Do you want to watch television on your iPad? No problem. Just download an app. Cablevision (CVC) claims that its customers can watch 300 channels at home, according to Reuters.

The interesting feature of this program is that you don't need the Internet. Cablevision uses a digital code to deliver content to an Apple (AAPL) iPad. The app allows you to search channels by genre and record programs.

A bright and shiny conference call has today boosted shares of Time Warner Cable (TWC). The stock has risen in the range of 5%, with shares trading at a healthy $62.34 as of this writing. The company reported a 5.7 percent increase in third-quarter adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, via its 8:30 am conference call today. However, investors might wish to think carefully before loading up on too many shares of this stock.

Analyst Upgrades

• Time Warner Cable (TWC) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Bernstein.
• Citigroup upgraded MEMC Electronic (WFR) and Skilled Healthcare (SKH) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Administaff (ASF) was upgraded to buy from hold at Roth Capital.
• The Buckle (BKE) was upgraded to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded DreamWorks (DWA) to neutral from underperform.
• Corrections Corp. (CXW) was upgraded to buy from neutral at SunTrust.
• Marvell Technology (MRVL) was upgraded to positive from neutral at Susquehanna.

Analyst Upgrades

• JPMorgan upgraded Dollar Tree (DLTR) to neutral from underweight and $48 price target.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Time Warner Cable (TWC) to outperform from neutral and raised its price target to $70 from $59, citing growth in wireline HST demand.
• Needham upgraded NetScout (NTCT) to buy from hold with a $29 price target, citing channel checks that indicate industry spending on network monitoring software may be improving.
• Nstar (NST) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Novo Nordisk (NVO) was upgraded to hold from sell at Societe Generale.
• Air France-KLM (AFLYY) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse.

With the unemployment rate hovering near 10%, bad news on the TV and job prospects dwindling, it can be tempting to retreat to a nice beach somewhere until the economy turns around. Some people are actually doing it! Rather than sitting around and moping until the economy recovers, you can go see the world and have the trip of a lifetime.

Out of work and taking a vacation? You probably want some of what I am smoking? Well, listen up!

Analyst Upgrades

• Susquehanna upgraded Yahoo! (YHOO) to positive from neutral. The firm, which has a $19 price target on the stock, cites the steep decline in shares for the upgrade.
• UBS upgraded Time Warner Cable (TWC) to buy from neutral. The firm believes fears regarding FCC reclassification of broadband are "overblown" and that industry fundamentals are bullish. The firm has a $57 target on the stock.
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Stifel Financial (SF) to outperform from market perform on valuation following the recent pullback in shares. The firm has a $64 price target for the stock.
• Boeing (BA) was upgraded to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• RBC Capital upgraded Southern Union (SUG) to sector perform from underperform.
• Rubicon Technology (RBCN) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.

The vision of Clearwire (CLWR) is definitely ambitious: to "give you faster Internet at home, at work and on the go, so that people everywhere will have the magic of the Internet with them all the time." This means building a sophisticated network across the country, which does not come cheap.

Tuesday, Clearwire announced yet another financing round, which comes to $1.56 billion. The investors include Sprint Nextel (S), Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (TWC), Intel (INTC), Eagle River Holdings LLC, and Bright House Networks LLC.

Julia Boorstin covered an interesting topic over at CNBC.com the other day. The Supreme Court, by electing not to review a case involving Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), essentially said that cable companies such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) can pursue digital video recorder (DVR) storage on cable-system servers. By doing this, a perceived barrier to entry for subscribing to DVR has been eliminated: you don't have to deal with a clunky box. Cable should theoretically see an increase in customers who adopt DVR technology if remote storage is exploited.

Well, as Boorstin rightly points out, CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, and News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Fox do need to worry. These DVR technologies basically translate to a drop in the economic value of advertising. Let's face it: who watches commercials when they don't have to?

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC - option chain) stock is falling today after company CEO Glenn Britt said at an investor conference that the company is seeing a continued slowdown in subscriber growth. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on TWC.

This morning, TWC opened at $30.98. So far today the stock has hit a low of $29.96 and a high of $31.26. As of 12:05, TWC is trading at $30.09, down $1.64 (-5.2%). The chart for TWC looks bullish and S&P gives TWC its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy ranking.

Right now, over at Hulu.com -- a joint project of News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, viewers can check out recent editions of, for example, The Daily Show or Man Caves, among many other programs normally viewed on cable networks such as Comedy Central or the DIY Network. Viewers need a computer and a high-speed Internet connection to catch these programs, but they don't need a cable subscription (or even a television!).

Thanks to Jason Voorhees and Jennifer Aniston, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) had a very successful weekend at the box office, as Steven Mallas pointed out earlier. It was a different story, however, for Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), which quickly saw a nice offer unravel into a customer-service nightmare.

For Valentine's weekend, the company had offered its Southern California customers a so-called "1 Cent Love N' Movies Deal," featuring 40 movies on demand for a penny each. Titles included romantic favorites such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sixteen Candles, and Love Actually, along with some newer titles including Burn After Reading.

So what's the problem? According to the OC register, the promotion "attracted three times more viewers than the company anticipated," leading to movies that were unable to be watched. Angered customers can call customer service and receive a coupon good for one one-penny movie. But, as the register points out, the coupon will only be sent to those proactive enough to call in.

Additionally, this fiasco puts the promotion into the news, likely prompting Midwesterners and East-Coasters to wonder why they, too, weren't deemed worthy of such "special" treatment?

Beth Gaston Moon works for WeSeed.com. The above comments are not intended as trading or investment advice.

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) will be announcing earnings for its fourth quarter tomorrow before the market opens. Analysts expect to see the company show earnings of $0.27 per share, which would be slightly lower than the $0.29 a share that the company posted for the same period last year.

Last month the company issued a profit warning, and predicted an operating loss for Q4 and full year 2008. The company stated that it expects to have roughly a $25 billion write down on its cable, publishing and AOL assets. Of this $25 billion, $15 billion is related to its spin off of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and the remaining $10 billion will be associated with its publishing and AOL division.

This post is part of a feature in which he wonder whatever happened to some notorious financial felons. See all 17.

John Rigas used Adelphia, which at one time was the fifth largest broadcasting and cable TV company, as his personal piggy bank, ultimately driving the company into bankruptcy. He founded the company with his son, Timothy Rigas, who was also charged in the scheme. The Rigases stole $100 million from the company so they could buy luxurious personal residences, trips, and other items to enable them to live a life of luxury on the purse strings of the shareholders.

In 2004, John and Timothy Rigas were found guilty of concealing $2.3 billion in loans, which were hidden in small companies left off Adelphia's books. The SEC charged them with hiding that debt and inflating Adelphia's earnings to meet Wall Street expectations between 1998 and 2002. They also were charged with falsifying company statistics and concealing blatant self-dealing with members of the Rigas family, which had a controlling interest in Adelphia. In 2005, John Rigas was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Timothy Rigas was sentenced to 20 years. At the time of the sentencing John Rigas was 80 years old and Timothy Rigas was 49 years old.

While the earnings crunch for this quarter is all but over, there is still plenty of action in the earnings arena this coming week. For instance, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting America's Car Mart Inc. (NASDAQ: CRMT) and Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) to be among this week's top earnings gainers.

Bentonville, Ark.-based America's Car Mart is expected to post net income of 38 cents per share (up 52.6% from the same period a year ago) on revenue of $73.8 million (up 25.8%). The used car dealer chain has tended in recent quarters toward positive surprises -- by 21 cents per share, or 73.5%, in the previous quarter. The long-term EPS growth forecast is 15%, about the same as the S&P 500. The consensus recommendation of analysts is to buy CRMT.

Campell is tentatively scheduled to report this week, and the world's biggest soup maker is expected to post net income of 25 cents per share (up 44.0% from a year ago) on revenue of $1.7 billion (up 7.5%). The Camden, N.J.-based company has just missed earnings estimates in the past three quarters. Its long-term EPS growth forecast is 7.5%, which is less than the industry average, but about the same as rivals Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) and Heinz (NYSE: HNZ). The analysts' consensus recommendation is currently to buy Campbell.

Other anticipated double-digit earnings gainers scheduled to report this week include brand name apparel maker Guess Inc. (NYSE: GES), mining equipment maker Joy Global (NASDAQ: JOYG), and chip maker National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM). And Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) is expected to swing to a profit.

The Associated Press reports that BloggingStocks' parent, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), beat Wall Street expectations by a penny a share. But its profit was still down -- 26% thanks to declining subscriber fees at AOL and lower advertising revenues at magazines like Time and Sports Illustrated.

But after adjusting for one-time gains, Wall Street was expecting Time Warner to make 23 cents a share and it actually earned a penny more. In addition, revenues rose 5% to $11.6 billion, 1.2% more than expected.

The bad news is that AOL's subscription revenue fell 29% which drove a 36% decline in operating income. As I posted, the 2006 change in strategy to emphasize advertising over subscriptions has not been able to make up for $2 billion in lost revenue. Advertising revenue rose a mere 2% to $530 million -- not enough to make up the difference.

What does the future hold? Time Warner is selling the 84% of its cable operations that it still owns to shareholders later in 2008. Cable's revenues grew 7% on "increases in cable, Internet phone and video-on-demand fees." And it is trying to sell the dial-up portion of AOL to Earthlink (NASDAQ: ELNK).