Amidst all the news about Dalian Wanda Group Corp.’s $2.6 billion proposed purchase of cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings, one huge irony has gone largely unreported.

China severely curtails the number and nature of the foreign films it imports -- 20 last year, and nothing more troublesome to Communist apparatchiks than “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.” And now one of China’s major leisure and retail chains, clearly with the government’s blessing, wants to buy a big American movie chain that this week promoted titles like “The Dictator” and “Chernobyl Diaries”?

Given that the MPAA has traditionally branded China Public Enemy No. 1 for...

“The new iPad” might better be called the “somewhat improved iPad.”

So named by Apple in lieu of a model number, this iPad has a better screen, better processor and 4G connection speeds — but nothing to “wow” its fan base.

But Apple’s still likely to sell many millions of units, adding to its early dominance of what CEO Tim Cook calls the “post-PC era,” where “the PC is no longer the center of your digital world but rather just a device.”

How will content fare over the next year or so in that new era, and what will the iPad’s role be?

Here are a few predictions:

>> Books will increasingly be replaced by tablets. All trends point down for physical book sales, while ebook sales are booming. Apple will probably go head-to-head with Amazon in...

If you ever had any doubts that we’re moving from an era of technology markets to technology ecosystems, Google’s latest news should quash them.


Google is quietly creating a branded entertainment hardware system that will wirelessly stream entertainment content throughout the home, the Wall Street Journal reported. In so doing, Google is taking a page from Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a coterie of others who hope to control the flow of digital content.

Once you’re in Google’s ecosystem, you’ll presumably be able to stream or download any movies, TV shows, books and games you’ve bought from Google or stored on its servers.


Not surprisingly, Google’s also reportedly close to launching a cloud service that will allow you to sync your content across multiple devices,...

So I tested Siri, Apple's iPhone 4S voice recognition app, and here's my conclusion: It ain't a miracle app, but it raises the bar dramatically and sets the stage for a revolution in user interfaces for TVs, cars and many other devices.

My tests weren't exactly scientific -- they mostly involved shoving aside other customers at my local Verizon outlet and hogging the iPhone 4S for 15 minutes. But I think I got a good idea.

"Who is the president of the United States?" gave me a chart of all Barack Obama's particulars.

"What's the phone number for Apple?" surprisingly got me AppleOne Employment Agency in Los Angeles. But when I added "Inc." and "Cupertino," it gave me the right answer.

"Where's the nearest...