Apple today released OS X 10.7.4, the fourth maintenance update to OS X Lion. The update is currently available via Software Update and should appear on Apple's download pages soon. The 10.7.4 update is recommended for all OS X Lion users and includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac including fixes that: - Resolve an issue where the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled - Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards - Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to a server - Improve the reliability of copying files to an SMB server Detailed information is available in the full release notes .

Fortune yesterday released its 2012 "Fortune 500" list , ranking America's largest companies by revenue.

Apple's new senior vice president of Retail, John Browett , has introduced himself to Apple Retail employees in an email obtained by IFO Apple Store . Team, At last I've officially started at Apple, and it's great to be here

Apple appears to be testing a notification service on the iCloud website. The test message appears at the top of the browser window upon logging into iCloud.com .

The number of industries that Apple is disrupting with the iPhone and iPad is growing by the day. Amtrak, the government-owned American passenger railroad company, has adopted the iPhone as a ticket scanner for its 1,700 conductors, reports the New York Times .

Speaking at a conference this week, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson noted that he only had one regret about AT&T being the first cellular carrier to support the iPhone. As reported by the New York Times : “My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat,” he said in the on-stage interview at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference on Wednesday.

Apple has released a number of updates to several of its apps for the iPhone and iPad. The iLife apps, iPhoto , Garageband , and iMovie , all received minor updates, while Apple also pushed out bug fixes to the Cards greeting-card app, and to iTunes U

Earlier this month we reported Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Gee-Sung Choi had agreed to an Alternative Dispute Resolution with Judge Lucy Koh in a California district court. The agreement, described as “semi voluntary” by media covering the case, would see the two CEOs and their legal counsels meet within 90 days for court-moderated, patent related settlement talks. According to a new report from Foss Patents, Magistrate Judge Joseph C.

In the latest installment of its "iEconomy" series, The New York Times takes a look at how Apple minimizes its corporate tax burden, taking advantage of a number of legal maneuvers and loopholes around the world. Apple's strategies are of course fully legal and used by many other corporations, but with a spotlight on Apple as it has rapidly risen to become the world's most valuable publicly-traded company with record-setting profits, it has obviously attracted much attention about how it handles its money. Apple, for instance, was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed them to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes, according to former executives

Advertising tracking firm Ace Metrix today shared its data on viewer reactions to Apple's new celebrity iPhone 4S ads featuring Siri and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel