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Demand for wireless services is rising sharply in North America. That’s partly because device makers continue to release new cellphones and wireless devices, such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. As well, more customers are switching from traditional phones (or land lines) to wireless services. Smartphones, in particular, have become increasingly popular. Aside from functioning as mobile phones, these devices have many computer-like functions, including Internet access and email. Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry are today’s top-selling smartphones. However, other firms, such as Motorola and Samsung, have introduced new smartphones in recent months, as well....

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $112.30 (New York Exchange symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The fund’s top holdings are IBM, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies and Boeing Co. The fund’s expenses are about 0.18% of its assets. SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have a place in your portfolio. That’s because, unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees, or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to get out of them. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You’ll have to pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs. However, ETFs’ low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most conventional mutual funds. As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital-gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders....

Akamai Technologies Inc., $48.65, symbol AKAM on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 181.6 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion), helps companies improve the performance of their web sites. (Akamai is a Hawaiian word meaning “smart”.) The company’s customers include Amazon.com, Adobe Systems, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo. Akamai mirrors a customer’s web site onto its own network of servers, which are located in over 70 countries. That speeds up download times and cuts the risk of Internet outages or slowdowns, because users can access the closest server, or the one with the fastest connection. Demand for Akamai’s services continues to rise, particularly as more people use the Internet to view videos. The company gets 28% of its revenue from customers outside of the U.S....

POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN, $145.00, Toronto symbol POT, has moved down from its recent peak of $160.65. That’s mostly because the Canadian government appears more likely to block or impose conditions on BHP Billiton Ltd.’s (New York symbol BHP) $130.00 U.S.-a-share takeover of Potash Corp. As well, Potash Corp. has launched a lawsuit to stop the takeover. The suit accuses BHP of making misleading statements about the potash industry to depress Potash Corp.’s share price prior to making its offer. Potash Corp. is still a hold....

AMAZON.COM $129.65 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; SI Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 447.8 million; Market cap: $58.1 billion; No dividends paid) reports that its sales jumped 41.2% in the latest quarter, to $6.6 billion from $4.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 39.4%, to $0.46 from $0.33. Sales of electronic books for its Kindle reader continue to grow strongly. In the first half of 2010, Amazon sold 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books. In the month of June, that ratio rose to 180:100. Amazon was one of the first companies to sell e-books. But major competitors, particularly Apple’s iPad, will erode that advantage....

INDIGO BOOKS & MUSIC INC. $15 (Toronto symbol IDG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 24.7 million; Market cap: $370.5 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.9%; SI Rating: Average) also hopes to profit from growing sales of e-books. So far, however, e-books are cutting into its profit. In December 2009, the bookseller launched its Kobo e-book downloading web site. In May 2010, it started selling its own Kobo e-book reader. In its first quarter, which ended July 3, 2010, Indigo spent $3.2 million on Kobo development, and $1.0 million more on marketing and promotions. These start-up costs swelled Indigo’s losses in the quarter to $5.3 million, or $0.21 a share. A year earlier, it lost $2.8 million, or $0.09 a share. However, Indigo earns most of its profit in its third quarter, which includes the Christmas shopping season, and generally loses money the rest of the year....

Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) continues to see strong sales of its iPad tablet computer: in April and May of 2010, the company sold 2 million of these devices. At this rate, Apple should sell many more iPads than the 6 million it was expected to sell in the first year. As well, Apple is now selling the iPad outside the U.S. That should further push up sales. ...

TORSTAR CORP. $10.16 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $801.6 million; SI Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%) has suffered like most paper publishers from free or low-cost Internet competition in news and ads. The company’s sales stagnated at around $1.5 billion a year for the past decade. Profits shrank, and the company lost $2.30 a share in 2008. However, Torstar has just reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit. In the three months to June 30, 2010, it earned $0.48 a share (excluding one-time charges), up 37.1% from $0.35 a year earlier. Revenue rose 0.7%, to $376.5 million from $373.7 million. A 3.6% revenue increase at Torstar’s newspapers and web sites offset a 5.0% drop at its Harlequin subsidiary. However, the drop was due to last year’s jump in the Canadian dollar. Excluding currency movements, Torstar’s revenue would have risen 4.2% in the latest quarter....

AMAZON.COM INC., $118.81, symbol AMZN on Nasdaq, reported sharply higher results in the latest quarter. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, Amazon’s sales jumped 41.2%, to $6.6 billion from $4.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings jumped 45.8%, to $207 million, or $0.46 a share, from $142 million, or $0.33 a share. Despite the big gain, the latest earnings fell short of the consensus estimate of $0.54 a share. Amazon’s North American media sales rose 15.3% during the quarter. Overall media sales climbed 17.7%, to $2.9 billion. However, sales of electronics and other general merchandise jumped 68.6% to $3.5 billion. Sales in the company’s “other” category, which includes Amazon’s web-services business, rose 45%, to $203 million....