Apple accused of e-book price fixing, as Amazon Kindles social interactions and rolls out cloud-based reader.

AT&T bid for T-Mobile faces California review.

Baidu shuts down Twitter-like service in China.

Banana Republic Facebook fans get first dibs on Banana Republic's Mad Men collection.

BlackBerry's fall from C-Suite to High Street riots in U.K. could damage brand.

Disney CEO Bob Iger seeks "great characters, great stories."

Kate Moss-inspired web ad banned in the U.K.Continue reading...

General Motors, already the “biggest overseas automaker in China,” launched a new brand Tuesday today designed to appeal to Chinese consumers — Baojun.

GM has had success with sales in China with its Buick and Chevrolet autos. Now, the introduction of the Baojun brand, with a slogan that translates in English to "Trustworthy Companion" across China with a "launch tour," Reuters reports, will provide direct competition for “indigenous players, such as Geely Automobile Holdings, which now dominates smaller cities and townships with affordable models.”Continue reading...

It can’t be much fun to be a Honda executive these days. The company and its products had become rather stodgy and predictable even before the earthquake and tsunami in March turned Honda’s supply chain upside down and resulted in a worldwide, disastrous drop in sales.

The results of Honda’s long, dark night are still showing up. For one thing, Honda just reported that its fiscal first-quarter operating profit plummeted, by 90%, and quarterly sales dropped by 27% as the company coped with the aftermath of the disaster.

To be fair, Toyota's net profit dropped 99% in its latest report (while also raising its forecast), while many analysts predicted that Honda wouldn’t report any profit at all for the period — and there is increasing hope for Honda on the production side.Continue reading...

If the American auto industry, the Obama administration and U.S. consumers have their way, today’s reports of cars sales in July will mark the end of a low-water mark for the year in an important gauge of economic health: auto-sales momentum.

Just about as President Obama was announcing the signing of Congress’s debt-deal bill, major auto brands were reporting July sales that, in aggregate, ran at a pace slightly faster than June sales, somewhere over 12 million units on an annual basis.Continue reading...

The solar-powered car is getting closer to reality, but that’s not why General Motors just parceled out $7.5 million to a solar-panel company.

The Detroit Free Press reports that GM Ventures, the venture capital arm of GM, passed along the money to California’s Sunlogics, a manufacturer of solar panels and solar-power generation systems. As a result, Sunlogics will move to Michigan and hire 200 employees.

"Today's commitment by Sunlogics ... fits in perfectly with the overall approach we've taken to try to bring in high-tech companies ... to give us good-quality high-paying jobs," commented Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson to the Free Press.

What GM will get out of the deal are the design and installation of solar-charging canopies that will provide power at Chevy dealerships and GM plants, along with good karma (carma?) for further its green efforts.Continue reading...

Markets rally as Sunday night's U.S. debt limit deal goes before Congress for a vote today as Twitter explodes over deal.

Airbnb investor suggests ransacked woman is lying.

Al Jazeera English launches in New York.

Ambassador Coffee brand changes hands.

Apple wins dispute over iPods.com domain.

Bank of America hit with new Countrywide lawsuit.

Bloomberg Businessweek to hike paid circulation.Continue reading...

Who said America's love affair with the car is over?

A new report by J.D. Power & Associates confirms what everyone in the U.S. auto industry already understands these days: American consumers like sheetmetal that is new, different and exciting.

For the second consecutive year in Power’s annual APEAL study (an acronym for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout), recently launched all-new and redesigned models are substantially more appealing than their carryover counterparts.

The new snapshot also includes especially good news for the BMW, Chrysler and Hyundai brands.Continue reading...

Today Interbrand released its Best Global Green Brands study, ranking the top 50 among the leading worldwide brands, in which Japan stands out. Out of the top 10, three wave the Japanese flag, with Toyota claiming number one.

This study showcases a very unique methodology, combining the internal (brand performance) with the external (brand perception by consumers) to measure who has the “greenest” brand — inside and out. Using Interbrand’s experience in brand valuation and Deloitte’s expertise, each brand's green performance data was organized into 82 metrics in six categories: Governance, Stakeholder Engagement, Operations, Supply Chain, Transportation and Logistics, and Products and Services.

If one looks at the country's history and current plight, Japanese brands’ green success should come as no surprise.Continue reading...