the kind of debt-free balance sheet most business owners fantasize about. Herrera, who describes herself as "risk adverse," was determined not to spend a.. more

NEW YORK -- States filled an $84 billion gap to balance their 2011 fiscal year budgets, which took effect earlier this month. But they could collectively face a new $12 billion hole if Congress fails to help cover growing Medicaid costs. Without another injection of government money for Medicaid, four states -- California, Texas, North Carolina and New York -- could face new gaps exceeding $1 bi.. more