Apple buffs up the Mac

The Mac was back at Apple in 2006.

A generation of technology buffs has come to know Apple Computer as a music company, but Apple spent most of this year overhauling its core lineup of desktops and notebooks with Intel's processors, to favorable results. The company logged perhaps its best financial year in its 30-year history, with record revenue and profits and a hefty stock price by the end of the year.

But that news was tempered by the warning that past financial results might have to be restated as Apple works its way through an investigation of its stock option award process, part of the wider re-examination of stock option backdating that tripped up dozens of Silicon Valley companies this year (including CNET Networks, publisher of CNET News.com). CEO Steve Jobs has managed to avoid any fallout from the investigation, but longtime executive and board member Fred Anderson stepped down from Apple's board in October as part of the inquiry More....