The historical record will show that the era of Apple (AAPL) computers bearing microprocessors from Intel (INTC) began at 10:16 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 10, 2006. That was the moment that the Associated Press issued the following one-sentence NewsAlert:"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveils an iMac computer based on Intel Corp.'s chips, just six months after the historic partnership was announced between the two once-unlikely Silicon Valley bedfellows."
I've been a fan of the AP NewsAlert since my days as a newspaper reporter with a desktop wire-service feed. The AP sends these when something important happens in the arena of world affairs, the sort of thing that causes CNN and networks like it to flip on their "Breaking News" graphics: A government has fallen in a coup, an election has been won, a head of state has died, or one country has invaded another. (BUSINESSWEEK)