Three heavyweights of American industrialism were among those who spoke at a Fortune's Brainstorm Green conference, and they had a lot to say about what they're doing to make their companies more sustainable.

GM CEO Dan Akerson, Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald, and General Mills CEO Kendall Powell each held forth at the sustainability-focused confab.

Akerson was the most newsworthy. He is genuinely fond of the Chevrolet Volt and will defend it against all comers, Akerson threw a potential trump card on the table against critics of GM's groundbreaking plug-in hybrid who believe it's way too expensive for whatever environmental benefits it yields, especially given all the federal-government subsidies it gets: The company plans a price cut of $7,000 to $10,000 on the "next generation" of the car and even plans for Volt "to be profitable," Akerson said.Continue reading...

Time Warner is spinning off Time Inc., turning the 90-year-old publisher of Time, People and Sports Illustrated into a separate, publicly held company worth as much as $3.2 billion. 

"A complete spin-off of Time Inc. provides strategic clarity for Time Warner Inc., enabling us to focus entirely on our television networks and film and TV production businesses," said CEO Jeff Bewkes. "Time Inc. will also benefit from the flexibility and focus of being a stand-alone public company and will now be able to attract a more natural stockholder base."Continue reading...

The iPad is only about three years old but its success is so massive that if it were its own business, it would be No. 98 on the Fortune 500, higher than McDonald’s, which pulled in $27 billion last year, and Nike, which grabbed $20.9 billion).

The iPad made up 60% of the tablet market last year and snagged $32 billion, Fortune reports. Bernstein research analyst Toni Sacconaghi claims that iPad would be the 11th largest tech company in the U.S. if it were its own company separate from Apple.

The iPhone 5 is also ringing up sales, even though Consumer Reports doesn’t give it stellar scores in its new issue. In fact, CR calls iPhone 5 “the worst of the top smartphones.” It's in the bottom of the top three for both AT&T and Sprint and isn’t even listed in the top three for Verizon.

Apple needs iPhone to keep growing, but more bad reviews could hurt the brand over the long-term if similar problems pop up in the next version and Samsung’s Galaxy S III continues to be such a strong product. Discounting is also hurting the image of the iPhone sub-brand.Continue reading...

7-Eleven, JetBlue and Bliss go presidential with "poll" promotions as Pizza Hut comes up with a controversial dare ahead of next week's debate.

Toyota recalls 7.4 million vehicles globally for power-window glitch and 2.5 million Lexus vehicles, as it plugs Prius on the Home Shopping Network.

Samsung signs TV deal with Spotify.

BAE and EADS terminate merger talks.

Bain Capital buys maker of Craftsman Tools.

Ballmer touts new era at Microsoft as bonus trimmed.

Cadbury tells bishop it's not precious about purple.

Chevron is rejected by Supreme Court in Ecuadorian case.Continue reading...

Neiman Marcus and Target join brands for unusual Christmas collaboration: 50 limited-edition American designer items, plus $1M donation to the CFDA.

Starbucks rolls out low-cal Refreshers drinks.

Marks & Spencer fires clothing head following worst sales in three years.

American Airlines and U.S. Airways keep dancing around a merger.

Apple removes green electronics certification from products.

Chase launches Chase Liquid reloadable card.

Coca-Cola takes stake in Mexican juice company Jugos del Valle.

Conde Nast confirms London location of namesake fashion college.

DirecTV could drop 26 Viacom channels in dispute.

Dodge places major ad push behind new Dart.Continue reading...

Abbott Laboratories to pay $1.6 billion over labelilng of antiseizure drug.

Amazon takes on high-end clothing.

Angry Birds gets embeddable, and bumps Rovio to pre-IPO valuation of $9 billion.

Apple sees iPad trademark settlement rejected by China's Proview.

Aviva sees CEO resign over shareholdre-pay revolt.

The Avengers offends Indian viewers with slum depiction.

Barneys New York skirts bankruptcy.

Costco seeks to grow online sales.Continue reading...

A new entrant in the highly competitive luxury e-commerce sales game, Joyus, is being closely watched as it aims to make over the bad image that infomercials gained on late-night TV through the years.

The reason: Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, the former Google executive who dreamed up Joyus after being named one of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business (and one of its new "Valley Girls" shaking up Silicon Valley).

"If you think about the ways to sell online, video is underutilized," she observes to the New York Times' Bits blog. "It’s a new way for brands to merchandise their product."Continue reading...

Maria Shriver (who recently hinted she's in transition) and Arnold Schwarzenegger prepare to divorce as he announces movie comeback and their son Patrick responds on Twitter.

Bristol Palin lands reality show on History Channel's BIO cable channel.

Facebook asks to be exempt from US political advertising rules.

Audi launches roadside assistance app.

Australian advertisers face opposition on self-regulation and children's marketing.

BMW launches eBay store in the UK.Continue reading...