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In the face of rising Android handset sales, some commentators are suggesting Apple's iPhone is soon doomed to become a mere footnote in the development of smartphone tech. But for a number of reasons, Apple's phone is most definitely "not dead yet!" A weekend post in Business Insider carried news of Comscore's latest sales figures for the U.S

If every company institutionally implemented innovation practices, we might all be just as successful as Pixar, Apple, or 3M.

The Fast Company reader's essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web--updated all day. Mobile Scavenger Hunt Spices Up NY Library A smartphone apps that inspires patrons to explore the library's prized pieces premiers with an all-night marathon for the first 500 players.

Only half of new small businesses survive beyond their fifth anniversary.

The numbers say the economy is growing. But what does that look like on the ground? To take the pulse of the recovery, we polled our Inc.

WHAT'S HOT, WHAT'S NOT Sales increase for fitness and sports centers, the small-business sector with the strongest growth from 2009 to 2010: +13.62% Sales decrease for car washes, the small-business sector with the weakest growth from 2009 to 2010: -12.18% Sageworks TRENDS Among people who text, the average number of text messages sent per month: Men: 555 Women: 716 The Nielsen Company State of the Media 2010 THE WORKPLACE Area, in square feet, of workspace lost by the average office worker from 1994 to 2010: 15 International Facility Management Association HIRING The portion of small businesses hiring in 2010 that said they added fewer workers than they needed: 42% Reasons for hiring: Replace an employee who left: 41% Support growth or expansion plans: 21% Some other reason: 18% Don't know: 1% Revenue or sales has increased: 13% Economy is getting better: 5% Tax credit for hiring unemployed workers: 1% Wells Fargo/Gallup TAXES Lowest and highest overall tax burdens for entrepreneurs: South Dakota: 1st New Jersey: 50th Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council REALITY CHECK Retail price, per gallon, of black ink in the average printer ink cartridge: $4,371 PC World THE ECONOMY Increase in the sales of trucks and cargo vans—considered a useful indicator of small-business activity—in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with a year earlier: 24% Edmunds.com

Fashion designer Marc Ecko will offer internships at start-ups funded by Ecko's venture arm. "Kids spend a great deal of money on college," says Ecko, who is launching his program with the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. "Our goal is to get them teed up for employment."...After an American Red Cross worker tweeted about getting "slizzered" on Dogfish Head beer, dozens of the brewery's fans donated blood and money to the Red Cross.

Civil servants are widely denounced for being neither civil nor offering much in the way of service. Drivers trying to replace lost licenses and companies seeking permits for underground storage tanks don't normally encounter a lot of beaming faces inquiring, "How may I delight you today?" The state of Michigan wants to raise its service game, and it is turning to entrepreneurial businesses for help.

Harvard Business School Taught by: Noam Wasserman Most entrepreneurship classes chase the strategy-innovation-finance trifecta. But people problems cause more than 60 percent of new-venture failures, research shows.

How do you get people to speak more candidly than they might care to? In most cases, some amateur psychology does the trick, says Greg Hartley, a former U.S. Army interrogator and co-author of The Most Dangerous Business Book You'll Ever Read.

In a world in which knowledge is power, what you don't know can hurt you.

Northwestern University Taught by: Faculty Most entrepreneurs possess deep knowledge of their industries.

Willamette University Taught by: Rob Wiltbank Investors excel at sizing up entrepreneurial companies, because they see so many. Rob Wiltbank wants students similarly exposed.

University of Chicago Taught by: Craig Wortmann Though marketing courses are legion in business schools, sales classes are hen's-teeth rare. That's one reason Craig Wortmann's class feels so refreshing. The other reason is that Wortmann, a clinical associate professor and former CEO of two software companies, customizes material for the kind of scared and starving entrepreneur he once was.

Socialism, Ja or No? Our special report on Norway [" Ja, Socialism ," February ], the socialist Northern European country in which taxes are sky high but entrepreneurs are thriving, sparked a contentious online debate. The story, by Inc.