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Apple’s Irish tax arrangements explained as company denies special treatment | 9to5Mac : The European Commission today announced that it had reached the ‘preliminary view’ that these deals amounted to state aid, reports the WSJ. However, Adam Smith Institute Fellow Tim Worstall, writing in Forbes, argues that even if this view is substantiated in the final report, it is the Irish government, rather than Apple, which would be in the firing-line. I think emerald Isle is a great place for Apple HQ and they should flip the bitch to the EU.

Google's Schmidt says Samsung had iPhone 6-like product last year, calls Apple competition 'brutal' : "Schmidt went on to characterize Google's competition with Apple as 'brutal' and is the 'defining fight of the computer industry today.' With the two companies waging battle in the marketplace, the Google chairman said consumers are the real winners as the fight is a catalyst for smartphone innovation, more choices and lower costs." A brutal battle between two good guys. Now that's a fight!

iPhone 6 & 6 Plus beat out the competition in performance benchmarks | 9to5Mac : "" The site notes it noticed a 13% increase in performance in its SunSpider benchmark test for the new A8 chip, but also significant increases in GPU performance giving the new devices “a pretty solid lead over the competition for the iPhone 6/A8. Neat-o, rodeo!

NVIDIA inadvertently outs Google’s HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet | 9to5Google : "NVIDIA may have inadvertently revealed Google’s next purebred tablet. In a claim form discussing its Tegra K1 processor, the company stated that an ‘HTC Nexus 9″ is expected sometime within the third quarter of 2014." Nexus 7 is great, looking forward to number 9.

5 ways Google is leading ... and Apple is trailing | VentureBeat | Mobile | by Dwayne De Freitas : "The company’s dismissal of  pervasive evidence that more users would have more interest in a more versatile tablet was surprising. Apple’s leadership lampooned the tablet-using public when stating that users would have to ‘sand down their fingers’ in order to make use of devices like the Nexus 7." I much prefer my Nexus 7 to the iPad 2G. Haven't seen a need to get the iPad MINI. Seems like a lot of dough for not a lot of device.

Alleged leak of iWatch component drawings & specs surface ahead of tomorrow’s unveiling | 9to5Mac : "According to the leak, Apple’s wearable will have a mic, speaker, Siri, and a ‘flexible, multi-touch screen will add a new dimension to the UI.’ It’s also worth noting that Quanta was one of Apple’s partners that was reportedly already beginning trial production and expected to be a main supplier of iWatch." iWatch rumours abound!

9to5Mac: Apple iPhone, Mac and iPad News Breaking All Day : "A small handful of high-profile social network and services companies with apps on the iPhone and iPad App Store have already been seeded with a pre-release version of the Apple SDK (Software Development Kit) for wearables under strict non-disclosure agreements." READ: Companies that, in 2006, could've cared less about Apple, Objective-C or anything else happening in Cupertino. Prostitutes, all.

Purported working iPhone 6 appears online, shows new Passbook icon depicting mobile payments | 9to5Mac : "A user on Weibo has uploaded a set of photos and a video of what looks like a working iPhone 6. The device’s software does not have the same tells as the Android fakes seen many times before. It features a new looking Passbook icon, that adds a top red bar depicting a ‘credit card’ icon. Assumedly, this is linked to Apple’s widely-reported mobile payments initiative." Weibo, weebo, we bow!

TestFlight appears in App Store as Apple readies launch of its beta testing service | 9to5Mac : "TestFlight is now appearing in the App Store, ahead of an expected launch later this month. The service will allow developers to easily share betas of upcoming apps with public testers. It was discovered Apple had bought TestFlight earlier this year and the company subsequently announced the integration of the service into its developer portal at WWDC." Still way too complicated.

New hands-on footage claims to show 5.5-inch ‘iPhone Air’ (Video) | 9to5Mac : "Apple is reportedly working on two models of the next iPhone for release this fall, both rumored to be getting the spotlight at a special event on September 9th. Both models of the refreshed flagship are said to be getting a larger screen than the iPhone 5s, shipping in both 4.7 and 5.5-inch sizes. The above 5.5-inch device is rumored to be shipping with a sapphire crystal display, while it’s reported that only some of the smaller, 4.7-inch models will sport the same." I see a lot of folks with broken glass displays. I think the sapphire will be an interesting addition if it doesn't increase the price.