The day started off shaky for Apple Inc. (AAPL) after its leader and CEO, Steve Jobs, announced that he would be taking his second medical leave of absence yesterday.

The stock was in the red all day, but did rebound a bit at the end of the day, closing today's session down 2.2% to $340.65, after trading as low as $326.00 earlier in the day.

A couple of days ago, Connie Madon reported here that Verizon (VZ) had finally landed Apple's (APPL) iPhone 4. Today the communications firm started to introduce details about the release. The first question to answer is when the iPhone will be released - which is February 10 according to Verizon's Internet site. MarketWatch reported that the iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order on February 3.

The popular smartphone will cost $199 for the 16GB version and $99 for the 32GB version. These are the same price points for the device on the AT&T (T) network. One difference between the carrier's versions is that the Verizon version will also work as a wi-fi hotspot (with credit to the Engadget blog's live coverage of the event). This mobile hotspot will be able to support up to five different devices.

Tuesday, chipmaker Xilinx (XLNX) announced that it was cutting its current-quarter (third quarter) revenue forecast thanks to weaker-than-expected sales to some of its larger communications customers. This announcement comes during a series of quarters in which the company has seen record sales, thanks to rising demand stemming from a perceived economic rebound.

One analyst calls this news, "evidence of a cyclical inventory correction that we'd been expecting and have talked about previously." Nevertheless, the same analyst said that it could take longer than Xilinx had previously estimated for inventory to come back to better levels.

Technology giant Hewlett Packard Company (HPQ) will be reporting its fiscal fourth quarter results following the market close Monday, with analysts expecting to see earnings of $1.27 per share.

During the same period last year, the company had earnings of $1.14 per share.

There will definitely be a lot of attention paid to the company's quarterly report, but that does not have so much to do with the company's figures as it does with the company's new CEO, Leo Apotheker.

"Texas Instruments (TXN) was roughed up pretty badly in 2008 and 2009. Profits fell sharply for this semiconductor giant, as did the stock price," says dividend reinvestment plan specialist Chuck Carlson.

The editor of The DRIP Investor explains, "The shares plummeted from nearly $40 per share in 2007 to $13 in early 2009. The stock has come roaring back from the 2009 lows, paced by impressive rebounds in sales and profits.

"For 2010, Texas Instruments should post record per-share profits in the vicinity of $2.47 per share. Based on that estimate, the stock seems cheap at less than 12 times earnings.

Tech giant Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) held an investors meeting Tuesday afternoon, during which it offered a bullish 2011 forecast.

The company now sees full-year 2011 profit to be in the range of $5.05 to $5.15, better than the $4.99 that analysts had previously forecast for the year.

Revenues are expected to be in a range of $131.5 billion to $133.5 billion, which is also higher than analyst forecasts for $131.4 billion.

Shares of Hewlett Packard (HPQ), the world's largest maker of computers and printers are trading slightly lower in after hours trading with the company posting in-line earnings for its fiscal third quarter following today's market close.

The company reported its third quarter earnings were $1.08 per share, excluding restructuring charges and other impacts, which matched analyst estimates for the quarter.

Early Monday morning, Dell (DELL) announced that it is buying data storage company 3Par (PAR). The price tag for the transaction is roughly $1.13 billion in cash, which translates to $18 per share for 3Par. Compared to Friday's closing price ($9.65), Dell is paying an 87% premium for 3Par. 3Par specializes in products that are designed to minimize the costs of greater capacity and energy.

Dell expects the deal to help its adjusted profit during fiscal 2012. The boards of both companies approved the deal, which should close by the end of the year. Obviously, we will see shares of 3Par advance to the $18 region, as Dell has assigned this price on the firm's shares. However, what will we see out of Dell?

Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) traded sharply higher in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company posted strong quarterly results for its third quarter.

Analysts had been expecting to see the company post earnings of $2.84 a share, but Apple easily beat that estimate with a reported $3.51 a share. During the same period last year the company had earnings of $1.35 per share.

Shares of tech giant International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) are selling off in after hours trading today after the company posted lower than expected revenues for its second quarter.

Analysts had been expecting to see the company show revenues of $24.17 billion during the quarter, but actual revenues were a bit lower at $23.7 billion.

Tech giant Adobe Systems (ADBE) will report its second-quarter earnings Tuesday after the market closes. Analysts are expecting to see earnings of 42 cents per share.

During the same period last year, the company had earnings of 35 cents per share.

So far it has been a pretty solid earnings season, and that trend continued this afternoon with tech giant Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) posting better than expected results for its fiscal third quarter.

The company earned $0.42 during its third quarter, easily outpacing the $0.39 that Wall Street had been expecting to see.

Shares of tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) rose to a new all-time high Tuesday afternoon after the company posted a 90% increase in profit for its fiscal second quarter, spurred by strong sales of its popular iPhone.

Heading into the earnings report, analysts had forecast $2.45 per share, but Apple shattered those estimates by posting $3.33 a share for the quarter. During the same period last year, the company reported earnings of $1.79 per share.

This summer, Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone and iPad are going to have a feature that iPhone users have been dying to see since the phone hit the market in 2007... the ability to multitask.

The iPhone took the world by storm when it was released, and each time Apple releases a new model of the popular smart phone consumers line up and wait for hours, and in some cases days, to get their hands on the new Apple iPhone. While the phone is one of the most popular phones on the market today, there are a couple of issues with them, and the inability to multitask ranks up at the top of list of features that iPhone users have wanted.

This afternoon tech giant Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported its fiscal third quarter numbers, and as analysts expected it was a strong quarter for the California based company, which easily outpaced analyst estimates.

As we noted in our Oracle earnings preview, analysts had been expecting to see the company post earnings of $0.35 per share. The company's actual earnings came in at $0.38 per share, excluding one-time items.