Studies of "brand value" are always difficult to compare, as widely differing methodologies used by those measuring such data yield markedly different results. But tracking year-to-year movements using a consistent methodology can offer some interesting perspectives, and so Millward's Brown's latest BrandZ study ( via The Next Web ) makes for a good look at trends in marketing and branding

9to5Mac reports that Apple is currently testing two prototypes of the next-generation iPhone that offer a taller screen while maintaining the existing 640-pixel width. According to the report, the two prototypes carry a display with a height of 1136 pixels, up from the current 960-pixel height and leading to an increase in the diagonal size of the display from 3.5 inches to 3.95 inches

Verizon yesterday made headlines for comments from Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo revealing that the carrier is planning to discontinue its grandfathered unlimited data plans when the carrier rolls out new shared data plans this summer. Verizon dropped those unlimited data plans within months of introducing the iPhone early last year, but customers who had previously been on the unlimited plans have been allowed to keep them, even through handset upgrades. Tim Cook and Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead introduce the Verizon iPhone in January 2011 Verizon issued a clarification to The New York Times today, noting that the loss of grandfathered unlimited plans will be limited to those customers purchasing new subsidized devices for use on the carrier.

Google today announced its long-awaited Google Drive cloud storage service, providing users with 5GB of free storage integrated with Google Docs and other Google services.

As part of today's Apple online store downtime , the company appears to have rolled out an enhancement of its sales chat support services for those looking to purchase an Apple product. While sales chat has been available for quite some time through individual product pages, the changes include a revamped chat window with a more modern appearance. As has long been the case, sales chat support is available only during certain times of the day and dependent on availability of chat agents

When you’re using your Mac and listening to music in iTunes, wouldn’t it be great if a notification popped up to tell you what song is currently playing? Find out how to display the song title, artist name, and even album cover art while using any app! Have you ever watched music videos on TV

Dolphin has updated its popular iPhone web browser and the latest version now includes voice control. The feature, called Dolphin Sonar, lets you use your voice to search the internet, share content with your favorite social networks, add bookmarks and do simple navigation tasks like opening new tabs or moving to the top of a page. To launch voice control, all you need to do is shake your phone or press the on-screen microphone button

One feature promised in OS X Mountain Lion was the ability to sync Safari tabs between different devices. Macworld reported it in their Mountain Lion Preview, but was unable to actually find the feature in their early build

Apple has posted a new section on iTunes highlighting "Great Apps for the New iPad". The section lists many new Retina-enabled iPad apps that take advantage of the new iPad's high resolution screen.

Google and other leading advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of millions of unknowing Safari users, reports the Wall Street Journal . Using “a special code,” the companies were able to bypass the browser’s privacy restrictions and install cookies on a user’s computer, even when such actions were supposed to be blocked