The North Carolina Utilities Commission today officially approved (PDF) Apple's proposal to construct a 4.8-megawatt fuel cell electric generating facility near its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The Commission previously approved a plan by Apple to build the first of two 20 megawatt solar farms around its data center. The Public Staff presented this matter to the Commission at its Regular Staff Conference on May 21, 2012

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

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.

Following up on last month's threat to file suit over the Apple-backed agency model of e-book pricing, the U.S.

Several readers have noticed that Universal Studios' movies are now available for re-download through Apple's iCloud service. In March we reported that both Fox and Universal were not yet participating in iCloud video streaming due to contractual obligations with HBO.

Following up on reports from earlier today that the outer shell of the iPad 3 gets warmer than the iPad 2 , Consumer Reports found that their iPad 3 reached temperatures up to 116 degrees after running Infinity Blade II for 45 minutes. The piece did note that the iPad felt "very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period" during the testing process. In a statement earlier today , Apple said that the iPad was "operating well within our thermal specifications." We ran our test while the new iPad was propped on the iPad Smart Cover, plugged in, and after it had run Infinity Blade II uninterrupted for about 45 minutes

When the iPad was first introduced there weren't many iPad-specific apps yet available. As a solution, Apple allowed apps designed for the iPhone's smaller screen to run on the iPad in a form of emulation. The apps could be run as if they were on the iPhone, using only a fraction of the iPad's screen

With the 3rd Generation iPad now out in the wild, we are starting to see more benchmarks comparing the new iPad to the iPad 2 and other devices. Insanely Great Mac provides this nice overview video comparing both graphics and processor benchmarks between the new iPad, iPad 2 and original iPad.

Comparison , though color differences hard to capture in screenshots DisplayMate has published an extensive "shoot out" between the new iPad, the iPad 2 and iPhone 4. Aside from the much discussed resolution improvements of the 3rd Generation iPad, DisplayMate also confirms that the new screen also has much better color reproduction than the previous generation model.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is reexamining regulations banning the use of digital devices like the iPad or Amazon Kindle during taxi, takeoff and landing of commercial aircraft