For the second year running, Apple has been named Barron’s most respected company in an annual survey of money managers.

UPDATE: The big question about a streaming-only iPhone is apps: How will users download apps? My source compared it to the second-generation Apple TV, which is a streaming-only device but includes 8GB of onboard memory (for the OS and buffering media). “I’m not 100% sure on the amount of memory available for the user,” he said. “I know there is some memory but it acts more like the memory on the AppleTV. There is some there, I’m just not sure how much.”

We have more detail on Apple’s iPhone nano, which according to Sunday’s Wall Street Journal is real and may be headed to market this year.

But what we have will blow your mind.

Dude, Valentine’s Day is like four days away! Haven’t bought your sweetie a gift yet? Don’t despair, we have some clever gift ideas that will make you look like a hopeless romantic. Or at least you won’t be in the doghouse!

Above: When saying it just isn’t enough, show her how much you love her with the Love Quotes Wallpaper for Valentines day. With over 450 glow effects in 24 patterns and 20 colors, you are sure to find something for your sweety. The more sickly sweet the better! You can even share by Facebook, Twitter and Email.

Love Quotes Wallpaper for Valentines Day App is available from iTunes for free

Nothing like a fresh round of recriminations from the music industry against Apple’s dominant digital delivery platform, iTunes. The latest round comes from Sony, which hints it may pull the likes of Bob Dylan and Beyonce from Apple following a dust-up over the Cupertino, Calif. company’s rejection of Sony’s ebook reader application.

In an AdAge interview, Sony executive Michael Ephraim charges music publishers are looking for alternatives to iTunes. (Sony just happens to own one of those alternatives, “Music Unlimited”, which the company plans to launch.) In addition, Ephraim asks and answers whether the music giant will continue selling titles at Apple.

If you’re like me, you probably can’t watch TV without a computer in your lap. And if you’re be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, there’s a pretty cool iPad app that will enhance the game — and the commercials.

The free Vualla Social TV Companion is a one-stop shop for all the online goodies surrounding the game.

Wanna talk smack on Twitter? It includes a Twitter client, as well as FaceBook and chat. There are news feeds from ESPN and other sources, Twitter updates from the locker room, Flickr photos from fans at the game, and instant replays (both plays and commercials) – plus a bunch more.

The idea is to have an easy way to do all the things we now do while watching TV (Twittering, checking the news). The company plans to roll out more apps for upcoming sports events as well as popular shows like American Idol and Glee. I think it looks pretty cool. Here’s a quick video tour I just got from Kevin Brown of Stage Two:

Jonathan Kopp is the lead digital and social media strategist for PR mega-firm Ketchum worldwide.

Kopp is also a Mac devotee – never far from his iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and Apple TV – so we thought he’d be the perfect person to ask where paid iPad content is headed.

Apple’s new subscription model, unveiled with The Daily and expected to reach other iPad magazines soon, has a price point of $0.99 per week, $40 a year, with much the same mechanisms (automatic renewal, no refunds) of analog subscriptions. Apple, which gets a 30% cut from the subs, will also enforce its rule of apps in iTunes selling content via in-app purchase.

Kopp, who came to Ketchum after working on the Obama 2008 National Media Team and the Clinton White House, doesn’t think most people want to pay for those subscriptions. (Judging from the results in our reader poll, you think so, too. )

His take: Apple’s iPad subscription model is basically another Newton and bound to flop.

Apple released iOS 4.3 Beta 3 to developers this afternoon. The update includes a new firmware update for the new Apple TV, iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS as well as the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch.

Registered iOS developers can download these updates as well as a new SDK from developer.apple.com.

Let us know if you find anything interesting in the new beta by leaving a comment.

What with Apple and TV both as American as pecan pie (which, ironically, is actually way more American than apple pie), you’d think the U.S. would have a chokehold on TV-iPhone innovation. Nope — besides Al-Jazeera now streaming live news on the iPhone for free, last week Germans had a chance to watch and interact with the world’s first augmented-reality TV show.

Viewers of Galileo, a quiz show that airs on the German ProSieben channel, were able to interact with the questions on the TV screen by viewing and interacting with augmented reality versions of the questions on their iPhone screens, courtesy of augmented-reality app Junaio (For a visual demo, suffer through a short ad and watch the cute video). Not to worry though — Metaio, the German-based developer that makes Junaio, says similar stuff is on it’s way to the U.S. soon. Fantastisch!

Apple started it. In the most famous and expensive TV commercial to date, the company hurled the first “Big Brother” accusation (not to mention a giant hammer) at IBM and the IBM-compatible world, as it was called at the time.

In the commercial, directed by Ridley Scott, an attractive blonde 80’s girl wearing Hooters shorts, a Mac T-shirt and the kind of ankle-length socks people used to wear back then with their “jogging shoes” smokes a gaggle of goons in an all-out sprint for the most depressing cineplex ever where she unleashes her sledgehammer at the screen with equal parts ferocity and femininity.

Since then, various other tech companies have accused each other of being “Big Brother,” and Apple is often the one accused.

Most recently (i.e. possibly this coming Super Bowl Sunday), Motorola will essentially accuse Apple of being Big Brother in this commercial.

The problem with all these “Big Brother” accusations is that they’re always based on sloppy, mushy thinking — including Apple’s original ad, which didn’t seem to have anything specific in mind about how IBM resembled Big Brother, exactly.

In a unique alliance, Samsung (maker of the iPad rival Android-powered Galaxy phone and tablet) will sell half of its mobile processor chip output to Apple (maker of the iPhone and iPad), according to a Friday report. Samsung makes the low-power but brawny A4 chip which Apple designed and uses in its iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV.

“Samsung has agreed with Apple to quadruple monthly shipments of its mobile AP chips to 20,000 sheets throughout this year from 5,000 last year,” reports the Korea Times, citing an industry source.