Year: 2002

Shares of Apple closed up $1.70 today, or 8.18 percent, following the company’s US$38 million first-quarte profit, reported yesterday. Shares started the day up $1.18 and climbed nearly $2.00 at one point.

Epicware has released Fire 0.29.b, a new version of its free, open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, IRC, MSN and Jabber protocols. The update adds GPG support for sending and receiving signed and encrypted messages, improved ICQ support, automatic language translation and more.

Apple is the subject of todays’s National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” program, notes MacMinute reader Mark Palmberg. Host Neal Conan will explore how Ford and Apple have handled changes in their industries during the second hour of the show, which will be available online after 18:00 ET.

eBay, the world’s most popular online auction site, has announced a number of fee increases to its pricing structure. Fee increases, which go into effect January 31, include higher reserve fees for items US$200 and up, a fee for “Buy It Now” listings, and increased fees for eBay Motors.

Universal Music Group has opened a new Web site dedicated solely to answering questions from its customers over the release of copy-protected CDs, which are designed to prevent the user from ripping tracks to the MP3 format, as noted by Slashdot. The CDs have come under fire from both users and industry analysts alike, as they’re unable to be played in many consumer devices, as well as Macs.