Week in review: Controversy from Cupertino to Capitol Hill

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Later this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs shrugged off allegations of stock options backdating and less-than-top-notch environmental policies at the company's annual meeting of shareholders. Several proposals were brought up with the intention of reforming the company's option-dating policies and executive compensation, but all were shot down in a vote.

While Jobs receives a salary of just $1 per year, he also has about 5.5 million Apple shares (now valued at $108 each), making him the highest-paid CEO in America in 2006, according to a recent ranking by Forbes magazine. Apple continues to come under scrutiny for the stock options fiasco, but shareholders don't seem too concerned--the company's profits are soaring, and they're making money.

Santa Rosa laptops

On the lighter side of tech news, plenty of product unveilings happened this week. Intel showed off the latest Centrino laptop chips, which had been code-named Santa Rosa. They come in two versions--Centrino Duo for home users and Centrino Pro for businesses--and have extra support for flash memory and faster Wi-Fi connections. The Centrino Pro chips come with new technology that makes it easier for IT technicians to remotely diagnose and fix system problems, even if the computer in question can't be rebooted. At the same time, Intel also plans to ramp up the graphics capabilities of its processors, in the wake of competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices.

Some consumer electronic products also were rolled out this week: Pioneer unveiled new high-end plasma television technology, and Samsung launched its new Q1 Ultra ultramobile PC, attempting to iron out the kinks from the poorly received first-generation Q1.

Finally, Electronic Arts has announced it will be releasing a video game this fall based on the longtime-hit cartoon show and upcoming movie, The Simpsons. It'll be available on just about every video game console out there (Sony's PlayStation 2, 3, and PSP; Nintendo's Wii and DS; and Microsoft's Xbox 360), so the chances are good that a whole lot of gamers are about to get used to saying "D'oh!"--assuming they aren't already.

Also of note

In Washington, politicians talk online video...Microsoft puts its Viridian virtualization software on a diet in order to get it out of the gate more quickly...IBM and Amazon.com bury the hatchet over a bitter patent dispute that had both sides suing each other...Quarterly earnings announcements roll in across the tech landscape.

[Fil0403]

Apple

"Apple continues to come under scrutiny for the stock options fiasco, but shareholders don't seem too concerned--the company's profits are soaring, and they're making money."

Of course not: Apple shareholders are are in its main part Apple fanboys for whom Steve Jobs is a God and whatever he says is true, no matter how ridiculous or false it is in reality.