Year: 2010

Both Apple and Google are engaged in conversations with mobile payments startup BOKU (http://www.boku.net/) about a potential acquisition “or a wide-reaching partnership at the very least,” reports “TechCrunch” (http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/01/apple-google-boku/), quoting “people familiar with the talks, which are ongoing.”

BOKU President and CEO Mark Britto and co-founder Ron Hirson have held multiple meetings with executives at the helm of Apple’s iPhone business in the course of the past three weeks, the article adds. Neither one would comment on the rumors.

The price of the Mac mini dropped by 100 Euro in average in most European Apple Store. It went from 799 Euro for the basic model to 699 Euro, “even though it remains much too high to really compete with other similar small box PC,” says “HardMac” (http://www.hardmac.com).

Apple’s smallest desktop Mac was updated in June. It features up to twice the graphics performance, a new HDMI port and a new SD card slot, all in an aluminum enclosure. Pricing starts at US$699 in the United States.

Apple’s humongous new data center in Raleigh, North Carolina, “is a 21st-century broadcasting system to rival the TV networks of old, says a leading expert in cloud computing,” Nick Carr, author of the “ The Big Switch” a bestseller about the cloud, tells “Cult of Mac” (http://www.cultofmac.com/apples-data-center-is-21st-century-broadcasting-network-says-cloud-expert-exclusive/67232).

Apple’s US$51 billion in cash and investments is earning a lower return than a typical U.S. savings account, and some investors say CEO Steve Jobs should put that money to better use, reports “Bloomberg Businessweek” (http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1377-al5MGXgYUUN0-5VFJJCVUNME8VA5O3A8IRG1LP1).