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Ferris wheels had become passé until the London Eye opened. Now cities are building moneymaking landmarks like the Singapore Flyer (above).

When it comes to status symbols, nothing beats a circle. There is a global race to create the biggest Ferris wheel, and while these attractions are built for fun, the stakes are serious. “These wheels have almost replaced the skyscraper as icons,” says Dennis Speigel, president of the consulting firm International Theme Park Services. When the Singapore Flyer makes its debut this month, it will be the world’s tallest, at 541 ft.—at least until late 2008, when the 607-ft.-high Great Dubai Wheel opens. In 2009, the 682-ft.-high Beijing Great Wheel will surpass both.

The larger these monstrous rides become, the greater their capacity and potential profit—and the more seriously builders take them. To start, they don’t call them Ferris wheels. “We categorize them as ‘observational wheels’ because of the capsules,” says Alexander Pieper, spokesman for the Great Wheel Corporation, which developed the Singapore, Dubai and Beijing wheels.

To keep the floor horizontal, motors turn each bus-size glass capsule 360 degrees in one direction while the rim rotates a full revolution in the other. Unlike typical rigid Ferris wheels, observational wheels have cables tensioned as for the spokes of a bicycle. The slow speed allows passengers to enter and exit while the wheel stays in motion.

What are the World’s Cheesiest Love Songs?

Hmmm… Well, it’s a matter of debate, but this playlist is at the very least a great start in getting to the bottom of it. A fine collection of gooey, bowel-clogging slag that can provide the foundation for your own personal love fondue.

There have been more cheesy love songs written than most would ever care to hear, but don’t fret. We’ve filtered out anything with even the tiniest amount of artistic credibility to help create the ultimate in love song trumpery. Only the most sappy, overproduced, pop hit fromage has been included.

This playlist works it two diametrically opposed manners. The first is as a group of emotionally charged tear-jerkers that will truly appeal to some percentage of the population. You know the type. These are the people that will be the first to die in the initial chaos that ensues when Armageddon unfolds.

The second is as a satirical look into the very worst of pop music that will make being alone on Valentine’s day seem like the better choice.

I have not ordered the list as many of these songs are true equals in their woe.

Nick Notle & Julia Roberts
I Love Trouble - 1994
In the early 90’s, Julia came out of nowhere to become the biggest female star in the world. Nick was named People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1992. So why not pair them together in a screwball comedy about dueling reporters? Because he was nearly twice her age, and both of them appeared to be painfully aware of that fact.

Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez
Gigli - 2003
Ah, “Gigli.” The makers of “Ishtar” thank you for replacing their movie title as the funny word that means “embarrassing flop.” Ben and J.Lo met on the set of their ill-conceived gangster-meets-lesbian love story, and the tabloids were packed with stories about them every week thereafter. Still, real life sparks don’t always translate to the screen, and the movie’s failure killed the couple’s future.

Harrison Ford & Anne Heche
Six Days, Seven Nights - 1998
When Anne Heche was cast in this romantic action movie, she was a little-known but well-respected actress. By the time the film hit screens, everybody knew her as Ellen DeGeneres’ girlfriend. But even without the real world intruding, there’s no way anyone would buy the 29-year-old Heche and 56-year-old Ford ending up together, no matter how much time they spent on a desert island.

Kevin Spacey & Kate Bosworth
Beyond the Sea - 2004
The real Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee were quite an odd couple. He was a balding singer from the Bronx; she was a 16-year-old movie star. But somehow they made it work. In the movie of Darin’s life, however, Spacey and Bosworth were completely unbelievable. It didn’t help that Spacey was eight years older than the actual Darin ever lived to be. At least his hairline fit the part.

Hayden Christensen & Natalie Portman
Star Wars - Episode II and Episode III - 2002/2005
After watching the uncomfortable scenes with Natalie Portman and 10-year-old Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, Star Wars fans everywhere thought, “It can’t get worse than this.” Oh, how little they knew. For the next two prequels, they were faced with Portman and Christensen stiffly reciting George Lucas’ leaden dialogue. When the giant lizard Obi-Wan rides is more convincing than their romance, it’s enough to make you want to scream “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Madonna & Adriano Giannini
Swept Away - 2002
The original Italian 1974 film “Swept Away,” was an examination of class and gender issues. Guy Ritchie’s 2002 remake is an examination of his wife’s dedication to Pilates. Watching this movie makes you not only question why Madonna would fall for Adriano Giannini’s crude and abusive fisherman, but why she thought it’d be a good idea to make another movie with her spouse after having already bombed with her previous husband Sean Penn in “Shanghai Surprise.”

Dan Aykroyd & Rosie O’Donnell
Exit to Eden - 1994
“Exit to Eden” was a dark, romantic novel by “Interview With a Vampire” author Anne Rice about bondage and S&M. Who better, then, to turn it into a movie than the creator of “Mork and Mindy?” An even better question: what movie executive thought that the formula for box office gold was putting Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O’Donnell in skimpy studded leather outfits? As the comic relief they are painfully unfunny, and not even the kind of painful that a dominatrix would enjoy.

Justin Guarini & Kelly Clarkson
From Justin to Kelly - 2003
Casting the first and second place finishers of “American Idol” in the lead roles of a movie is sort of like letting the “Top Chef” winners perform your appendectomy. You would think being on a TV show together would make both Justin and Kelly comfortable being in the presence of both a camera and each other, but they look lost without Simon around to berate them. At least the dismal failure of the movie insured that we wouldn’t be subjected to “From Jordin to Sanjaya.”

Eddie Murphy & Eddie Murphy
Norbit - 2006
It took 25 years of hard work for Eddie Murphy to go from “Saturday Night Live” cast member to Oscar-nominated thespian. But it took just 2-1/2 minutes of the “Norbit” trailer to kill any hope he ever had of being taken seriously again. As both the nerdy title character and his overweight and domineering wife Rasputia, Murphy proved he can be supremely unpleasant no matter what size or gender.
Woody Allen & Any Actress 20+ Years Younger than Him
It was always part of the comedy in Woody Allen’s early movies how a bespectacled, awkward guy like him could end up with gorgeous women. Unfortunately, no one ever let Woody in on the joke. And by the time he was casting women like Téa Leoni (31 years younger than him) and Julia Roberts (32), it really stopped being funny. The most absurd: when his character in “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” is seduced by Charlize Theron (four decades younger than Woody).

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6: 03 PM EST: That does it–the call is over. Meantime, I look forward to getting your comments about all this. Is the market over-reacting to softer than expected guidance? are there clouds over the horizon? doesn’t seem to be the case.

I’m interested to cull the analyst reaction to all this and see whether today’s news leads to a Wall Street downgrade parade. seems to me, Apple
Apple Inc
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[AAPL  155.64    -5.72  (-3.54%)   ] still looks solid and that shares are oversold. the metrics still seem solid.

I think everyone was stunned when these numbers came out. now we have to wait for Wall Street to follow through; see what the experts have to say for themselves. but on first blush, nothing jumped out at me as a red flag warning, or that Apple was waving the white flag in any way. should be interesting to see whether today’s sell-off was merely momentum follow-through from the craziness we saw during the regular trading day. longer term, I heard nothing on the call that changes my opinion that I posted here last Friday–nothing.

5: 59 PM EST: Call is wrapping up. I hope this was useful. I encourage all of you to listen to the replay and follow trading in Apple
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[AAPL  155.64    -5.72  (-3.54%)   ]  tomorrow. My snap reaction: all the themes headed into the earnings seem solid. Seasonal slowdowns, nothing unexpected. And while there was nothing to indicate no recession is at hand, Apple gave no suggestion whatsoever that it was worried in any way.

5: 58 PM EST: Just my two cents thus far: I have heard nothing on this call that would suggest anything that warrants this kind of after-market sell-off.

5: 57 PM EST: Deustche Bank: How many retail outlets was the Mac available and targets for year end? We (Apple) have moved the storefronts to 9,700 compared to 7,700 a year ago. We (Apple
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[AAPL  155.64    -5.72  (-3.54%)   ] ) plan to double the number of Best Buy stores but that’s all I can say. What about iPhone retail distribution? We have about 2,500 storefronts in Europe that carry iPhone; we have around 2,000 or 2,100 in the U.S. In terms of expansion, I have nothing to announce today.

Apple earnings soar, 1.4 million iPhones sold to date

UPDATED 3:42 p.m.–Added a few more details, numbers, and statements from Apple executives from the conference call.

Apple reported another stellar quarter Monday, exceeding estimates in just about every facet of its business.

For the company’s fourth fiscal quarter, which ended September 29, the company reported revenue of $6.22 billion and profit of $904 million, or $1.01 in earnings per share. Wall Street analysts had expected Apple to report revenue of $6.1 billion and earnings per share of 86 cents, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Financial.

Apple has now sold 1.39 million iPhones, and 1.1 million during the quarter, the company reported. Mac shipments were up 34 percent compared to last year, and iPod shipments were up 17 percent.

That iPhone price cut, however controversial among the early adopters, seemed to do the trick. As of September 10, Apple said it had sold 1 million iPhones in total. So after the price was cut from $599 to $399, and the $499 4GB iPhone disappeared, Apple sold almost 400,000 iPhones in 18 days, or more than a quarter of all the iPhones sold to date.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, confirmed the company expects to sell 10 million iPhones in the calendar year of 2008, but he didn’t set a target for iPhones sales during the holiday quarter. It took Apple 2 years to sell around 1.4 million iPods sales in the early days of that product, he said.

It’s also clear that Apple is gaining share on the rest of the PC industry. Last week IDC and Gartner had the worldwide PC market growing at around 15 percent, while Mac shipments are growing more than twice as fast. Apple sold 2.1 million Macs during the quarter, a company record and 400,000 units better than its previous best.

Students helped account for the surge in Mac shipments, during a quarter that Cook called “the most successful back-to-school season we’ve ever had.” Apple introduced new iMacs in August, but it also ran a promotion for students that bundled a free iPod along with the sale of a new notebook.

That might have had something to do with the fact that iPod shipments were actually lower than some Wall Street analysts had anticipated. Shaw Wu of American Technology Research had expected Apple to sell 11 million iPods, but the company shipped a total of 10.2 million units. That was actually right in line, however, with a prediction from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who cited an average analyst estimate of 10.9 million units.

Going into the holiday season, Apple expects to record $9.2 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.42, the company said. That’s higher than what financial analysts were expecting for Apple’s first fiscal quarter, a twist for a company that usually provides conservative guidance.

The holiday quarter is usually huge for the iPod division; last year Apple sold 21 million iPods during its first fiscal quarter. And the new iPods that were introduced during in September didn’t really have much time to make an impact on the results announced Monday.

Mac shipments are usually flat during the company’s first fiscal quarter compared to the back-to-school totals as educational buyers drop off and holiday buying kicks in, said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. When asked to look ahead to the current quarter, he seemed somewhat pessimistic that Apple could duplicate the amazing growth it showed during its fourth quarter. Cook, however, noted that Apple saw strong growth in Europe during the past quarter.

Apple earnings climb 58%, but outlook disappoints

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. on Tuesday reported a first-quarter profit that rose 58% from a year ago thanks to strong sales of Mac computers and iPods during the busy holiday shopping season.
However, the company’s shares fell more than 11% in after-hours trading as the consumer electronics maker gave a second-quarter outlook that was short of Wall Street analysts’ estimates.

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AAPL 155.64, -5.72, -3.5%) said that for its first fiscal quarter, it earned $1.58 billion, or $1.76 a share, on revenue of $9.6 billion. During the same period a year ago, Apple earned $1 billion, or $1.14 a share, on $7.12 billion in sales.
The results topped the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, who forecast Apple to earn $1.62 a share on $9.47 billion in sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31.
The company said it sold 22 million iPods and 2.3 million Macintosh PCs during the quarter. Also, about 2.3 million iPhones were sold during the quarter.
In a statement, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the results showed Apple posting its highest quarterly earnings and sales in history. However, a conservative second-quarter forecast sent the company’s stock down nearly 12% in after-hours trading.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said Apple expects to earn 94 cents a share on $6.8 billion in sales for its second quarter. The forecast fell below analysts’ consensus estimates for earnings of $1.09 a share on revenue of $6.99 billion.
Apple shares fell $17.15 to $138.49 in after-hours trading following the earnings report. End of Story
Rex Crum is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.