Given a choice between a lawnmower and an iPad, you'd go for the Toro, right? Well, perhaps not surprisingly, that's not the way it's shaking out. Consumer priorities are shifting from durable goods like furniture and washing machines to electronics like smartphones and flat-screen TVs, according to the Commerce Dept. Emmeline Zhao reports that spending on televisions, computers, video and telephone equipment was up 1.8% in the first six months of this year compared to the first half of pre-recession 2007, while spending on appliances decreased 3.6%. Furniture decreased 11% during that time but that could have …

A growing number of BP station owners would like to bring back the Amoco moniker, which the company scrapped after acquiring American Oil Co. and all its Amoco assets in 1998, Dale Buss reports. The BP name, and its green-and-yellow flower logo, replaced the Amoco name and its blue-and-red torch marquee. Most of the 11,000 stations selling BP fuel across the U.S. are independently owned. They report sales declines as high as 40% since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Buss offer BP a piece of advice if it decides to proceed with the …

Josh Ozersky writes that ice cream must be the national food because everybody likes it, "no matter how badly it's made or marketed." It seems that despite the concerted efforts of change agents across the food industry to offer such innovations are fro-yo and gelato, as well as the introduction of up-scale brands like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs a generation ago, the traditional, nonorganic, non-Belgian chocolate, standard-issue ice cream of the Eisenhower era remains as popular as ever. Ozersky researched why for months, he says, and came to the following conclusion: "There are more Americans …

Intel and GE are expanding on a partnership they formed last year and will establish and jointly run an as-yet unnamed health care company to market Intel's Health Guide technology that lets older people live longer in their own homes, Steve Johnson reports. "It seemed like the best way to bring products and solutions into the marketplace," says Louis Burns, an Intel vp who will be the new company's CEO. Health Guide helps patients collect information about their vital signs and to share that information with doctors over the Internet. The new company will also market …